TED: John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!
Does texting mean the death of good writing skills? John McWhorter posits that there’s much more to texting — linguistically, culturally — than it seems, and it’s all good news.Read More
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TED: Edith Widder: How We Found the Giant Squid
Humankind has been looking for the giant squid (Architeuthis) since we first started taking pictures underwater. But the elusive deep-sea predator could never be caught on film. Oceanographer and inventor Edith Widder shares the key insight — and the teamwork — that helped to capture the squid on camera for the first time.Read More
TEDx: Dan Ariely on What Makes Us Feel Good About Our Work
What motivates us to work? Contrary to conventional wisdom, it isn’t just money. But it’s not exactly joy either. It seems that most of us thrive by making constant progress and feeling a sense of purpose. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely presents two eye-opening experiments that reveal our unexpected and nuanced attitudes toward meaning in our Read MoreRead More
TED-Ed: Why do we see illusions? – Mark Changizi
Why can’t our extremely complex eyes render simple optical illusions? Surprise, surprise — it comes back to the brain, which has only evolved to encounter natural stimuli. At TEDYouth 2012, Mark Changizi explains how the brain reckons with optical illusions. Check out the full lesson hereRead More
TED: Amanda Palmer – The Art of Asking
Don’t make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer. Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan.Read More
TED: Why Great Ideas Get Rejected – David Burkus
Have you ever debuted an exciting new idea to the world only to receive a lukewarm or even highly critical response? Well, get used to it. Mounting evidence shows that we all possess an inherent bias against creativity. David Burkus shares the good news that there actually is something we can do about it.Read More
The Math of Online Dating – Christian Rudder
When two people join a dating website, they are matched according to shared interests and how they answer a number of personal questions. But how do sites calculate the likelihood of a successful relationship? Christian Rudder, one of the founders of popular dating site OKCupid, details the algorithm behind ‘hitting it off.’ Full TED Lesson Read MoreRead More
TED: Cesar Kuriyama: One second every day
There are so many tiny, beautiful, funny, tragic moments in your life — how are you going to remember them all? Director Cesar Kuriyama shoots one second of video every day as part of an ongoing project to collect all the special bits of his life. Here’s his video:Read More
TEDx: Steve Duncan – What I’ve Learned from Exploring Sewers
Steve Duncan is a New-York-based urban historian and photographer who has explored and photographed sewers and underground infrastructure beneath New York, Paris, London, Rome, Naples, Stockholm, Berlin, Moscow, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, Calcutta, and many other cities. He served as the host of a Discovery Channel show on urban history from 2004 to 2005, Read MoreRead More
TED: How Movies Teach Manhood – Colin Stokes
When Colin Stokes’ 3-year-old son caught a glimpse of Star Wars, he was instantly obsessed. But what messages did he absorb from the sci-fi classic? Stokes asks for more movies that send positive messages to boys: that cooperation is heroic, and respecting women is as manly as defeating the villain.Read More
What’s Invisible? More Than You Think…
Gravity. The stars in day. Thoughts. The human genome. Time. Atoms. So much of what really matters in the world is impossible to see. A stunning animation of John Lloyd’s classic TEDTalk from 2009, which will make you question what you actually know. (See Full TED-Ed lesson here) Read More
The World Is Not Flat – How Hyperconnected We Aren’t
It may seem that we’re living in a borderless world where ideas, goods and people flow freely from nation to nation. We’re not even close, says Pankaj Ghemawat. With great data (and an eye-opening survey), he argues that there’s a delta between perception and reality in a world that’s maybe not so hyperconnected after all.Read More