This one hits all my categories which in itself is a pretty big rave. TED is a conference of people from the Technology, Entertainment and Design worlds that takes place each year in Monterey. It costs a lot to attend ($4400. last time) and it’s by invitation only (although you can apply to be invited) so most of us aren’t likely to experience it in person. This is too bad because a lot of really brilliant people get up and do brief talks and demos about things they’re working on or interested in, things that may change the world.
Fortunately they’ve posted these presentations on the TED Talks site and anyone can watch, download and even grab code to embed them into your site or blog. I was orginally going to embed the Al Gore talk from last year but decided instead to provide info and the site link so you can explore what TED has to offer. This is another incredible web resource, one that reminds me of what a remarkable information age we live in.

"Three years ago, practically no one had a television set in this isolated community tucked between Nepal and Bangladesh. It is an area so remote and roadless that the only access is on foot or by bullock cart, after monsoon rains turn dirt paths into bogs that become impassable even for farm tractors.

Even so, half of the 1,000 households have TV, paying about 40 cents every few days to the owner of a diesel generator to recharge the batteries that power the sets. Ranvir Kumar Mandel, a slender 22-year-old, has built a bamboo hut here just to serve as a television repair shop."

This NYTimes article details the alarming rise of dirty diesel generators as a prime source of energy throughout Asia, often driven by the desire for Western amenities like TVs. To its credit the article does mention alternative programs including biofuel generators and microturbine hydropower plants but the telling number is that the diesel generators outnumber alternatives by a factor of millions. This is carbon dumping of the worst sort, completely unregulated and uncontrollable. Yet we can’t sit here in the greatest power consumer culture on earth and criticize their desire for what we take for granted.

When John Lennon was asked how Nixon could get us out of the losing war in Vietnam he instantly replied:

Declare peace.

D’oh.

As Alissa notes in this piece from Design Observer, Lennon counter-balanced insane government obsession with his activities by making those activities absurdly simple. Ending 2006 with 3000  US dead in Iraq, countless Iraqi civilians killed and huge numbers of our servicemen and women maimed for life brings Lennon’s message into focus. Instead of beating people into submission to get our way, why not spend a chunk of the $150 billion (in new military funding) they are asking for to increase our energy efficiency by 15%. Then go to OPEC and tell them that if they don’t get their house (the Middle East) in order we’re going to keep improving our technology until we no longer need their black gold.

Declare peace- and then get to work on the real problem: climate change.

Ordinarily I’m a skeptic when it comes to futurism, crystal ball gazing or prescient punditry. However Problogger, a blog on blogging, issued an interesting challenge to fellow bloggers to write a Review or Preview post on our own particular subject matter. I thought about it and decided to jump into the swirling center of the Time Tunnel and then report back what I saw.

So I just returned from December 20, 2007. Here’s the headlines:

• President Bush has decided against all advice to again increase troop levels in Iraq. This time he is calling back all veterans of any age to fill the ranks depleted by the war.
• Al Gore has developed an entire stand-up routine made up of his answers to whether he is going to run for President based on his huge popularity. He regrets that it took the destruction of Miami’s beach front communities by Hurricane Inofhe to put him squarely in the spotlight.
• The country is still reeling over the news that VP Dick Cheney’s death was kept secret by the White House for 3 months until his daughter finally got someone to anonymously spill the beans.
• In Europe, public panic over the rapidly falling temperatures due to the rerouting of the Gulf Stream is only somewhat offset by the reemergence of the Alpine ski business.
• I had to mow the damn lawn twice before I headed back in time. In late December!Bummer.
• Techcrunch just posted its 200th post thanking their advertisers
• The blogosphere is reeling over the bursting of the mommyblog bubble
• Google just completed acquisition of Fartzi, the three month old social networking site for adolescent boys. The $2.2 billion in stock they spent is considered a smart purchase given the 100 million daily pageviews. They’ll figure out that revenue thing later
• It was decided by everyone in the Valley to skip web 3.0 and go directly version 4.1 (beta)
• SEO has become so refined that the top ten natural search results for any given search keyword are totally incomprehensible due to algorithmic optimization
• Apple has released the quad core iMac shufflephone, a miniature device that does everything and can survive a drop from a ten story window. I’m very happy to report that the stock is hovering around $299 per share.
• A Turkish engineer unveiled his home built super-efficient gas powered car that gets 400 MPG with no emissions. Mysteriously, something fell from space and demolished his workshop, killing him in the process. Onlookers described the object as a long steel rod traveling extremely fast and totally silent.

I could go on and on as it truly has been an amazing year. Who knew Barack and Hillary were an item? That Bill would become the head of the UN? That the Bills would have a 12-0 season? Can’t wait to live through it all…