Archives: February 2008

TED: Brian Cox of CERN

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

Mini big bangs are coming! Mini big bangs are coming! This morning, a really charming talk from the British scientist, Brian Cox, who in a really poetic and self-effacing way...

TED: Tod Machover from MIT

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

The most extraordinary presentation. Truly. Tod Machover describes himself as a composer, inventor and educator and he just blew the socks off the entire TED crowd. He works at MIT...

TED: John Knoll of Industrial Light and Magic

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

Morning session just ended. "How do we create?" featured John Knoll, visual effects chief at Industrial Light and Magic (and the creator of PhotoShop, which was originally launched at...

Richard Saul Wurman back at TED

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

Cathartic moment on stage as TED's originator, the larger-than-life Richard (Ricky) Saul Wurman took to the stage to make peace with current curator, Chris Anderson, who bought the conference off...

TED Prize winners

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

The three TED Prize winners are given $100,000 -- and a wish. The idea is that the extensive TED community throng together in order to make that wish come true....

Technology failing at TED

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 29

Those of you commenting incredulously on a) the price of the ticket and b) the fact that technology seems to have been breaking down won't be pleased to hear that...

Coke is... Water

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 28

There are hosted lunches each day at TED, and today I went to one hosted/sponsored by Coke, which has been teaming up with various NGOs to work on bringing water...

Craig Venter and the fourth generation of designer fuels

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 28

Just had a brief chat with genetic scientist, Craig Venter, after his presentation at this morning’s TED session, entitled What Is Life? He laid down a challenge: “I don’t want...

Sergey Brin's love of the phrase "and whatnot"

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 28

Last night's BBC World Debate on the state of contemporary media was interesting and surreal in about equal measure. After technical problems forced presenter Matt Frei to halt proceedings before...

First tears at TED...

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 28

In my curtain raiser for the conference, I jokingly wondered which of the speakers might choke up this year. It was a close run thing. Given that I watched events...

Driving the BMW Hydrogen 7

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 28

Today I got a chance to have a spin in the BMW Hydrogen 7. It’s one of only 20 of the hydrogen-powered cars in the world, so I was a...

Aubrey de Grey: How to be a Successful Heretic

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 27

This morning saw TED University, which is essentially a ton of presentations by people who haven't been invited to go on stage. There were a ton of sponsored activities, too...

Tapping Into TED

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 27

Picture the scene: Google co-founder Sergey Brin sitting with Watergate whistleblower Carl Bernstein, Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert, Ugandan journalist Andrew Mwenda and Queen Noor of Jordan. What sounds like the...

The best possible start...

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 26

Just arrived in Monterey for the TED conference. I was advised to fly into San Francisco and then drive down Highway 1, and I am an obedient soul, so I...

P & G's plans to cut staff, new product initiatives: how will this affect innovation and design?

Posted by: Reena Jana on February 25

With Procter &Gamble's announcement that the company will cut 10% to 20% of "initiative development," i.e., new product development and related marketing programs both globally and regionally, it seems as...

Apple apps: the iPiano and iBand are here

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 23

This requires a hacked iPhone, but the arrival of the iAno (I guess its creator, one MysteryAardvark, decided that dropping the 'p' was the way to go, naming wise) is...

With its CEO out, Old Navy needs to go back to basics

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 19

Dawn Robertson's is the latest head to roll over at Gap (GPS), today stepping down as president of budget clothing brand, Old Navy, "by mutual decision", according to the AP....

A New Test For Breast Cancer Examines Hair Follicles, Not Breast Tissue

Posted by: Reena Jana on February 18

For the Feb. 25, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek magazine, I filed a short news piece on an innovative new medical company called Fermiscan. (Here's the link to the story, but...

Johnny Hardstaff's film for Toshiba provides a good reminder on the power of Innovation and Design

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 13

This film by British director Johnny Hardstaff, represented over in London by Ridley Scott's commercial production company, RSA Films, does a nice job of promoting the power of effective...

Ad for an online shop that is well done and actually entertaining

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 12

Now admittedly, my command of the Dutch language is somewhat limited so I could have misunderstood what's really going on, but I love this clever page that came across my...

"We are who we have been waiting for..."

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 12

Whatever you think of his politics, you can't deny that Barack Obama's got a way with words. His speech after Super (duper) Tuesday was full of aphorisms and inspirational phrases....

Big fat package of articles and slideshows on Green Design is here...

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 11

Just posted a mega-package on Green Design, which has been both a positive and slightly disheartening place to keep my brain for the past few weeks. Jessie Scanlon's written a...

How Should Macy's and Sears Remake their Stores?

Posted by: Reena Jana on February 07

With today's news of Macy's slashing jobs and looking to "localize" their stores, coupled with recent news of Sears looking to clean-up and revamp its stores, I can't help but...

Facebook: The rival to newswire services everywhere?

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 06

Watching the news and CNN had a piece on the tornado that went through Tennessee last night. The anchorwoman then introduced some pictures from "Facebook" (entertainingly, she said it in...

Barack's momentum: does the support of the YouTube generation mean anything?

Posted by: Helen Walters on February 04

I'm always a little wary of actors or musicians declaring their support for a cause. Why care more about their opinion than anyone else's? No one's ever convinced me that...

If Microsoft + Yahoo! = Microhoo!? Can it be as cool as Google?

Posted by: Reena Jana on February 01

With news of Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid to buy Yahoo!, can you help but wonder, will the new Microhoo! (or whatever shape the new entity or entities take) be able...