In an extraordinary finale for TED2013, Eric Whitacre stages a type of performance that has never been seen before, with a choir assembled to sing his composition, “Cloudburst.” It’s not just any choir. He’s joined on stage by 100 live singers formed from choirs from California State University, Long Beach Campus, California State University, Fullerton […]
Last night at TED2013, the Motion Picture Association of America hosted a nighttime discussion on the topic of how film has shaped some of modern day’s most cutting-edge technology. The prime example: John Underkoffler’s user interface inspired by his work on Minority Report. We were joined by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects division of […]
On Monday on the TED Fellows stage, Safwat Saleem made the crowd roar and squirm with his art – satirical and profane posters and animated shorts skewering racism, the absurdity of politics, petty dishonesty and general stupidity. In a word, bullshit. Here at TED2013, he’s launching a new project, called “Pardon Me, but WTF?” – […]
Brothers Rich + Tone Talauega are choreographers whose energy is so powerful one performance makes the whole room seem to vibrate. This morning at TED, with the help of music producer Keith Harris, they unleash an eclectic menagerie of dance forms that meld martial arts, hip-hop and classical dance. The intensity is palpable across the […]
Amanda Fucking Palmer wants us to re-think how we think about paying for music. She is known for her music, first as half of the Dresden Dolls, now as a solo artist. But for 5 years after graduating, Palmer made her living as a living statue called the Eight Foot Bride. (“Everyone always wanted to […]
Beardyman, né Darren Foreman, is a London-based beatboxer and inventor who has always been frustrated by the limitations of the human voice and body. After all, Beardyman’s instrument is his voice — and he only has one. No one, for example, can sing two notes at the same time. So naturally, Beardyman built a machine […]
In today’s TED Talk, Tyler DeWitt makes a fantastic case for a simple idea: make science fun. Educators and writers get caught up in the idea that science needs to be taken seriously, and forget that the best way to get kids interested is to… make it interesting. Too much emphasis on being accurate can […]
TED playlists are collections of talks around a topic, built for you in a thoughtful sequence to illuminate ideas in context. This weekend, two new playlists are available: What doctors worry about and Can you believe your eyes? Can you believe your eyes? 7 talks filled with magic tricks, optical illusions, death-defying feats and digital […]
In Shanghai, China, where it’s always night, directly across the street from a pirated DVD shop called Movie Star is another pirated DVD shop called Better Than Movie Star … and that’s where TED’s founding video director, Jason Wishnow, discovered this pirated DVD (which: sigh! but it’s too good not to share). It’s a bootleg […]
Young Guru, best known for producing Jay-Z’s albums, may be on tour in Europe. But he couldn’t resist the opportunity to remix the teenage singers, MCs and thinkers who contributed their vocals at TEDYouth. At the event on November 17, World Up — a non-profit dedicated to making the world smaller through hip hop, technology […]
[ted id=1476] Today’s TEDTalk, Beeban Kidron on the shared wonder of film, invokes some iconic film scenes swimming around in our shared narrative. Looking for the list? Here it is for you to immerse yourself — “Unless you do, you may not know that you, too, have a heart.” – Miracle in Milan, Vittorio de […]
What’s next for Joshua Klein, the man who built a vending machine for crows? The versatile hacker is the new host of the National Geographic show The Link, in which he travels the world to research and reveal the origins of some of history’s most important technological innovations, like Greek fire and the Chinese long […]
A TED Blog premiere video: At this year’s TEDActive, in Palm Springs, engineer Bruno Bowden tells the amazing story of NORAD’s quest to track Santa — and how Bruno’s employer now continues the quest: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QabHDoNDpVg] Read more on the official Google Blog >> (This year’s countdown begins Dec. 24 at 2am Eastern.)
At TEDGlobal 2010 Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa introduced us to THE 99, a comic book and animated series featuring a team of 99 young superheroes inspired by the 99 attributes of Allah. These young characters are the world’s first superheroes based on Islamic culture. Earlier this year at TEDGlobal Al-Mutawa discussed the criticisms he received for […]
Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they’re becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and women users outnumber men, Blakley explains what changes are in store for the future of media. (Recorded at TEDWomen, December 2010, in […]
In the spring of 2007, Julius Wiedemann, editor in charge at Taschen GmbH, gave a legendary TED University talk: an ultra-fast-moving ride through the “100 websites you should know and use.” Six years later, it remains one of the most viewed TED blog posts ever. Time for an update? We think so. Below, the 2013 […]