Palaeontologist Jack Horner wants a pet dinosaur. (I’m right there with you, Jack.) And according to his TED talk, we’re actually getting closer to making Jurassic Park a reality. Thanks to chickens.
The annual TED conference is a bastion of original thinking, its speakers on an edge so cutting they could draw blood. Over at Brain Pickings, they’ve got a roundup of five of the most environmentally important TED talks of the last several years; including this revolutionary one by cradle-to-cradle design guru William McDonough.
Roger Ebert spoke at this year’s TED conference about his quest to find the perfect artificial voice to give life to his words, his second “voice” he found on the internet, everything he’s endured in between. And, in typical Ebert fashion, it’s pretty entertaining.
newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://www.youtube.com/v/t9Fxp3HK6DI&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":332.5,"ratio":0.615,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube","wrap":true,"agegate":false} ); Some lucky attendees of this week’s TED conference were given rides in Google’s self-driving car. And one in particular was kind enough to take a video of what it’s like to ride shotgun. Plenty of NSFW language, because THE CAR IS DRIVING ITSELF. [YouTube via Scobleizer]
Frank Reynolds’s story is obviously a complex, multi-year affair that involved years of research, but for the attention-span deprived, a summary: He was paralyzed. He researched neuroscience. Created a company. Tested a new surgical procedure on himself. He walked again.
newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://www.youtube.com/v/KElS5nZD5yc&hl=en&fs=1&fmt=22","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":412,"ratio":0.824,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube","wrap":true} ); The TED conference brings together some of the greatest minds of our time, sharing and inspiring many world-changing ideas. In between those people, Hillel Cooperman gave this breathless, kinda self-loathy rundown of the weird world of adult LEGO. Fascinating! [Geekosystem]
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Remember that amazing mosquito-zapping laser we saw a while back? Here is a better look at it and other tech which will hopefully kill malaria and those annoying buzzing beasts which spread it.
Chris Anderson is just please as punch that a non-Flash version of the TED iPhone app is coming soon. “Videos, comments, ratings. Hurrah!” he says. Hey, me too. Nothing like a little inspiration on the go. [Chris Anderson]
