Shout Out: TED*

What I love about the internet is that it still has the ability to delight me with random discoveries. What's funny is that this particular discovery happened gradually. I first stumbled onto TED (Technology Entertainment Design) a few months ago when a friend sent me the link to Aubrey de Grey's lecture on beating death at the 2005 TED conference.

I stumbled onto it again earlier this month, but never really explored the site until today. When I did actually begin to explore the TED site, I found an absolute treasure trove of great minds. The site has videos that span three years of TED history and the many great speakers and prize winners who have been featured there.

The idea of TED is something that really excites me. A meeting of minds in science, art, culture, entertainment, design and much much more. Time to end the compartmentalization of life and let all these disciplines merge and meld in one beautiful, crazy mess. A mess that just happens to produce beautiful shiny things ever once in a while. Alright, enough of that metaphor...

I haven't been able to explore the site much yet, but from my limited exploration,

I'd like to recommend a few of the videos featured there.

- Anna Deavere Smith is an artist who collects the lives of people she meets in her journeys. Here, she presents four of these poignant, heartbreaking, and sometimes humorous sketches. The third sketch, of a Korean woman expressing her emotions about the 1992 LA riots really grabbed me.

- Eve Ensler may not need that much of an introduction. She's one of my personal heroes, the mind behind The Vagina Monologues and the V-Day movement to end violence against women. She performs the opening monologue from The Monologues and talks about the experiences that led her to write the play. She also discuss happiness in mind and soul. Warning, this is not necessarily for those easily offended.

- Gregory Colbert, the nomad photographer and filmmaker, has been one of my biggest inspirations. His collection, Ashes and Snow, still awes me after repeated viewings. In what the TED website describes as a "rare public appearance," Colbert presents some of his ideas and ten minutes from his ethereal and gorgeous films.

- James Nachtwey, another photographer who greatly inspires me, is known to many because of the documentary "War Photography" about the man and his work. He was a child of the 60s and that era infused him with a passion for service and action. He feels that his photography, which shows the realities of war and suffering, can lead people towards peace and empathy.

- Majora Carter gives an intense presentation about her work to end "environmental racism" in South Bronx. Carter's initiative "Green the Ghetto" has already brought change to her neighborhood.

Other featured artists and speakers are: dance company Pilobolus, the avant-garde classical quartet Ethel, organic designer Ross Lovegrove (Captain Organic), Ideo (coolest design/solutions firm around) founder David Kelley, and Pastor Rick Warren.

Just this content alone will give you hours of viewing pleasure. In this case that you're interested, but just too lazy to travel over to the TED page, I'll be embedding these videos and future discoveries every so often here at The Nomad Chronicles.

This week I'll be featuring Majora Carter's fantastic speech.