Best of TED (Part 2)

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and is an annual conference in California. There a lot of scientist, engineers, politicians, entrepreneurs meet. In the talks some of them present their current work or the current state of their field. The talks cover a wide variety of topics.
On the homepage ted.com some of the talks are available as videos. Every weekday a new video is added from some previous conference. The talks are always very interesting, and one learns quite a lot.
So far I have watched about three quarters of the videos that have been published. Most of the talks are really good and worth watching. However, I have compiled a list of talks I liked best so far.

This list reflects my personal opinion and is not an official list published by TED.

The ratings under the videos are the ratings that have been given by the community on the TED-homepage. Even though I generally agree with those ratings, they do not necessarily reflect my opinion.

The list is in no particular order, so it is not a statement, whether a talk is on top of the list or the bottom.

For those who want to see more TED-talks, the full list of videos is available under: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/list.

I will continue watching the remaining videos and collecting the best of those talks. So when I have gathered the 50 talks, I will publish them as well. This, however, might take a while.

Here is the list for Best Of TED (Part 1).

Geek Tip: If this list is saved on a local computer, one can remove the HTML-code of the videos already seen and statistics of the average and total length of the videos will only be calculated for all remaining videos. This is particularly useful when copying the parts 1 and 2 in one list and have the total length of all remaining videos calculated.

Video-Statistics:

David's Best of TED-List:

Joseph Pine on what consumers want
Bill Gross on new energy
David Merrill demos Siftables, the smart blocks
Hans Rosling reveals new insights on poverty
Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom
Juan Enriquez shares mindboggling new science
Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish to protect our oceans
Ed Ulbrich shows how Benjamin Button got his face
Gustavo Dudamel leads El Sistema's top youth orchestra
Pattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense
Aimee Mullins and her 12 pairs of legs
Andy Hobsbawm says: Do the green thing
Alex Steffen sees a sustainable future
Adam Savage's obsessions
Steven Levitt analyzes crack economics
George Dyson at the birth of the computer
Kamal Meattle on how to grow your own fresh air
Arthur Benjamin does 'Mathemagic'
Saul Griffith on kites as the future of renewable energy
Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heros
Jared Diamond on why societies collapse
John Francis walks the Earth
David Pogue on cool phone tricks
Bonnie Bassler on how bacteria communicate
Alex Tabarrok on how ideas trump crises
Shai Agassi's bold plan for electric cars
Laurie Garrett on lessons from the 1918 flu
Hans Rosling on HIV: New facts and stunning data visuals

TED2009
Hans Rosling on HIV: New facts and stunning data visuals

09:56 Posted: May 2009

Rated:  Informative Persuasive Fascinating

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead

TED2009
Seth Godin on the tribes we lead

17:23 Posted: May 2009

Rated:  Inspiring Persuasive Funny

Al Gore warns on latest climate trends
Michael Shermer on believing strange things
Janine Benyus shares nature's designs
Chris Anderson of WIRED on tech's Long Tail
Steven Pinker on the myth of violence
Paul Rothemund details DNA folding
Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

EG 2008
Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?

17:26 Posted: May 2009

Rated:  Fascinating Funny Informative

Dean Kamen on inventing and giving
Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds

TED2009
Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds

06:34 Posted: May 2009

Rated:  Informative Inspiring Fascinating

Ray Kurzweil: A university for the coming singularity

TED2009
Ray Kurzweil: A university for the coming singularity

08:41 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Informative Fascinating Inspiring

Pete Alcorn on the world in 2200

TED2009
Pete Alcorn on the world in 2200

03:50 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Informative Facinating Persuasive

John La Grou plugs smart power outlets

TED2009
John La Grou plugs smart power outlets

04:12 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Ingenious Informative Persuasive

Richard St. John: 'Success is a continuous journey'

TED2009
Richard St. John: "Success is a continuous journey"

03:57 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Inspiring Persuasive Informative

Clay Shirky: How cellphones, twitter, facebook can make history

TED in the Field
Clay Shirky: How cellphones, twitter, facebook can make history

17:02 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Informative Fascinating Persuasive

Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic future

TED2009
Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic future

18:55 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Fascinating Informative Ingenious

Qi Zhang's electrifying organ performance

 
Qi Zhang's electrifying organ performance

03:05 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Beautiful Inspiring Fascinating

Philip Zimbardo prescribes a healthy take on time

TED2009
Philip Zimbardo prescribes a healthy take on time

06:34 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Informative Inspiring Persuasive

Paul Collier's new rules for rebuilding a broken nation

TED@State
Paul Collier's new rules for rebuilding a broken nation

16:34 Posted: Jun 2009

Rated:  Persuasive Informative Inspirinng

Doris Kearns Goodwin on learning from past presidents
Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life
Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good

TEDGlobal 2009
Gordon Brown: Wiring a web for global good

16:43 Posted: Jul 2009

Rated:  Inspiring Persuasive Informative