posted
I don't know how many of you have heard of this conference before, but I only found it through some random Youtube browsing a few nights ago.
quote:From Wikipedia's article: TED, Technology Entertainment Design is an annual conference held in Monterey, California and recently, semi-annually in other cities around the world. TED describes itself as a "group of remarkable people that gather to exchange ideas of incalculable vqqalue". Its lectures cover a broad set of topics including science, arts, politics, global issues, architecture, music and more.
Since then, I've been watching a couple videos a night - most of them are around 20 minutes - and nearly all have been fascinating.
Hans Rosling: Watch the end of poverty - 20:54 - A fantastic presenter of information speaking about major economic and sociological trends in recent history. Brilliant use of graphic displays.
Tierney Thys: Swim with giant sunfish in the open ocean - 18:38 - I love almost anything to do with open ocean biology (so long as it's on a screen). This is an interesting talk on an animal that could do quite well for itself in the changing climate.
Do schools today kill creativity? Ken Robinson, TEDTalks - 20:03 - The title pretty much says it all. "As children grow up we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on the head. And slightly to one side."
Note - The videos all include a BMW commercial at the end so cut off 30 seconds to a minute for the actual length of each presentation.
My favorite theme on the site is the "how the mind works section", you won't go wrong with any of those videos!
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Paranoid note because I'm in this hyper-worry-about-other-people's-feelings mode right now: I'm not posting this to say, "I already posted about TED." My thread was not about TED, and people wouldn't neccessarily know how awesome TED was just from me and Strider saying we like it in that thread.
TED deserves it's own thread.
In fact, half the videos on that site deserve their own thread.
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Ah! The world clock is freaking me out! Too much information, too much of it so not good. Numbers growing, won't stop. *fizzle, spit, fizzle* *twitch*
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
I'm just starting to watch the TED video documentary "The Future We Will Create." I bet it will include many of the videos already mentioned in this thread.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Eh. The movie was okay. I think watching the individual talks is better. This was mostly an overview, so it only had a few minutes of each speaker, and so many of them really merit a better listen.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
There's a strong theme running through several speakers' presentations that
A) The world today isn't as bad as it seems, and is certainly better, for the most part, than it was in the past.
B) Things in the future will be quite a bit better.
That's not something you expect to hear. Especially given todays media market. I found it pretty refreshing.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
I think there's also the counterpoint that we have to work to get rid of some problems in the world to pave the way for a lot of really amazing stuff.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Oh great, now I've wasted my whole Saturday watching TED videos. I was up until 4am! (Actually only 2am, but still.)
Posts: 1810 | Registered: Jan 1999
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