From IEEE Spectrum magazine: Dean Kamen’s “Luke arm” — a prosthesis named for the remarkably lifelike prosthetic worn by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars — came to the end of its two-year funding last month. Its fate now rests in the hands of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funded the project. If […]
More presentation news: Garr Reynolds pulls examples from his favorite TEDTalks (Majora Carter, Hans Rosling, Sir Ken Robinson) for his new book, Presentation Zen — to help his readers refine, simplify and focus their own presentations and talks. What makes a great TED speaker? Passion, connection, a story to tell. As Reynolds points out, “If […]
The National Academies’ “Grand Challenges for Engineering” list, released yesterday, runs down the 14 most pressing issues we must face in the 21st century. Creating access to clean water … restoring our cities … engineering new medicines and new ways of providing care … the list is vast and inspiring. Look on the Next Steps […]
A timely item in the week before TED2008: Stephen M. Kosslyn, professor and researcher in mental imagery at Harvard, is out to empower PowerPoint users with lessons from cognitive science. Kosslyn spoke in Boston today at a meeting of the AAAS to share some quirkily titled guidelines (the Goldilocks Rule, the Rudolph Rule) that will […]
Earlier this week, TEDTalks favorite Aubrey de Grey visited Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to promote his new book, Ending Aging. His controversial 2005 TEDTalk, in which he argued that we could one day extend the human lifespan by hundreds of years, continues to spur debate. Stephen Colbert on de Grey’s nonprofit Methuselah Foundation: “If […]
Does your breathing pattern change when you open your e-mail inbox or check your Blackberry? Do you hold your breath? Longtime TEDster Linda Stone has given a name — “e-mail apnea” — to what she describes as a “temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing e-mail”. She has researched how this […]
Many TEDTalks explore themes of happiness — Stumbling on Happiness‘ Daniel Gilbert, Mattheiu Ricard (who’s been called the Happiest Man on Earth), happy designer Stefan Sagmeister, and many more … Now a recent story in Newsweek rounds up the latest on happiness’ opposite: sadness. It’s an interesting gloss on the growing happiness industry — and […]
In the past few weeks, Pangea Day has received more than 1,200 film submissions from filmmakers in 40 countries, and the films keep on coming! There are four days left until submissions close on February 15 — still time for you to submit your film and tell your story to the world on Pangea Day, […]
Via YouTube, here’s a neat commercial from BMW South Africa starring TEDTalks star Theo Jansen. Lots of footage of Theo and his beautiful strandbeests:
Check out Jill Sobule and Rives on NPR’s Bryant Park Project, singing about Super Tuesday, when “30 zillion voters in 20-something states” cast their primary votes, and the rest of us watch the returns all day long. As Jill says, “I have no life! All I do is watch news shows!” Rives’ snappy patter will […]
TEDGlobal star Franco Sacchi’s documentary This Is Nollywood will play at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston February 1 and 10. February 1 is the opening night of the African Film Festival at the MFA. More US screenings are set for LA and Portland, Oregon. This Is Nollywood tells the story of the booming […]
Pangea Day — the global film festival, happening May 10, 2008 — comes from a wish made by filmmaker Jehane Noujaim, who won the TED Prize in 2006. Listen to Jehane talk about her vision for the festival, which is taking busily taking shape now. And it’s not too late to submit your film for […]
It its newest issue, Newsweek publishes a detailed story on Microsoft’s Seadragon technology and the man behind it, Blaise Aguera y Arcas (who premiered it at TED07 last March, watch his speech), and discusses what it calls the "zoom interface": The Internet, it seems, doesn’t take advantage of how humans best process information. Evolution granted […]
The first of a new generation of digital three-dimensional films, U2 3D, is in limited release now. Already the entertainment world is abuzz: a rapturous reception at Sundance followed a smash-hit premiere at Cannes. TEDster and 3D evangelist Steve Schklair, founder and CEO of 3ality Digital Systems, drove the production and the revolutionary technology behind […]
Stephen Levitt calls him the “main character” in his TEDTalk on crack economics: Sudhir Venkatesh, the young grad student who infiltrated a Chicago crack-dealing gang. His research brought back reams of sociological data — and offers an unfiltered glimpse into gang life. In his new book, Gang Leader for a Day, Venkatesh writes about his […]
Photo: Smoke from burned houses, Eldoret, January 1. Courtesy