Making private space travel possible and accessible to everyone has been a recurring topic at recent TED conferences, discussed by speakers such as Burt Rutan at TED 2006 (watch his speech), Peter Diamandis at TEDGLOBAL 2005, Richard Branson at TED 2007 and others. This week the first images of the central terminal and hangar facility […]
This year at TED, TED Prize winner Bill Clinton wished for us to partner with his foundation, the Rwandan government, and Partners in Health to build a sustainable, high-quality rural health system for the whole country. The pilot clinic in the Rwandan district of Rwinkwavu has been a proven success and there is a lot […]
Update: OLPC has announced that, starting Nov. 12, it will begin selling the XO laptop to consumers through its Give 1 Get 1 program. From the site: For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be […]
Al Seckel writes: To all TEDsters, It is with the greatest of sadness that we have to inform you that our very dearest friend and fellow TEDster Dr. Paul MacCready passed away on 28th August. Everyone who is reading this knows what a great and tremendous man he was, and how he devoted his entire […]
At TEDGlobal2007, blogger Andriankoto Ratozamanana, of Harinjaka, gave a 3-minute talk on a developing environmental crisis: the “crazy slash and burn” of the Madagascar forest. (To grasp the size of the problem, see this NASA image of burning in Madagascar, taken from the Terra satellite.) This weekend, he emailed us to update the story: A […]
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 […]