Best TED talks

• Anupam Mishra, The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting
• Devdutt Pattanaik: East vs. West -- the myths that mystify
• Marcus du Sautoy: Symmetry, reality's riddle
• Carolyn Steel: How food shapes our cities
• Ueli Gegenschatz soars in a wingsuit
• Jacqueline Novogratz invests in ending poverty
• Jacqueline Novogratz on patient capitalism
• Peter Eigen on exposing corruption
• Lawrence Lessig on the need for Creative Commons licenses
• Larry Lessig says the law is strangling creativity
• Chip Conley measuring what makes life worthwhile
• Matt Ridley when ideas have sex
• Nic Marks on the Happy Planet Index
• Michael Pawlyn - Using nature's genius in architecture

Scary TED talks

Bjorn Lomborg sets global priorities

Scary because people might believe this is good stuff. I totally disagree with his conclusion on climate change; an exellent example of cloaking a personal agenda in psuedo-science. If you spend five minutes chasing down the actual reports on his website, you see that the "expert" economists simply ignored the IPCC findings!

Other good talks

• The Really Big Questions
• RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
• Taxpayer Receipt
• The History of Debt History is about debt, not money.
• Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous? it was, but not anymore
• The Secret Document That Transformed China

Other stuff

• Robot folding towels; R. Daneel Olivaw is a long way off
• International Space Station
• guide to NPR's top 100 SF and Fantasy books
• Burning Man does Oh the Places You'll Go!

Author : Stephen Leake Last modified: Tue Jan 24 08:18:59 -0500 2012