The information spread a few months ago: director Steven Spielberg is planning a movie (a theatrical documentary) about pioneering green architect William (Bill) McDonough, his work, and his “Cradle to Cradle” vision of absolute sustainability — which Bill detailed in a 2002 book (written with Michael Braungart) and explained at TED2005 (watch his speech) and […]
TEDsters have already heard this story — from speakers Iqbal Quadir, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Ashraf Ghani, Jacqueline Novogratz, and several others at last June’s TEDGLOBAL in Tanzania: developing countries need investments more than aid. One of the world’s biggest charities has now acted upon this idea. CARE, writes the New York Times, is turning down some […]
Not all inventions need to be grandiose, complex things, Amy Smith said at TED2006: sometimes they can be simple and smart ideas that just help a lot of people (watch her speech – read summary). That’s the philosophy behind her first International Development Design Summit (IDDS), which just took place at MIT, where she teaches […]
At TED2007, Lakshmi Pratury beautifully spoke about the lost art of letter-writing and its power. Founder of Tamarind Grove, which creates business and cultural links between the US and India, and a longtime TEDster, Lakshmi just posted on her blog her thoughts on the 60th anniversary of India’s independence (that was yesterday, August 15): “In […]
University of Chicago economist Emily Oster went on stage at TED2007 to say that most of what we know about AIDS in Africa is wrong — and proceeded to show data and graphs to make her case (watch the video of her speech — or read the summary). Now she’s applied her atypical lens to […]
After over two years at freakonomics.com, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner — co-authors of the 3-million-copies "Freakonomics" — last week moved their blog under a bigger and more institutional brand, that of the Opinion section of the New York Times’ website. Levitt spoke at TED2004 offering a preview of a chapter of "Freakonomics" titled "Why […]
Wired editor Chris Anderson got an advance copy of Bjorn Lomborg’s upcoming book Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming, and his summary is: read it, but don’t follow his advice. Lomborg (watch his TED2005 speech) argues that although global warming is clearly happening and is human-caused, the debate over what to do […]
When he was just 14 years old, Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Kamkwamba, now 19, tells a moving story of ingenuity and adaptation, and shares his dreams: To build a […]
After four days of intense discussion on aid versus trade at TEDGlobal 2007, it was up to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister of Nigeria, to sum it up. She asks for the discussion to continue, and to grow more sophisticated, more nuanced. And she brilliantly refocuses the concept of foreign aid: As she points […]
This grab-you-by-the-throat talk by Ghanaian economist George Ayittey unleashes an almost breathtaking torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders — the “Hippos” (lazy, slow, ornery, greedy) who have ruined postcolonial Africa, he says. Why, then, does he remain optimistic? Because of the young, agile “Cheetah Generation,” a “new breed of Africans” taking their futures into […]
In the talk that opened TEDGlobal 2007 (“Africa: The Next Chapter”), South African investment banker Euvin Naidoo sets the scene, framing the conversation that would unfold over the four-day event. “What’s the worst thing you’ve heard about Africa?” he asks. After fielding call-outs of “famine,” “war,” “corruption,” he urges the audience to move past these […]
Guest blogger David McQueen was an enthusiastic reporter, photographer and networker at TEDGlobal 2007. He’s a speaker, writer, music executive and youth worker whose busy blog covers issues around Africa and general personal development — two interests that intersected at TEDGlobal, as he writes below. Being very passionate about the continent of Africa, I love […]
If you are planning (you should) to go see Jennifer Baichwal’s documentary “Manufactured landscapes“, which opened last week in theaters across the US after spending a year mesmerizing film festivals audiences and will soon arrive in Europe, make sure you get there in time, for nothing describes the scale and essence of today’s globalized industry […]
Ethan Zuckerman blogged TEDGlobal 2007 (and several past TEDs). Every session. Every speaker (save a few). Every day for four days. His near-real-time blogging was a crucial record of this conference. Many comments were made about his ability to turn out fully formed, thoughtful posts almost instantly. Just as important, his posts helped other TEDGlobal […]
This has been a hard week for lovers and dreamers of space travel — a frequent topic at TED. An explosion at Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites spaceport caused three victims. It was followed by a report on issues of personal safety at NASA, part of the unfolding story there. Space exploration is an inherent high-risk […]
2006 TED Prize winner Cameron Sinclair’s wish resulted in the creation of the Open Architecture Network. In the five months since its launch at TED the OAN has been shifting the landscape around how architects work to create more sustainable projects. Almost 500 projects worldwide are currently be managed through the network. A number of […]