Feed: TEDTalks (video) - AggScore: 51.5

TED: Paul Conneally: Digital humanitarianism - Paul Conneally (2011)

---

The disastrous earthquake in Haiti taught humanitarian groups an unexpected lesson: the power of mobile devices to coordinate, inform, and guide relief efforts. At TEDxRC2, Paul Conneally shows extraordinary examples of social media and other new technologies becoming central to humanitarian aid.

TED: Simon Berrow: How do you save a shark you know nothing about? - Simon Berrow (2010)

---

They're the second largest fish in the world, they're almost extinct, and we know almost nothing about them. At TEDxDublin, Simon Berrow describes the fascinating basking shark ("Great Fish of the Sun" in Irish), and the exceptional -- and wonderfully low-tech -- ways he's learning enough to save them.

TED: Lucien Engelen: Crowdsource your health - Lucien Engelen (2011)

---

You can use your smartphone to find a local ATM, but what if you need a defibrillator? At TEDxMaastricht, Lucien Engelen shows us online innovations that are changing the way we save lives, including a crowdsourced map of local defibrillators.

TED: Inara George sings 'Family Tree' - Inara George (2010)

---

Singer Inara George and guitarist Mike Andrews play the quietly lovely love song "Family Tree."

TED: Jenna McCarthy: What you don't know about marriage - Jenna McCarthy (2011)

---

In this funny, casual talk from TEDx, writer Jenna McCarthy shares surprising research on how marriages (especially happy marriages) really work. One tip: Do not try to win an Oscar for best actress.

TED: Tyrone Hayes + Penelope Jagessar Chaffer: The toxic baby? - Tyrone Hayes / Penelope Jagessar Chaffer (2010)

---

Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect her unborn child? So she asked scientist Tyrone Hayes to brief her on one he studied closely: atrazine, a herbicide used on corn. (Hayes, an expert on amphibians, is a critic of atrazine, which displays a disturbing effect on frog development.) Onstage together at TEDWomen, Hayes and Chaffer tell their story.

TED: Erik Johansson: Impossible photography - Erik Johannson (2011)

---

Erik Johansson creates realistic photos of impossible scenes -- capturing ideas, not moments. In this witty how-to, the Photoshop wizard describes the principles he uses to make these fantastical scenarios come to life, while keeping them visually plausible.

TED: Jack Horner: Shape-shifting dinosaurs - Jack Horner (2011)

---

Where are the baby dinosaurs? In a spellbinding talk from TEDxVancouver paleontologist Jack Horner describes how slicing open fossil skulls revealed a shocking secret about some of our most beloved dinosaurs.

TED: Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global - Sheikha Al Mayassa (2010)

---

Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."

TED: Stephen Coleman: The moral dangers of non-lethal weapons - Stephen Coleman (2011)

---

Pepper spray and tasers are in increasing use by both police and military, and more exotic non-lethal weapons such as heat rays are in the works. At TEDxCanberra, ethicist Stephen Coleman explores the unexpected consequences of their introduction and asks some challenging questions.

TED: Neil Burgess: How your brain tells you where you are - Neil Burgess (2011)

---

How do you remember where you parked your car? How do you know if you're moving in the right direction? Neuroscientist Neil Burgess studies the neural mechanisms that map the space around us, and how they link to memory and imagination.

TED: Mike deGruy: Hooked by an octopus - Mike deGruy (2010)

---

Underwater filmmaker Mike deGruy has spent decades looking intimately at the ocean. A consummate storyteller, he takes the stage at Mission Blue to share his awe and excitement -- and his fears -- about the blue heart of our planet.

TED: Danny Hillis: Back to the future (of 1994) - Danny Hillis (1994)

---

From deep in the TED archive, Danny Hillis outlines an intriguing theory of how and why technological change seems to be accelerating, by linking it to the very evolution of life itself. The presentation techniques he uses may look dated, but the ideas are as relevant as ever.

TED: Erica Frenkel: The universal anesthesia machine - Erica Frenkel (2011)

---

What if you're in surgery and the power goes out? No lights, no oxygen -- and your anesthesia stops flowing. It happens constantly in hospitals throughout the world, turning routine procedures into tragedies. Erica Frenkel demos one solution: the universal anesthesia machine.

TED: Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work - Shawn Achor (2011)

---

We believe that we should work to be happy, but could that be backwards? In this fast-moving and entertaining talk from TEDxBloomington, psychologist Shawn Achor argues that actually happiness inspires productivity.