Inspirational Videos
Stroke of insight: Jill Bolte Taylor (On TED.com)
An astonishing story, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery.
Jill Bolte Taylor: Neuro-Anatomist, got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions, motion, speech, self-awareness shut down one by one.
Why you should listen to her: One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory and self-awareness .
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right.
From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singing Scientist." "How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career." Jill Bolte Taylor
Jill showed how ms-interpretation of Autism led to major discoveries and the simple findings and treatments actually led to children becoming normal within a few months of treatment
Full bio and more links: http://www.ted.com/speakers/jill_bolte_taylor.html
Aditi Shankardass: A second opinion on learning disorders
Aditi Shankardass showed how ms-interpretation of Autism led to major discoveries and the simple findings and treatments actually led to children becoming normal within a few months of treatment
Developmental disorders in children are typically diagnosed by observing behavior, but Aditi Shankardass knew that we should be looking directly at their brains. She explains how a remarkable EEG device has revealed mistaken diagnoses and transformed children's lives.
About Aditi Shankardass
Aditi Shankardass is pioneering the use of EEG technology to give children with developmental disorders their most accurate diagnosis.
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/aditi_shankardass.html
Sugata Mitra shows how kids teach themselves
This teacher discovers how an absence of supervision with children's creativity can generate ideas based on their simple need to explore, making mistakes leading to their own creativity.
Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own - and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves?
About Sugata Mitra
Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other, if they're motivated by curiosity
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/sugata_mitra.html
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity
On human creativity and education; a humor filled thought provoking delivery by a professor's massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy.
Why don't we get the best out of people? Sir Ken Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Students with restless minds and bodies -- far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity -- are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says. It's a message with deep resonance. Robinson's TEDTalk has been distributed widely around the Web since its release in June 2006. The most popular words framing blog posts on his talk? "Everyone should watch this."
About Ken Robinson
Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating our children. He champions a radical rethink of our school systems, to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types
and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. His latest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, a deep look at human creativity and education, was published in January 2009
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html
Stuart Brown says play is more than fun
When children can feely express themselves during play, it proved how much more creatively children can develop. And studies showed examples of serious crimes being committed when the child had no opportunity for play.
A pioneer in research on play, Dr. Stuart Brown says humor, games, roughhousing, flirtation and fantasy are more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults -- and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.
About Stuart Brown
Stuart Brown's research shows play is not just joyful and energizing, it's deeply involved with human development and intelligence. Through the National Institute for Play, he's working to.
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/stuart_brown.html
Kevin Bales: How to combat modern slavery
Quoted on how cheap to the world finances it would be if people who were trapped could be freed from slavery with some very simple methods that included education and government intervention and concern.
In this moving yet pragmatic talk, Kevin Bales explains the business of modern slavery, a multibillion-dollar economy that underpins some of the worst industries on earth. He shares stats and personal stories from his on-the-ground research - and names the price of freeing every slave on earth right now.
About Kevin Bales
Kevin Bales is the co-founder of Free the Slaves, whose mission is to end all forms of human slavery within the next 25 years. He's the author of "Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves."
Full bio and more links:- http://www.ted.com/speakers/kevin_bales.html
Elizabeth Pisani: Sex, drugs and HIV -- let's get rational
Easy ways of overcoming HIV in U.K Australia…. but not in Russia and USA if only governments would value people more and be open to understanding how real-world behaviors influence AIDS transmission -- and overhaul antiquated, ineffective prevention strategies
Armed with bracing logic, wit and her "public-health nerd" glasses, Elizabeth Pisani reveals the myriad of inconsistencies in today's political systems that prevent our dollars from effectively fighting the spread of HIV.
Her research with at-risk populations -- from junkies in prison to sex workers on the street in Cambodia -- demonstrates the sometimes counter-intuitive measures that could stall the spread of this devastating disease.
About Elizabeth Pisani
Elizabeth Pisani uses unconventional field research to understand how real-world behaviors influence AIDS transmission -- and to overhaul antiquated, ineffective prevention strategies
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/elizabeth_pisani.html
Al Gore on averting climate crisis
Ex-president El Gore delivers a very humorous talk and many laughs amongst his discussion on climate change.... " Gore turns out to be the best professor you never had -- easygoing, knowledgeable and funny."
With the same humor and humanity he exuded in 'An Inconvenient Truth', Al Gore spells out 15 ways that individuals can address climate change immediately, from buying a hybrid to inventing a new, hotter "brand name" for global warming.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007, along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
About Al Gore
Once the US Vice President, then star of 'An Inconvenient Truth', now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore found a way to focus the world's attention on climate change. In doing so, he has invented
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/al_gore.html
Marian Bantjes: Intricate beauty by design
She found and demonstrates how her simple yet innovative creative design has led her to become a huge business success.
In graphic design, Marian Bantjes says, throwing your individuality into a project is heresy. She explains how she built her career doing just that, bringing her signature delicate illustrations to storefronts, valentines and even genetic diagrams.
About Marian Bantjes
At the intersection of word and form, Marian Bantjes makes her art
Full bio and more links : http://www.ted.com/speakers/marian_bantjes.html</p>
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Sanctuary Meditation