Although we’ll save our analysis for a later date, it would seem remiss not to mention the two major milestones passed this week: On March 1st, the millionth English article was posted to Wikipedia. The week before, iTunes sold its billionth song. A strong reminder that the mediascape is shifting faster than you can download […]
If 18 minutes in Monterey merely whet your appetite for singer/songwriter Stew and his provocative story-songs, you’re in for a feast: Those in the Bay Area can catch one of the first performances of Stew’s new musical, Passing Strange, when it’s performed at Stanford next weekend. A handful of free tickets have been set aside […]
Malcolm Gladwell launches a blog.
When Chris announced a competition through PledgeBank last October, Chris Markl pledged to cycle across America to raise money for the developing world. TEDster Dan Pallotta teamed up with him and now the ride is a reality. The Yes Ride will begin in Seattle on June 1 and end July 27, 2006 in Boston. Registration […]
“We are seeding the area with ‘green-collar’ jobs, people who have both an economic interest and a personal stake in their environment”— Majora Carter on her organization’s efforts to ‘green’ the South Bronx “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original” – Ken Robinson “Creativity is now as […]
“If you don’t want to practice, you can hide it.” —11-year-old violinist Serena Huang, on why she chose the violin over the piano. “Houston, we have a problem. We’re entering the second generation of no progress.” — Spacecraft designer Burt Rutan, on the stalled space program. “We are now returning to an ancient form of […]
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 […]