Wireless electricity has been mentioned previously. A recent TED Talk actually shows it in action. The presenter, Eric Giler of WiTricity Corp (a startup founded by MIT researcher Marin Soljačić), mentions the first attempt at wireless electricity, the Wardenclyffe Tower, designed and built over a hundred years ago by Nikola Tesla. [more inside]
posted by Deathalicious on Aug 30, 2009 - 95 comments

The Seven Vices of Highly Creative People vs. Elizabeth Gilbert on How We Kill Geniuses [more inside]
posted by The Devil Tesla on Aug 5, 2009 - 109 comments

Sptnk.org : The Observatory for the Study of Contemporary Culture. Sputnik is an NY organization that seeks to document, promote, and foster discussion around current trends in culture (I think Sptnk is more a "loose confederation" than an organization, but I can't seem to find much more about them. Here's one of the founder's tongue-in-cheek Linked In page). They just launched a new website which ties together sets of interviews from thinkers and doers in lots of fields. They are organized nicely into "paths", "conversations", and transmissions (presentations). Jonathan Harris (he blogs at number27.org) did the design of the site, which is top notch. The production values are not up to ted.com levels, but the weaving of stories and conversations that is emerging may prove useful. Happy culture hunting!
posted by zpousman on Jul 2, 2009 - 18 comments

MIT demo of some very interesting wearable tech (~7 mins vid from TED)
posted by peacay on Mar 11, 2009 - 49 comments

Juan Enriquez: Tech evolution will eclipse the financial crisis. "Even as mega-banks topple, Juan Enriquez says the big reboot is yet to come. But don't look for it on your ballot -- or in the stock exchange. It'll come from science labs, and it promises keener bodies and minds. Our kids are going to be ... different."
posted by homunculus on Feb 18, 2009 - 41 comments

Understanding comics - Scott McCloud recaps his comics theory work at TED. [more inside]
posted by Artw on Jan 31, 2009 - 30 comments

YouTubeFilter: The Monty Python Channel: "No more of those crap quality videos you've been posting. We're giving you the real thing - HQ videos delivered straight from our vault." l a feast of vids 70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube ( Smart Video Collections) l Book TV on YouTube l Computer History Museum on YT l 100 Awesome Youtube Vids for Librarians l Top 5 Most Inspirational Videos on YouTube l Top 10 Amazing Animal Videos l Top 10 YouTube Hacks l a couple of good YT member collections: TEDTalksDirector's YT vids and Basic Computer HowTo by Help Me Rick on YT l Amazing YouTube Video Tools Collection l Is YouTube the Next Google?
posted by nickyskye on Nov 19, 2008 - 23 comments

Boy meets girl, you know how it goes. The catch? They're made from Myriad Pro. This short TED talk by someone called Rives was cute, and whimsical enough to make me smile. [more inside]
posted by oxford blue on Nov 1, 2008 - 18 comments

John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost time
Perhaps the sweetest discourse on the subject of aliens & earth that you will ever hear — from a 2008 TED talk. (via BoingBoing)
posted by spock on Oct 26, 2008 - 50 comments

Too busy to watch all of the great videos over at Ted (or, for that matter, read all the posts about TED here on the blue?)? Ted has you covered: Ted Top Ten.
posted by allkindsoftime on Jun 27, 2008 - 22 comments

"Cultures at the far edge of the world" (YT) and "The worldwide web of belief and ritual" (YT). Two TED talks by anthropologist and explorer Wade Davis (previously) on the diversity of the world's indigenous cultures and their beliefs, and the richness of the "Ethnosphere," which he describes as "the sum total of all thoughts and dreams, myths, ideas, inspirations, intuitions brought into being by the human imagination since the dawn of consciousness." [Via Mind Hacks]
posted by homunculus on Jun 21, 2008 - 12 comments

Perhaps more widely known as the New York Times' "The Minimalist", Mark Bittman implores us to change the way we think about and consume food during his December 2007 talk at TED. The related NYTimes article. His NYTimes blog, "Bitten".
posted by blatant gizmo on May 31, 2008 - 9 comments

Greening the Ghetto. A TED talk (also on YouTube) on environmental justice and urban renewal by Majora Carter, the founder of Sustainable South Bronx organization. She spoke recently at the Aspen Environment Forum. [more inside]
posted by homunculus on Apr 9, 2008 - 11 comments

At TED this past March, Al Gore once again presented the Mother of all Power Point Shows. This time around, there is a renewed sense of urgency, with updated slides about Arctic sea ice loss, among other things. More so than in the past, Gore specifically focuses on the necessity for laws to change, and how before that can happen, politics, especially American politics, must change as well. Another theme of Gore's latest TED appearance is how climate change is also a tremendous opportunity for a new heroic generation, to be remembered as the ones who solved the greatest crisis of human civilization.
posted by [expletive deleted] on Apr 8, 2008 - 30 comments

Speaking of speeches, David Eggers delivers one at TED on grassroots community tutoring for kids who need help with their English homework: "There's something about the kids finishing their homework in a given day, working one on one, getting all this attention. They finish their homework, they go home -- they're finished. They don't stall. They don't do their homework in front of the TV. They're allowed to go home 5:30, enjoy their family, enjoy other hobbies, get outside, play and that makes a happy family. A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right? So, the key to it all is homework." Love him or hate him (mefi consensus) it's a great example of nervous energy microphilanthropy, social entrepreneurship and, if I may make the connection, machines of loving grace. [previously]
posted by kliuless on Mar 23, 2008 - 26 comments

Welcome to the BIL Conference Wish you could go to TED but don't have the money? Try BIL! As described on their site "an open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic science and technology conference. Nobody is in charge. If you want to come, just show up." With a number of talks in various categories, the most notable being Aubrey De Gray. The conference takes place in Monterey, CA on March 1st and 2nd.
posted by LoopyG on Feb 13, 2008 - 11 comments

Way back in 2003, I posted a link to a video that showed an octopus transforming itself to look like its surroundings. If you read the thread, there was some doubt about it and I think we all wished that web video was better at the time. Well, a friend posted a link to a TED talk recently that shows this same octopus at a much higher resolution. The relevant footage appears near the end of the talk. [more inside]
posted by stefnet on Jan 30, 2008 - 30 comments

The historically significant^* "4th IPCC report on global warming" was published in full last weekend to wide publicity. Part 1 "The Science". Part 2 "The Impacts" and Part 3 "The Solutions" - each about a 1000 page 6 pound brick, but summaries make it accessible. Beyond its gloomy dire warnings and calls for immediate action, observed global measurements of CO2 levels are already worse than the worse case scenarios and some say the report is overly conservative and already outdated. However there is a surprising idea for "solving" climate change (TED) that may be inevitable.
posted by stbalbach on Nov 21, 2007 - 30 comments

10 TED conference videos that may or may not be perspective changing…otherwise named, The Ten Videos to Change How You View the World...The Myth of Violence - Steven Pinker, 10 Ways the World Could End - Stephen Petranek, New Insights on Poverty and Life Around the World - Hans Rosling, Toys That Make Worlds - Will Wright, Technology’s Long Tail - Chris Anderson, Why Are We Happy? Or Not? - Daniel Gilbert, Universe is Queerer Than We Can Suppose - Richard Dawkins, Sliced Bread - Seth Godin, Redefining the Dictionary - Erin McKean, What’s So Funny About the Web? - Ze Frank [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Nov 11, 2007 - 25 comments

TED presentation: "Filmmaker Deborah Scranton talks about and shows clips from her documentary The War Tapes, which put cameras in the hands of Charlie Company, a unit of the National Guard, for one year in Iraq. The soldiers' raw footage and diary excerpts tell a powerful, unsettling story of modern war.
posted by McLir on Sep 20, 2007 - 6 comments

100 Sites TED thinks you need to know about 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 value". These are the sites that it thinks you should know about.
posted by psmealey on Aug 4, 2007 - 25 comments

Try a Little Tenderness. Otis Redding owns the song, but it's had an interesting history. Ruth Etting, Bing Crosby [mp3], and Ted Lewis [Windows Media] recorded the song (with more lyrics) in the early '30s. An instrumental version was the opening theme for Dr. Strangelove. Tennessee Ernie Ford did the song on his variety show. And then there was Jack Webb's deadpan Dragnet-style version [Amazon sample].
[more inside]
posted by kirkaracha on Jul 16, 2007 - 19 comments

TED does it again. See you in Monterey. What happens when the war machine goes improv?
posted by MapGuy on Jun 20, 2007 - 49 comments

Photosynth. Blaise Aguera y Arcas (second one down) does a live demo (with some subtle humor) of the product we've discussed previously. Via the wonderful Ted (mentioned a few times).
posted by allkindsoftime on Jun 6, 2007 - 24 comments

Father Ted Festival: 9 years after Father Ted aka Dermot Morgan suddenly died, a weekend festival, based on the Father Ted series is taking place (will include such events as the Father Jack cocktail evening, Buckaroo speed dating, a cleaning fluid drinks reception, the Inis Mór lovely girls competition, and the drafting of the island’s Eurovision entry). Two Aran Islands, Mór and Oirr, are at loggerheads over the right to host it. This will culminate in a five-a-side football match, and Paddy Power is taking more bets on this than on yesterday’s England Ireland six-nations championship game (which Ireland won, just saying).
posted by Wilder on Feb 25, 2007 - 32 comments

Gregory Colbert's Ashes and Snow has been linked to twice before on Metafilter. However, you can now view 10 minutes of his film as part of his Ted Talk--it's the most stunning nature footage I've ever seen. In the talk he also mentions a new concept he's developing called Animal Copyright, which I think is long overdue.
posted by dobbs on Jan 2, 2007 - 29 comments

Gorgeous - a spoken word poem by Rives. {via TED Talks}
posted by dobbs on Dec 24, 2006 - 5 comments

TED talks is a collection of presentations given at the most recent installment of the annual convention of leading technologists, entertainers, and designers (previously). From the $100 laptop to the eradication of smallpoxto new ways of visualizing data and a charming and humorous look at education, there's a lot to chew on and more to come. Inspired yet? here's some more reading material. via
posted by sixacross on Aug 3, 2006 - 8 comments

TED UK
(click through to What is Ted : About Ted : Highlights. You'd think a conference with Freemon Dyson speaking could afford a decent web designer)
posted by Tlogmer on Jul 25, 2005 - 5 comments

Hey kids! Time to go to Ted Nugent's Kamp for Kids! Whee!!! (You might want to take the handy on-line test first though.)
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies on May 13, 2005 - 56 comments