PSA: TED

For those of you who didn't know, there's an annual conference held (now) in Monterey, Calif., where a thousand people get together by invitation and give lectures to each other on what they do. Most of them are scientists, some are artists, all are visionaries. You can watch these talks online, like I've been doing this weekend.

Here are some summaries of some of the talks I watched, in the order in which I enjoyed them (top is best):

If you have about 20 minutes:

Sir Ken Robinson on schools killing creativity: Robinson has a British accent, making his jokes funnier and his conclusions more cultural and serious. Just kidding about that, but his conclusions about how schools form young minds are right on, in my experience, and made me want to rush out and start that school I've been planning.

James Howard Kunstler on suburbia: Kunstler contends that America’s public realm is nonexistent or worthless (made up mostly of streets), “places not worth caring about,” when it should help us understand who we are and where we’ve come from. Boston City hall plaza is “so dismal even the winos don’t want to go there…there’s not enough Prozac in the world to make people feel okay about going down this block.” (The building was built as a collaboration that included I.M. Pei.)

Amy Tan on creativity: Tan gives a frequently hilarious talk on her own creative process. She’s funny because she appears to be taking herself so seriously. This talk also includes an amazing photo of piles of rocks that are balanced on each other.

J.J. Abrams on the mystery box: Also funny, Abrams talks about his grandfather and why he tends to create movies and TV shows that includes mysteries at their center. (Think Lost and Alias.)

Mark Bittman on what we eat: Bittman doesn’t have much to say that will revolutionize your food worldview if you’ve looked into local, organic, vegetarian diets and the like, but his conviction makes this talk worth watching, anyway – you’ll be inspired to eat your broccoli. His throwaway comments alone make it worth the twenty minutes. (“Minute rice is the stupidest food ever.”)

Mena Trott on blogging: The Trotts started a company with blogging software called Six Apart. She talks mainly about the personal effort and effects of blogs.

Jonathan Harris on human connection: Harris is an artist and computer scientist and talks about his works, “We Feel Fine” and “Universe.” (They’re Internet aggregators.)

Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce: Gladwell is famous for Blink and Tipping Point, books about snap judgments that people make and how fads reach critical mass and break into mainstream society. He talks about a bunch of stuff here, mainly how the food industry came to offer a variety of options.

If you only have 5 minutes:

Nellie McKay, singing: McKay’s first song, “Feminists (Don’t Have a Sense of Humor)” is a ukulele-driven satire. Very funny in its understatement.

Alisa Miller on news coverage: Miller shows an interesting graphic that portrays what Americans see from major news outlets (TV) in terms of geographic focus. Not surprisingly, America and Iraq are the two main sources of our news.

If you want to see some sword-swallowing and awesome graphs (not in that order):

Hans Rosling on statistics: Just watch it.

Hans Rosling on poverty statistics (follow-up): Ditto.