TED - idea worth spreading

Do you know what the greatest prime number is? Have you made stress your friend yet? Don't know why 'x' is unknown? Ever wondered how great movements are started? Forgot what the meaning of life is or want to see what others think? Don't think a wooden skyscraper would stand? Check out TED.com!

TED homepage

Brief history and introduction

TED - Technology, Entertainment, Design - started in 1984 as a conference on the West Coast of USA to bring people from these three rather different worlds together and create space for sharing ideas.

Now it's known worldwide with the annual TED Conference in the traditional location, annual TEDGlobal - very international version of TED travelling around the world, and TEDx - mini version of TED organised independently but fitting the same format (both Vilnius and Birmingham held these but I managed to miss them! *extremely annoyed face*).

Conferences consist of talks and presentations, each ranging from 3 to 18 minutes, and music or comedy performances in between them.

Talks

However, my passion are the TED Talks - on the glorious website http://www.ted.com/ they have uploaded every single talk and performance from every single conference. To watch for free. How awesome can it get?

You can choose from more than 1500+ talks and the number is still growing. The talks are stunningly diverse - funny, inspirational, scientific, philosophical, informative, persuasive or just beautiful. They range from 12 year old expressing what adults need to learn from kids (left an indelible impression for me - http://www.ted.com/talks/adora_svitak.html) to Buddhist monk telling you what the habits of happiness are (http://www.ted.com/talks/matthieu_ricard_on_the_habits_of_happiness.html).

Tired of reading? Take a break: John Legend - True Colors

My favorites - when once isn't enough

Only twice or thrice I have come across a talk that I turned off before finishing just because I was bored. All of the talks are exciting and if I shared the ones I liked on facebook, my wall would contain like a third of the TED website. But there are a few to which I return every so often and watch as if it's the first time again.

Hans Rosling. Usually just his name is a description enough - he is awesome. The way he presents statistics, his jokes, the ideas he put forward - everything makes me want to watch him again and again.
http://www.ted.com/speakers/hans_rosling.html

So beautiful, just so so beautiful. I listen to the first poem whenever I feel down. Or up. Whenever, wherever. I just listen to it from time to time to keep me going. Beautiful. Sarah Kay - If I should have a daughter.
http://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter.html

To finish up, check out the funny ones. Until you find your most beloved ones, here are mine:

http://www.ted.com/speakers/maz_jobrani.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/julia_sweeney_has_the_talk.html