It’s no secret that the world is on the alert for plans toward political and economic solvency. Strategic planner Thomas Barnett has released Great Powers: America and the World After Bush to address many of our most significant global crises. In a recent interview with Dan Hare, Barnett elaborated on the book, saying the US […]
Two years ago, software engineer and tinkerer Gever Tulley told us five dangerous things you should let your kids do. He returned in 2009 to give us an update about Tinkering School, his part-lab-part-summer-camp where kids use power tools to create amazing things … like roller coasters! We’ll be posting Gever’s new talk soon — […]
The newest edition of UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger totes up 6,000 world languages — and counts 2,500 as endangered and 200 as completely lost. The interactive atlas, released today, ranks the 2,500 endangered languages by five levels of vitality: unsafe, definitely endangered, severely endangered, critically endangered and extinct. This free, browsable […]
Writing on Darwin’s 200th birthday last week, Lise Buyer offered this commentary about today’s TEDTalk, Juan Enriquez’ “How Mind-Boggling Science Will Outlast the Crisis.” From the story: … In his talk at TED, Enriquez said the fact that we are the only living species of humans is an anomaly — or at least out of […]
We’ve transcribed Bill Gates’ talk on mosquitoes, malaria and education and posted the full text below the fold. Here’s a snippet: But we have to be careful because malaria — the parasite evolves and the mosquito evolves. So every tool that we’ve ever had in the past has eventually become ineffective. And so you end […]
Inspired by today’s archive talk from Milton Glaser, we share these fresh motivational posters from ReadyMade. Taking a cue from the poster art of the last Great Depression, the magazine asked five artists to make a simple image that would inspire us to do good things. You can view and download all five — or […]
We had two great editorial photographers at TED2009 in Long Beach — the brilliant Asa Mathat and James Duncan Davidson. As luck would have it, Duncan was the shooter who happened to be in the right place to catch Bill Gates’ now-famous mosquito release. Read how Duncan got the shot. In the enlargement above, it’s […]
New York’s Museum of Modern Art takes over a subway station this month, papering Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street stop with 50 images of classic modern art from MoMA. They write: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, walk through the station to see images of works by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Charles Eames, […]
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely gave a thought-provoking presentation on human irrationality and intuition in this morning’s first session at TED2009. Here are some attendees’ reactions via Twitter: Dan Ariely became intersted in behavioral science while in hospital & thinking abt what hurts more: rip off bandage fast or slow — brainpicker Dan Ariely: “A lot […]
The TED Blog sat down with Jason Hackenwerth, Palm Springs’ balloon artist-in-residence to talk about the challenge of being an artist. What’s your biggest challenge, as an artist? Getting your work recognized is the biggest and hardest part. I think it requires a certain kind of venue or a certain kind of persistence, and making […]
Advertising agency Grey Group provided TED@PalmSprings with an “idea booth” that offered some new tools to help spread ideas. We caught up with them after session 10. Chel O’Reilly: We’re an advertising agency, so we spread ideas, and TED is all about “ideas worth spreading,” so we thought we’d combine our skills with TED’s interests, […]
This afternoon Lena Maria Klingvall had the rapt attention of TED2009 as she described how she lives a vastly accomplished life with only one full limb. Her story touched us all and the audience responded — via Twitter: Lena-Maria Klingvall at TED2009 Photo: TED/James Duncan Davidson Lena-Maria Klingvall says she was born “hands-free.” — ted2009 […]
By far the most Twitter activity TED2009 has seen happened when Evan Williams, creator of Twitter, took the stage. Here’s a look at the action: talking right now about Twitter, at TED. Ahh, I’m trapped in a self-referential cycle! — wilshipley “sometimes when i consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, i realize all […]
And here’s the much-discussed Q&A between Bill Gates and TED’s Chris Anderson, which follows Gates’ brand-new TEDTalk. Listen for the answers to more big questions: http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf Download the Q&A here: Bill Gates + Chris Anderson Q&A (Standard MP4) Bill Gates + Chris Anderson Q&A (Hi-Res MP4) Bill Gates + Chris Anderson Q&A (Zipped MP4) Read […]
Seth Aylmer and Jose Serrano-Reyes took the TEDDIY stage today to tell us about TrustArt.org, a new organization whose goal is to bring a microfinance model into the art world. As says their website, “Artists introduce their big ideas for works of social art on this site. Shares to fund each project are immediately up […]
Nalini Nadkarni, researcher of and advocate for trees has caused quite a sensation at TED2009. Her passionate projects to save the canopy provoked energized responses from attendees, including a hug from Chris Anderson. Nalini Nadkarni at TED2009, Photo: TED/Asa Mathat Here’s what people were saying via Twitter: Tree Researcher Nalini Nadkarni says tree canopies foster […]