Do yourself a favour, and drop into iTunes and search for TEDTalks (all one word); or just visit http://www.ted.com/. TED is a video podcast which is essentially full of conference speeches, but unlike most conferences I’ve ever been to, every single speaker is damn good.

Today I’ve watched three engaging and amazing talks, while on the way to work (and the way home).

First, something really cool about crows. It seems that crows (and cockroaches, and rats) are some of the most intelligent animals on earth, and the speaker has designed a vending machine for them – which they understand and use.

Second, a map that graphically shows how much news the typical US resident sees that is from outside the US – and, secondly, a figure that appears to conclusively prove that Americans really want world news. “Britney is cheaper”, however, so the US news networks just do US news.

And third, and the most recent, a piece from a man who talks aout global warming (yawn) and in terms of personal health (yawn) but in terms of food. Things I learnt: half the antibiotics in the US are not injected into humans; one BILLION cans of Coca-Cola are drunk each day worldwide; and 25% of all global warming is entirely related to our love of eating meat. It’s enough to make you go veggie.

It’s tremendous that we get this kind of content for free.

Photo: Nathan Makan, who apparently makes trousers. Nice. Used under licence.

Tags: talks, ted | Permalink | Comments RSS