Aside from being a comedian and legend, Chevy Chase is a longtime activist for the environment. (It helps that he’s married to Jayni Chase, the founder of the Center for Environmental Education.) Together, Chevy and Jayni wrote this editorial for World Oceans Day, based around their experiences on Mission Blue Voyage, the boat trip inspired […]
Coach John Wooden has died, at 99. His 2001 TEDTalk has drawn some of the most heartfelt and thoughtful comments on TED.com: “What a wise and pleasant person. I am also tempted to say he represents ‘ old- fashioned decency’. ” — Shalom Freedman “If I would have had a coach like him. If only […]
Photo by Robert Leslie Last night at the Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, Nobel laureate Sir Paul Nurse moderated a discussion centered around the age-old question: Are we alone? Four scientists, including 2009 TED Prize winner Jill Tarter, shared their latest projects, which are better equipping Earthlings to answer this exciting question. Steven Squyres, who […]
Dan Ariely’s new book, The Upside of Irrationality, debuts tomorrow — he sends us this teaser, based on research that’s described in much more detail in Chapter 1 of the new book: Recently there has been a public outcry against astronomical executive salaries. The basic public sentiment is that it seems unfair that people make […]
Before his talk posted today, the TED Blog talked to epidemiologist and founder of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Seth Berkley. He told the story of the beginnings of IAVI, exploring why different decisions have historically been made in response to the HIV pandemic and explaining why a vaccine makes sense today. Read on […]
Viktor Frankl: Why to believe in others In this rare clip from 1972, legendary psychiatrist and Holocaust-survivor Viktor Frankl delivers a powerful message about the human search for meaning — and the most important gift we can give others. Watch Viktor Frankl’s talk >>
Today, TED’s Open Translation Project marks one full year of making TEDTalks video available to non-English speakers around the world. As of today, more than 4,000 volunteer translators have completed 7,000 translations, with another 2,000 in progress — subtitling TEDTalks in languages as diverse as Arabic, Bulgarian, Mongolian, Tagalog, Uzbek and more than 70 others. […]
Via The Official Thomas Dolby Blog: Thomas Dolby has posted the lyrics to his brand-new song “Love Is a Loaded Pistol,” which premiered today on TED.com. He throws out a challenge: “See how many of Billie’s song titles you can spot.” Get the lyrics >> He writes that an MP3 of studio version of “Pistol” […]
Roz Savage has just begun the third and final leg of her epic solo row across the Pacific. Yesterday we posted Roz’s TEDTalk from Mission Blue Voyage, where she attempts to answer the question: Why? In this email interview with the TED Blog, completed just days before she set out from Kiribati to row to […]
Hans Rosling writes: So it did happen! Just hours ago World Bank president did completely change the World Bank data policy. This story shows the power of Ideas worth spreading. The story runs in 5 acts: 1. My TED2006 talk yielded Google’s acquisition of software from Gapminder. 2. Tim Berners-Lee add pressure for free data […]
This February in Long Beach, the band Ozomatli played a legendary set at TED2010’s Wednesday-night block party. As a keepsake from that fabulous night, check out the video above for “Malagasy Shock,” from Ozomatli’s new album, Fire Away. Fire Away drops today as the band celebrates its 15-year anniversary — April 23, in fact, is […]
(Photo: TED / Asa Mathat) SETI Institute, an interdisciplinary scientific organization that explores the nature of life throughout the universe, announced that starting today it will make large quantities of astronomical radio telescope data accessible to astronomers and other scientists as part of an effort to build a global community of searchers for evidence of […]
A choir as big as the Internet 185 voices from 12 countries join a choir that spans the globe: “Lux Aurumque,” composed and conducted by Eric Whitacre, merges hundreds of tracks individually recorded and posted to YouTube. It’s an astonishing illustration of how technology can connect us. Watch Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir perform “Lux Aurumque” […]
How to describe what happened last week? A Galapagos sea-voyage of 100 people (including Sylvia Earle, Leonardo DiCaprio, Edward Norton, Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, Steve Case, Ted Waitt, Bill Joy, Jackson Browne, Damien Rice, Chevy Chase, Jean-Michel Cousteau and 30 of the world’s leading marine scientists) turned into an epic event that may have significant […]
Just before Session 7, Ecuador’s vice president, Lenín Moreno, boarded the Endeavor to address the Mission Blue gathering. Lenín Moreno: “The animals of Galapagos have learned to live in peace. This small island should be an example to the world.” Greg Stone has been called the “Indiana Jones of the Pacific.” He talks about how […]
Session 6 of Mission Blue Voyage wasn’t a traditional TED speaker session — instead, it was a time for people in the audience to get up and champion their own ideas. Back on the first night of Mission Blue, seven “idea champions” stood up to pitch an idea. (An eighth champion came on board the […]