Of all the distractions, entertainment, and discussions that the inter-tubes provided in 2007, I think my favorite discovery was the Ted Talks. It consistently provides the most curious, thought-provoking, surprising sets of ideas found anywhere on the web.
Instead of watching online, I finally clicked over to the Apple iTunes podcast section, went to TedTalks and selected "Get All." An hour later, all 101 chats were downloaded and iPod ready. Sure, its not as funny as Ricky Gervais’ podcasts — but they are a whole lot more educational.
Its internet Barry’s gift to commuting Barry for 2008 . . .
“TED ideas worth spreading”
v.
“the TED spread”
The fellow with the long curly grey hair on the right side of the picture is Stephen Pinker a leading expert on the origins and use of language. Dr. Pinker is the author of numerous books which are humorous as well as informative. I particularily recommend “The Blank Slate” which proposses a framework for discussion of key cultural assumptions (the title refers to the assumption that infants are born with a mind without hardwiring(nature) ready to be written upon by nurture. This book deals with the macro although most are scientific and may be more than casual readers want to know about language). I am trying to find time to read his latest book “The Stuff of Thought”.
Can do without iTunes, Miro gets the videos just as well, great!
Miro is GNU3 and it’s here:
http://participatoryculture.org
Great channel though. Thanks a lot!
Best regards
—Rafa
never heard of it but looks quite interesting. thanks br.
Nice suggestion, Barry! I view some of the TED videos, but it would be easier to do on “plane time” via the IPod.
Yep, I’ve known about TED for a couple of months now thanks to Stumble and Digg, and I’ve watched quite a few of their videos. I have yet to find one that wasn’t at least somewhat interesting.