Update: On examination, this claim was agreed by many observers to be somewhat overblown. Today, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, a revolutionary discovery — one that will stand as a milestone for paleontologists and evolutionists everywhere — was announced. Scientists based at the University of Oslo have discovered “Ida,” also […]
Dan Ariely’s second TEDTalk premieres today — and so does the second, revised and expanded edition of his book Predictably Irrational. It’s full of new material, incuding Ariely’s thoughts on the irrationality of the economic collapse that happened since the book debuted in February 2008. Below, Ariely muses on the way the world has changed […]
Thomas Dolby — TED’s Musical Director — sends us news that EMI has released a two-disc CD and DVD collection that features all his singles and videos. Thomas Dolby has spent his career at the intersection of music and technology. From his beginnings in the London underground electronica scene, he rose to MTV stardom, then […]
In the second half of the TEDBlog’s interview with global health professor and stats expert Hans Rosling, he gets personal. With his usual wit, Hans tells stories of winning over Fidel Castro, remembers his battle with testicular cancer and explains why we can’t get enough of him. If you need to catch up before diving […]
On Monday, the TEDBlog had a long chat with Hans Rosling, the extraordinary global health professor that makes data come alive. He had his third TEDTalk posted yesterday and again wowed us all, explaining complex information with animated graphs — and humor. In this interview, he delves into his theories on concurrency and AIDS transmission, […]
If you were a James Bond villain, how would you take over the world? — Andrew Noseworthy I’d release a pheremone that increases the fear that people have about doing great things. It would only increase it by 3%, but that would be enough to wipe out most competition. I’m convinced someone is already doing […]
Today, TEDTalks star Seth Godin will answer your questions — on absolutely anything! Post your questions in the comments here on the TED Blog, or email them to contact@ted.com. We’ll select our five favorites from the bunch and post Seth’s responses on the TED Blog. A marketing guru with eclectic interests and insights, Seth is […]
Ushahidi — a crisis-tracking tool with roots in TEDGlobal 2007 — has been awarded a $200,000 grant for development from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Ushahidi mapping tool was developed by Erik Hersman, Ory Okolloh and Juliana Rotich, who’d met as TED Fellows at the 2007 TEDGlobal conference in Arusha, Tanzania, […]
This week’s comment round-up is a tribute to TED.com’s spiffy new commenting system, that lets you rate others’ statements up or down and have threaded conversations! Rather than using our own editorial tastes to select comments, today we’ve let you, the community, pick your top 5. Here are the highest rated comments on each talk […]
I’m a huge fan of sculptor & painter Tom Shannon, a gentle genius who turns science into art and art into science. We just posted today his 2003 TED talk showing his gorgeous science-inspired sculptures and his vision for the Air Genie video airship. In the last few months he has returned to a form of […]
Three months ago, the visionary Venezuelan musician Dr. José Antonio Abreu made his TED Prize wish — to create and document a special training program for at least 50 gifted young musicians, passionate for their art and for social justice, and dedicated to developing El Sistema in the US and in other countries. Today we […]
This was an especially lively week on the TED commenting front, as our community tackled debates on swine flu, race and politics, and globalization. These amazing discussions can get a little heated — so we appreciate that there always seems to be a voice of reason that emerges from the group to soothe frazzled nerves […]
TED took 20 minutes with Laurie Garrett this afternoon to follow up on her TED Talk from 2007, posted today, about pandemic flu. Garrett is the author of The Coming Plague, and a fellow on the Council for Foreign Relations who studied global health and emerging diseases. (As you can imagine, she is very busy […]
In his TEDTalk, blogger and statistics whiz Nate Silver explained how race may have affected the 2008 election. In this interview with the TEDBlog he further explores the relationships between urban spaces, race and President Obama. Here’s an excerpt: I see Obama as being our first urban president in a long time. His racial heritage […]
We love the free, open-source Miro player. If you do too, consider supporting the player by adopting a line of Miro code. Visit the Miro Adoption Center to make a small donation and support the team’s constant efforts to improve this player. TED.com was a premier partner for Miro when it launched in January 2008. […]
Alex Tabarrok is co-author of hit economics blog Marginal Revolution. At TED2009, he talked about how a lesson from 1929 teaches us that ideas trump economic crises. The TED Blog interviewed Tabarrok over the phone to find out what else makes him optimistic about the future of economic development: What do you say to the […]