Ted
The Unbearable Neurosis of the Modern Eater
If we are what we eat, how are we supposed to justify our food choices in the digital age, where we're exposed to an overload of information about GMOs, unethical farming, and every food issue under the sun?
Porn Is Dead, Long Live Sex
Porn is dated, passe, over. It doesn't have anything to do with reality and its business model is so archaic production companies aren't making money anymore—the internet's moved on, you see, but the industry hasn't. Make Love Not Porn is a website...
Bono Says We've Almost Eradicated Poverty
In a recent TED talk, delivered in Long Beach, California, U2 frontman Bono made a pretty noteworthy announcement: global poverty is on the verge of being eradicated. Check out the video and learn how we can take a stand and end poverty for good.
Faking It Till You Make It Actually Works
In this video, professor Amy Cuddy explains how faking power actually changes your confidence--and your body chemistry.
The Insane Alien Balloon Animals of Jason Hackenwerth
In the hands of Jason Hackenwerth, balloons become car-sized anemones and quivering beasts. They become deep sea ugly sculptures in museums and exhibitions; they become pulsating and head-turning curiosities in public. Mr. Hackenwerth's work has showed...
Andrew Blum Meets the Real-Life Internet on a Beach in Ireland (Video)
I love the fact that when an undersea fiberoptic cable that's thousands of miles long is laid miles-deep on the floor of an ocean reaches its eventual destination, that cable is brought ashore by a dude in a wet suit. Like, the only difference between...
3D Printers Are Almost Ready to Pump Out Sugary Human Organs
Last year, Dr. Anthony Atala wowed some "thought leaders" at a TED conference by "printing an almost-kidney onstage":http://utopianist.com/2011/03/3d-organ-printer-creates-kidney-on-stage-at-ted-conference/. Generating synthetic human organs has been a...
The Hard Science of Boners: TED Talk
Your erection news this morning comes not from your spam folder or ChatRoulette, or this awful tumblr about a man putting household items "in his foreskin":http://stuffinmydick.tumblr.com/ [NSFW], but from Diane Kelly, a zoologist at the...
Swarming Robots Won't Kill Us All: An Interview With Quadrotor Inventor Vijay Kumar
I was sitting at my desk, munching an embarrassingly-gargantuan chocolate-granola cookie and musing, “What on Earth are the latest developments in the infinitely fascinating field of robotics?” (This is something I think about a lot.) Then I vaguely...
The Idea Con: At the $400 Mental Day Spa for Techno-Intellectuals
A couple of weeks ago I found myself at the PSFK Conference, a one-day orgy of infotainment mounted by the titular New York consulting firm. Its impressive roster of multinational clients includes companies like BMW, Unicef, Target, Pepsi, and Apple...