TED upgraded
TED conferences have been very good for a long time. A recent upgrade to their site makes it to the best educational video site on the internet. There was an article in the NY Times about it recently.
TED conference talks are about 20 minutes long and given by well-regarded speakers in their field. The videos are now grouped by theme, which provides a great general overview of the site. All the talks are good, below are some of the best I’ve watched so far.
Jennifer Lin was a 14 year old piano prodigy when she filmed this piece in 2004. It includes her playing classic compositions, boogie, improvisation, and discussing composing.
Anthropologist Helen Fisher studies love at Rutgers University. She outlines her answers to questions like why we love, why we cheat, and the reality of gender differences. She discusses the neurochemical cause and effect of love, and she issues a warning about increases in anti-depressent use and apathy.
In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz discusses the theory from his widely discussed book of the same title. To summarize, he suggests that ever greater number of choices is detrimental for general happiness at the levels present in rampant consumer cultures such as the US. It is striking how many more choices are available in an average US store compared to an average European grocery market or department store. But I’m not sure how much that effects my overall happiness. My take away point from the talk:
The secret to happiness is low expectations.
The TED site has a sleek design and incredible content with tasteful low-key advertising. It enables key functionality, including making it possible to download the video to watch offline or as a podcast. I like the future of internet video more everyday.
links & technology posted by: dan @ 25 Apr 2007 23:27