Whatever you think about Unleavened Doom, it sure does project to the balconies. Jim Crupi was therefore a good pick to address the full TED audience as we all assembled under one roof for the first time in the Monterey State Theater. All told, I found the theater to be a great addition to […]
“One of the tragic aspects of human-right abuses is that they’re too easily forgotten or denied; but it appears that if there are cameras around, they tend to happen less.” —Peter Gabriel [Session write up | Photo] “If newts can regenerate a lost limb, why can’t we?” —Dr. Alan Russell explaining advances in regenerative medicine. […]
One of the more poignant points that Al Gore made in last night’s powerful speech about global warming was that a lot of people move directly from a state of denial about this issue to one of despair. People in the first state don’t go out and try to change things because they don’t see […]
“Does history have an arrow? That’s a profound question. Because if you think history has an arrow, it changes how you feel about the future.” —Chris Anderson, introducing Robert Wright. [Session write up | Photo] “We are witnessing a collision between our civilization and the earth … We have no more than 10 years within […]
With just a few hours left till TED2006, the delicious anticipation is building. Truck after truck has unloaded the physical features of TED: dozens of Sony BRAVIA HDTV screens, hundreds of plush Steelcase couches and chairs, the makings of the Google cafe, the books for A Clean Well-Lighted Place. The Junipero Serra room has been […]
Last night I watched the movie The Princess Bride for the 137th time. It just never gets old. While the entire star-studded cast of The Princess Bride (Billy Crystal, Robin Wright, Christopher Guest, Peter Falk, Wallace Shawn, Carol Kane, Fred Savage) is uniformly fantastic, it is hard to imagine a better role for Mandy Patinkin […]
Last year one of our TED Prize winners Ed Burtynsky made a powerful wish at TED. He wanted to find a way of using his photography to make people think harder about our planet’s future. Well, this is one way to do just that. (Go to the page, take a deep breath, and run the […]
Like many of you, when a new technology strikes my fancy, I try to learn as much about it as possible. These days I’m interested in how the internet can enable better collaboration within design teams. But instead of reading white papers, I’m practicing what a few of us have started to call the "New […]
An interesting combination of factors is driving an astonishing construction boom in Dubai, including:– $70 oil– a ruler with extraordinary (or extraordinarily insane) vision– geographical serendipity (shipping routes to China, India)– avaialbility (and exploitability) of cheap labour from AsiaResult: palm-tree islands like this one being constructed at massive scale, not to mention what is planned […]
As I write this, I’m somewhere over Nebraska, squished in the back of coach class. A perfect opportunity to re-read TED 2006 speaker Neil Gershenfeld’s delightful book Fab. Flipping through it reminded me once again of his exciting vision for our near-term material future. Imagine a world where anyone can make anything. Where, by using […]
If you studiously avoided all news coming out of Utah last month, you may have missed the fact that Al Gore has emerged a movie star. An Inconvenient Truth, which premiered to standing ovations and press accolades in Park City, catapulted the former VP to celeb status at Sundance, where he stole as many headlines […]
Lots of commentary in the blogosphere this week on 3-month-old start-up FON, which just received backing from Google and Skype, as well as Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. FON provides a model for expanding wireless internet access across the world, by offering subscribers financial incentives for sharing their bandwidth. Their goal is to become the […]
As I watched the Disney Channel with my kids this weekend I was horrified by what I saw. Disney Records has released an album of re-recorded DEVO tunes sung by a pack of prepubescent Brittany Spears wannabes. The album is called DEVO 2.0 and, to my greater shock and dismay, the music for the album […]
During the TED salon this fall at Joe’s Pub, we were treated to the world premiere of Colobus, a dark and unsettling orchestral piece by TEDster Michael Montes, who also composed the title sequences for TED2005 and TED2006. This weekend, Montes has yet another premiere: This time, a TV commercial for the Cadillac Escalade, scored […]
As Superbowl Sunday approaches, our thoughts turn lightly toward … TV advertising, what else? And if the build-up to the game has you hungry for those great ads of Superbowls past, it might be time to revisit Apple’s legendary 1984 commercial (which aired only once), as well as the delightful 2005 spoof. And to really […]
Last month, Google released a new video service, allowing users to preview and purchase videos online. If you’ve yet to try the service out — and you just don’t have time to troll for content — here’s an easy way to preview: Spend 20 minutes and 99 cents watching Steven Johnson (TED03) on the Charlie […]