quadir.net

A bit of an introduction is in order for TED, the idea conference. I've come to think of TED as a kind of peer reviewed journal. It's content controlled for quality, but unlike the journal, it spans many different fields and you don't need a PHD in any of them to get a general idea of what they are talking about. So it's accessible. Some of the articles (in this case talks) are just 5 minute introductions like the one I'm running today, while others are full on 20 minute excursions. You also get the odd musical intermission. In 2007 a friend at the time, David, summarized TED rather well by saying "TED is a place where crazy people give awesome talks".

Today you'll meet Jay Walker, who is talking about the mania/craze with people abroad (not from North America) learning English. He focuses in on China but this can be applied to so many different countries that have gone through this adjustment period. More from me after the video.

My usual thing is to post gaming videos for those with the inclination, but in this case I wanted to share something for everyone else.  The amount of character, personality and charm valve has managed to pack into these companion shorts to their game Team Fortress 2 is astounding.  It really makes you care about the different roles you can play in the game.

C Diddy blowing away the crowd with his high impact performance at the 2007 US Air Guitar tour.

A neat barnyard animal sound singalong.

A breathtaking ballet sequence that has a lot more to reveal then first meets the eye.