TEDTalks (video)
Each year, the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference hosts some of the world's most fascinating people: Trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses. These podcasts (also available in audio format) capture the most extraordinary presentations delivered from the TED stage.
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TEDTalks : Climbing the world's biggest trees - Richard Preston (2008)
Science writer Richard Preston talks about some of the most enormous living beings on the planet, the giant trees of the US Pacific Northwest. Growing from a tiny seed, they support vast ecosystems -- and are still, largely, a mystery.
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TEDTalks : The coming neurological epidemic - Gregory Petsko (2008)
Biochemist Gregory Petsko makes a convincing argument that, in the next 50 years, we'll see an epidemic of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's, as the world population ages. His solution: more research into the brain and its functions.
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TEDTalks : Do the green thing - Andy Hobsbawm (2008)
Andy Hobsbawm shares a fresh ad campaign about going green -- and some of the fringe benefits.
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TEDTalks : A surprising parable of foie gras - Dan Barber (2008)
At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.
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TEDTalks : What I'm worried about, what I'm excited about - Bill Joy (2006)
Technologist and futurist Bill Joy talks about several big worries for humanity -- and several big hopes in the fields of health, education and future tech.
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TEDTalks : The design of the universe - George Smoot (2008)
At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way.
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TEDTalks : Welcome to Nollywood - Franco Sacchi (2007)
Zambia-born filmmaker Franco Sacchi tours us through Nollywood, Nigeria's booming film industry (the world's 3rd largest). Guerrilla filmmaking and brilliance under pressure from crews that can shoot a full-length feature in a week.
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TEDTalks : Fashion, passion, and about a million other things - Isaac Mizrahi (2008)
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi spins through a dizzying array of inspirations -- from '50s pinups to a fleeting glimpse of a hole in a shirt that makes him shout "Stop the cab!" Inside this rambling talk are real clues to living a happy, creative life.
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TEDTalks : Building a home for the Clock of the Long Now - Stewart Brand (2004)
Stewart Brand works on the Clock of the Long Now, a timepiece that counts down the next 10,000 years. It's a beautiful project that asks us to think about the far, far future. Here, he discusses a tricky side problem with the Clock: Where can we put it?
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TEDTalks : Why a free press is the best investment - Sasa Vucinic (2005)
A free press -- papers, magazines, radio, TV, blogs -- is the backbone of any true democracy (and a vital watchdog on business).Sasa Vucinic, a journalist from Belgrade, talks about his new fund, which supports media by selling "free press bonds."
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TEDTalks : Tidying up art - Ursus Wehrli (2006)
Ursus Wehrli shares his vision for a cleaner, more organized, tidier form of art -- by deconstructing the paintings of modern masters into their component pieces, sorted by color and size.
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TEDTalks : The story of the Mars Rovers - Charles Elachi (2008)
At Serious Play 2008, Charles Elachi shares stories from NASA's legendary Jet Propulsion Labs -- including tales and video from the Mars Rover project.
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TEDTalks : Shaking hands with the devil - Samantha Power (2008)
Samantha Power tells a story of a complicated hero, Sergio Vieira de Mello. This UN diplomat walked a thin moral line, negotiating with the world's worst dictators to help their people survive crisis. It's a compelling story told with a fiery passion.
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TEDTalks : How science is like democracy - Lee Smolin (2003)
Physicist Lee Smolin talks about how the scientific community works: as he puts it, "we fight and argue as hard as we can," but everyone accepts that the next generation of scientists will decide who's right. And, he says, that's how democracy works, too.
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TEDTalks : The science of scent - Luca Turin (2005)
What's the science behind a sublime perfume? With charm and precision, biophysicist Luca Turin explains the molecular makeup -- and the art -- of a smell.
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TEDTalks : The powerful link between creativity and play - Tim Brown (2008)
Designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't).
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TEDTalks : I walk the Earth - John Francis (2008)
For almost three decades, John Francis has been a planetwalker, traveling the globe by foot and sail, spreading a message of environmental respect and responsibility (for 10 of those years, wthout speaking). A funny, thoughtful talk with occasional banj
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TEDTalks : The moment when social media became the news - James Surowiecki (2005)
James Surowiecki pinpoints the moment when social media became an equal player in the world of news-gathering: the 2005 tsunami, when YouTube video, blogs, IMs and txts carried the news -- and preserved moving personal stories from the tragedy.
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TEDTalks : Fly the seas on a submarine with wings - Graham Hawkes (2005)
Graham Hawkes takes us aboard his graceful, winged submarines to the depths of planet Ocean (a.k.a. "Earth"). It's a deep blue world we landlubbers rarely see in 3D.
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TEDTalks : The story of Ezra, a child soldier - Newton Aduaka (2007)
Filmmaker Newton Aduaka shows clips from his powerful, lyrical feature film "Ezra," about a child soldier in Sierra Leone.
