TED talks!

Dave!

Hey folks,

I've seen a few TED videos, but haven't really looked at the website til recently, and there's some great ones on there! So thought you folks might be interested, and could share some of your favourites

The site is www.ted.com

My favourite one so far is:

"Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things"
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/22

Michael Shermer is the founder of the American Skeptics Society, and the talk is about 13 minutes long, is quite fast-paced, and very funny

Stephen Pinker has a good one called "A brief history of violence", which provides evidence that we are living in the most peaceful period in human history.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramBFRt1Uzk

There's a few more that cover the theme of religion/god, but I haven't had a chance to look at them:
http://www.ted.com/themes/view/id/21


You can also browse through the videos on YouTube if you don't want to go to the fancy TED website.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

The Michael Shermer one is great, watch it!

Dades

I listened to a whole bunch of them last week. Great diversity of topics it has to be said.

Dinner

DaveMcG wrote: »

"Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things"
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/22

Ha! That Katie Melua bit at the end was great.


I love the TED talks, great way to waste a bit of time.

18AD

Arabel wrote: »

I love the TED talks, great way to waste a bit of time.

Waste!?

Amazing site. It never ceases to amuse me!

AD.

Dinner

18AD wrote: »

Waste!?

Amazing site. It never ceases to amuse me!

Poor choice of word I admit, but I wasn't sure how to spell while/wile.

5uspect

I love the TED talks. Always enjoyable and informative.

Dave!

Check out the latest one about how intelligent crows are!
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/261

Pretty impressive

eoin5

I really liked shermers point on the science make up names like dark matter being the start of the procedure for real science but they are the end result for ID. I think intelligent falling is a good example.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

www.fora.tv is another good website for talks and such

Dave!

Just watched this one today:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_full_on_engineering_and_evolution.html

It's by biologist Robert Full, and it focuses on how he and his colleagues are using inspiration in nature to design robots. It has lots of videos of their experiments where they study animal (particularly insect) locomotion. There are also videos demonstrating how the information is incorporated into the robot designs, which enable them to do amazing things really! Climbing up walls without suction, but using an adhesive which replicates how geckos climb using tiny hairs. The robots use simple springy legs like some insects, which enables them to negotiate really rough and difficult terrain like say a forest floor covered in branches, leaves, etc.

It's really impressive and makes me optimistic about the future of robots!

He gets a great response from the audience and a standing ovation. It's really great.

Dave!

Another excellent one I've just found today...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html

It's by neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran, and covers 3 specific brain abnormalities, which he explains by describing the damage to particular parts of the brain.

1. Capgras syndrome - you don't recognise your mother as your mother, but as someone who looks just like your mother!
2. Phantom limbs - occurs in amputees. He discusses a method using mirrors, which he developed to relieve pain associated with this.
3. Synesthesia - people who "see" sounds, "hear" colours, etc.

It's really interesting for those (like myself ) who are intrigued by the neurological basis of consciousness and personality and the likes.

Pompey Magnus

Dave! wrote: »

Another excellent one I've just found today...
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/vilayanur_ramachandran_on_your_mind.html

It's by neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran, and covers 3 specific brain abnormalities, which he explains by describing the damage to particular parts of the brain.

1. Capgras syndrome - you don't recognise your mother as your mother, but as someone who looks just like your mother!
2. Phantom limbs - occurs in amputees. He discusses a method using mirrors, which he developed to relieve pain associated with this.
3. Synesthesia - people who "see" sounds, "hear" colours, etc.

It's really interesting for those (like myself ) who are intrigued by the neurological basis of consciousness and personality and the likes.

That is a great video, really fascinating. The phantom limb part was very interesting.

I love the way he pronounces his R's.

Dave!

Depeche_Mode wrote: »

I love the way he pronounces his R's.

Can't say I noticed I'll rewatch it later

Tzetze

TED talks are fascinating indeed. Some of my favourites are;

Aubrey deGrey wants to beat aging
Craig Venter on synthetic life
Clifford Stoll on I'm not quite sure what exactly
Brian Cox on CERN
Brian Greene on String Theory
Neil Gerschenfeld on Fab Labs (MUST SEE)
6 ways mushrooms can save the world (MUST SEE)
Ray Kurzweil - Futurist (MUST SEE)
Bonobos (MUST SEE)

Dave!

Tzetze wrote: »

Ray Kurzweil - Futurist (MUST SEE)

:eek: I sure hope he's right!

Checking out the other ones now

Dave!

There's a new(ly posted) talk by (my hero ) Stephen Pinker

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/steven_pinker_chalks_it_up_to_the_blank_slate.html

It's about the Blank Slate again, but very interesting

studiorat

Here's one!
It's got nothing to do with philosophy, religion, biology, computer science etc.

Music from the beautiful Pamella Kurstin

BTW I'm locked out of the Creationist thread due to technical problems, so there must be a god after all!

pauln

I have spent many hours watching the Ted talks. There are many many excellent ones but one that sticks out as very entertaining is Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?, well worth a look.