In her talk today, biomimicrist Janine Benyus made the case that we can learn a lot from nature. In keeping with this idea, here’s what TEDsters on Twitter learned from her: Janine benyus: Nature is a selfcoordinating genius with no top down commander.. — lucadebiase “Imagine designing spring” biomimicry expert Janine Banyus. “Whenever you want […]
Session 4 of TEDGlobal started with biodiversity archivist Cary Fowler giving a talk about his project at Svalbard — a global seed bank focused on making sure food crops don’t become extinct. Here are the excited and concerned responses from Twitter: Fowler says no way to determine the “best” of species – we should save […]
Evgeny Moroz steps onstage and says: “As an Eastern European, I was brought in to play the pessimist this morning. Bear with me.” His short early-morning talk laid out some uncomfortable truths about the way repressive governments are using the Internet — challenging the assumption that the web is bringing more openness and democracy: @TEDGlobal […]
Parag Khanna, Director of the Global Governance Initiative and Senior Research Fellow in the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation, recently coauthored with Michael A. Cohen an article in Foreign Policy entitled, “Where the Real Fight Is”. Khanna and Cohen reassess the feasibility of US military and political goals in Afghanistan versus Pakistan […]
Here’s Session 2’s batch of unedited running notes from our crack team of Open Translation Project translators, taken as they watch the live webcast of TEDGlobal 2009! Click through to view the running notes for Session 2 in … Hungarian – Shqip – Ελληνικά – Türkçe – 中文 – Español – Deutsch Enjoy!
Mark Johnson delivered a poignant conclusion to the first day of TEDGlobal, as he screened two videos from Playing for Change, his project to record different artists around the world playing the same song, to be combined in one composite film. A palpable sense of hope and unity pervades the reaction on Twitter: Mark Johnson […]
Stuntman Steve Truglia plans to jump to earth from the edge of space. His talk at TEDGlobal 2009 included the facts that he’ll be falling at the speed of sound while clad in a customized spacesuit. Be sure to follow Steve on Twitter and check out what viewers of the online feed had to say […]
Aphorist James Geary took to the TED Global stage in vibrant fashion, reciting a large portion of his talk while juggling. In his talk, he laid down the laws all aphorisms must heed, and the Twitterverse responded delightedly to his musings. James Geary Mirrors will do better to reflect a little bit more before sending […]
Twitters were entranced and inspired by the story of how TEDGlobal 2009 speaker Willard Wigan (follow him on Twitter) came to create sculptures small enough to fit within the eye of a needle. His heartbreaking early life, which saw him rejected by other children his age and unable to fit in or succeed at school, […]
Josh Silver shared his ambition to supply the billion people worldwide in need of glasses with his innovative, low-cost adjustable lenses by 2020. On stage, Silver demonstrated the effectiveness of his glasses and also provided insight into the economic and educational repercussions on impoverished populations that result from the dearth of vision correction options. The […]
Astronomer and astrophysicist Andrea Ghez captivated the TEDGlobal 2009 crowd with an up-close look at the style and substance of the peculiar space phenomenon known as a black hole. At UCLA, she’s working on imaging techniques that will bring these mysterious objects into better focus than ever before. Here’s what Twitter had to say: you’ve […]
Actor and author Stephen Fry boldly took to the stage at TEDGlobal (sporting a multi-colored tie in defiance of TED’s no-tie policy) to touch on a pastiche of topics, including philosophy, culture, experience and intellect. The following comments from Twitter embody viewers’ reactions to Fry’s talk: Stephen Fry on stage with a tie – which […]
In a focused and nuanced talk, Stefan Sagmeister talked today at TED Global about his unique way of keeping a fresh perspective in his work and in his life. He also shared some of his innovative designs. Here was the feedback from Twitter: Stefan Sagmeister: closes is studio every 8th year, essentially taking 5 of […]
TEDGlobal 2009 is under way! Writer Alain de Botton (you can follow him on Twitter) kickstarted the conference with an insightful talk on why people are snobs and how we define our own success. Here were the reactions from TEDsters watching the live feed. A snob: “Someone who uses a small part of you to […]
Before her TEDTalk went up on Friday, anthropologist and skin expert Nina Jablonski took some time out of writing her new book to talk to the the TEDBlog. Nina had a lot to say about how our skin affects how we are perceived, sometimes in ways we want it to and sometimes in much more […]
It’s lunch break in Oxford after a morning of speaker rehearsals. While Jonathan Zittrain (above), Stefan Sagmeister, Beau Lotto and other TED speakers were testing slides and lighting, the crew of the Oxford Playhouse has been running around tweaking the stage set behind them. A snapshot below — and see more shots from TED setup […]