As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. New clues about the most mysterious star in the universe. KIC 8462852 (often called “Tabby’s star,” after the astronomer Tabetha Boyajian, who led the first study of the star) intermittently dims as much as 22% and then brightens again, […]
The thinkers in this session, “Lateral Action,” don’t go about creating change in the usual ways. Here, their unexpected approaches: Argentinian singer-songwriter Juana Molina opens the session with a hypnotizing performance on the electric guitar and a rack of pedals that layer sounds into gorgeously complex song structures. Singing calmly behind layers of chords, she mixes […]
Real solutions can emerge from places surprisingly adjacent to the problems they address. This session examines how progress — from villages to urban spaces, from the artist’s studio to the corporate world — can be found by taking a step to the side. The speakers who’ll appear in this session: Khalida Brohi found an unexpected way to fight […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-yzTSrjkxc&w=983&h=553] If you ever find yourself in Brazil, advises Misha Glenny, try to look past the samba, soccer and sea. The journalist, who is currently researching a book on the underground drug trade in Rio de Janeiro, sees a Brazil of challenges, contradictions and opportunities that are far more complex than the celebrations on Ipanema […]
Last night in our office, we held a miniature TED session around the theme “Examining Prejudice.” And while it explored issues of discrimination and homophobia, it also veered to some unexpected places — like your dislike of Brussels sprouts. “When we think of prejudice, we think of stupid people doing stupid things,” said psychologist Paul […]
In an incisive talk at TEDGlobal 2009 in Oxford, investigative journalist Misha Glenny (author of McMafia) described the global shadow economy and crime networks in minute details. After his talk, several attendees asked TED European director Bruno Giussani to invite Misha back to discuss not only the results of his investigations and research, but […]
Fields Wicker-Miurin, co-founder of Leaders’ Quest in London, trains business leaders by connecting them to other leaders. Yes, it sounds rather common – but her leaders live in the Amazon forest or are advocates of HIV education in India or collect and display artifacts related to uneasy periods in Chinese history: they are leaders that […]
Journalist Misha Glenny spent several years in a courageous investigation of organized crime networks worldwide, which have grown to an estimated 15% of the global economy. From the Russian mafia, to giant drug cartels, his sources include not just intelligence and law enforcement officials but criminal insiders. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, in Oxford, England. Duration: […]
Misha Glenny at TEDGlobal 2009, Session 8: July 23, 2009, in Oxford, UK. Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson Journalist and underworld investigator Misha Glenny starts by addressing the financial crisis. “These are grim economic times, so I want to cheer you up with one of the greatest commercial success stories of the last 20 […]
Journalist Misha Glenny expounded upon the ideas presented in his book McMafia, on how organized crime has run rampant in Western society. TEDsters reporting via Twitter were abuzz with this talk, especially Glenny’s stat that states organized crime accounts for “15% of the world’s GDP.” Apparently it is the western world that fuels global organised […]