On behalf of The Huffington Post and TED, we are delighted to invite you on a year-end journey of ideas that can help shape the world in 2012.
Starting today, we will be counting down 18 of 2011's most impactful TEDTalks -- and combining them with new blog posts written by the people who delivered them, examining how their ideas were impacted by being shared with a global audience. We are also inviting the HuffPost blogging community to weigh in on the issues and ideas raised by the talks.
Why 18? It's a bit of an inside joke. TEDTalks are famously limited to no more than 18 minutes -- that way, no one has the chance to get bored. So 18 seemed like the perfect number for our countdown.
Picking the 18 wasn't easy. For the TED team, it was like being asked to name their favorite child. And this year, they had over 300 kids to pick from -- all of which attracted rave reviews, passionate responses, and between 150,000 and 1 million views each.
But they finally managed to come up with their selections for 18 of the most intriguing, powerful, and timely TEDTalks of the year.
Two of these talks have never been posted before -- and will be unveiled simultaneously on TED.com and here on HuffPost. The others were introduced on TED.com within the past 12 months. And from there, they've made waves. They've gotten inside people's heads, provoking excitement, controversy, inspiration, and conversation -- a conversation that we hope will take unexpected twists and turns with the new blog posts and comments from the HuffPost community.
TED stands for technology, entertainment and design, but the content has become much broader than that. The talks you'll be seeing will touch on science, business, global issues, education, personal storytelling, and much more.
When you follow the news, it's easy to get depressed about the state of the world. These talks offer a fantastic antidote. By pulling the camera back from immediate events to explore the ideas and trends underlying them, a whole new picture opens up. And, for the most part, it's hopeful: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to teach and learn. Human ingenuity is changing the world in ways that will have far more long-term impact than our gridlocked, posturing politicians.
We think these aren't just 18 of the best ideas of 2011, but 18 of the best hope-bringers for 2012 and beyond.
Watch them, comment on them, and pass them along. An idea is one gift that you can hang onto even after you've given it away.
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Kevin Slavin: Best of TEDTalks 2011 #18: How Algorithms Shape Our World
"100%"
http://www.ted.com/talks/lee_cronin_making_matter_come_alive.html
There's your winner!
welcome to the year 2012
www.hidden22.com
Tony
Joyce
http://makingsenseofitall.joycerothman.com
If we had government leaders with their intelligence it would be a different world. Carl Sagan was a caring, trustworthy person and I bet Kevin is too.
I am a practical realist, but I can tell Kevin is and Carl was a blessing to our world.
The Burst of the Housing Bubble & flailings of the 'Too Big To Fail' Financial Institutions were splattered all over the News during this time. Why haven't these Problems been fixed?
Why hasn't our Government worked (in unison) to CORRECT the decline of the financial fate of American Citizens? Why do we American Citizens accept what seems to be either ineptitude or indifference - on the part of Politicians AND Business Leaders? Is this because there is REALLY ONLY a Financial Crisis for the lower middle class & the poor? I know Government & Big Business isn't Stupid; the devastating downward economic spiral & Joblessness didn't need to happen. It could have been averted.
I am not a Rocket Scientist, but I KNOW JOBLESSNESS, massive foreclosures, wage stagnation and other pivitol problems could have been fixed within 2008/2009, had the US (Government & Big Business) made the right 'corrections'/decisions.
Am I the only person who thinks this way?
The problem is that a large segment of our population suscribes to faith based economics. A belief that the an economy free from all government regulations will regulate itself and make everyone rich. This theory isn't supported by the evidence, but it's the kind of simple answer that people like to hear. In fact, deregulation was at the root of the 2008 financial collapse. The problems that regulations were designed to prevent reappeared after the regulations were withdrawn.
But the way I see it is that the government has created a dependent class, and many more who think the solution is more government. Duh!
People need to develop more independence and self-sufficiency.
For instance, it strikes me that the financial crisis is having very little impact on the Amish, who are largely self-sufficient, even with 19th century technology.
BTW independence and self sufficiency, just how do want that to occur? We are not an agrarian society. When you send middle class out of this country or eliminate them all together just how do you expect people to survive? Most have to earn a living working for someone else.
I believe absolutely ,that it's high time for a committee of capable women to lead America , back to logical , if not squeeky clean leadership, in stark contrast to the murky depths of disarray that exist today . John L Werrill
As there will be but a few who initially look upon your introduction to TED with a certain amount of intrigue and excitement, undoubtedly there will be others who, in their hurried state of waiting for frozen french fried potatoes to come out of the oven so that they will be able lay on the couch and become the dawdling potatoe they are eating, all they really have to do is click on the TED website to discover how creative the non dawdling potatoe can actually be.
Somewhere along the line here in America, the notion of having the right to couch potatoe has become a bit more important than actually growing the potatoe and hand crafting the couch. TED truely inspires people to grow magnificent new potatoes and invent entirely new couch construction concepts.
By the way, I'm sitting on the couch eating french fries after spending an emotionally exhausting day designing a lighting system with a client who is loosing her eyesight. She's having a hard time finding the couch, the kitchen, the potatoe and the garden;
TED, Ideas Worth Spreading
Keep a smile!