TED Theme: Words About Words
Language is the stuff of thought -- the more we know about it, the better we will understand ourselves. These speakers are trying to crack the mystery. Linguist Steven Pinker inspects the structure of sentences -- and discovers insight into human nature. Susan Savage-Rumbaugh finds ...
Language is the stuff of thought -- the more we know about it, the better we will understand ourselves. These speakers are trying to crack the mystery. Linguist Steven Pinker inspects the structure of sentences -- and discovers insight into human nature. Susan Savage-Rumbaugh finds a key to human language in the behavior of bonobo apes -- just as paleoanthropologist Zeresenay Alemseged shows us a set of 3.3-million-year-old hominid fossils that offer clues to the origins of speech. Erin McKean, meanwhile, gleefully collects and catalogs the products of modern wordmakers into a dictionary without limits.
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Scott McCloud: The visual magic of comics
In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott ...
In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch.
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Rives: A story of mixed emoticons
Rives tells a typographical fairy tale that's short and bittersweet ...
Rives tells a typographical fairy tale that's short and bittersweet ;)
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Virginia Postrel: On glamour
In a timely talk, cultural critic Virginia Postrel muses on ...
In a timely talk, cultural critic Virginia Postrel muses on the true meaning, and the powerful uses, of glamour -- which she defines as any calculated, carefully polished image designed to impress and persuade.
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Stefan Sagmeister: Designing with slogans
Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on ...
Rockstar designer Stefan Sagmeister delivers a short, witty talk on life lessons, expressed through surprising modes of design (including ... inflatable monkeys?).
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Steven Pinker: Human nature and the blank slate
Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans ...
Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.
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Laura Trice: Remember to say thank you
In this deceptively simple 3-minute talk, Dr. Laura Trice muses ...
In this deceptively simple 3-minute talk, Dr. Laura Trice muses on the power of the magic words "thank you" -- to deepen a friendship, to repair a bond, to make sure another person knows what they mean to you. Try it.
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Carmen Agra Deedy: Once upon a time, my mother ...
Storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy spins a funny, wise and luminous ...
Storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy spins a funny, wise and luminous tale of parents and kids, starring her Cuban mother. Settle in and enjoy the ride -- Mama's driving!
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Brewster Kahle: A free digital library
Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library -- ...
Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library -- every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history ... It's all free to the public -- unless someone else gets to it first.
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Jonathan Harris: The web as art
At the EG conference in December 2007, artist Jonathan Harris ...
At the EG conference in December 2007, artist Jonathan Harris discusses his latest projects, which involve collecting stories: his own, strangers', and stories collected from the Internet, including his amazing "We Feel Fine."
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Murray Gell-Mann: The ancestor of language
After speaking at TED2007 on elegance in physics, the amazing ...
After speaking at TED2007 on elegance in physics, the amazing Murray Gell-Mann gives a quick overview of another passionate interest: finding the common ancestry of our modern languages.
