There is a Santa
Holy Cow, there is a Father Christmas after all. No sooner have I complained on my blog that I don’t have a camera to take pics of TED, than a brand new 8.1 Megapixel Kodak camera appears in my hotel room!
Of course, I don’t know how to use it yet (properly) but here are a few early attempts.
The band on stage—left to right, Mark Stweart, Rachelle Garniez, Rufus Cappacocia and yours truly.
The lovely Vusi Mahlesela from South Africa. Incredible voice, and a kind soul.
Me, Rufus, Rachelle, Mark. For the last session of Thursday there was no music. It was the TED Prize session. This is always heavily in demand with a long line of people waiting outside on standby. But I felt the band were entitled to skip the line so I snuck them in and we sat in the middle and enjoyed the show.
Two people have asked me to pass on a marriage proposal to Rachelle in the last twelve hours!
Here’s David Hoffman, who courageously got up on stage and told the TED audience the story of his studio fire. His wife Heidi has been photographing fragments of burned artifacts in the rubble of their home, and he projected some photos. I was collapsed in a bean-bag in the Simulcast Lounge, all choked up. David is putting a brave face on it.
It looks like a great time at the conference. One of my friends is starting a new job with a wind energy company here in the US (they were formerly based in Ireland). Have any of the topics at TED been about renewable energy sources? Just curious as it seems the conference covers such a wide range of topics and I seem to be getting a lot of experience in that area as of late. My friend was big on the green initiative before it started to become such a catch-phrase and even rides his bike to work when it is snowing. I’ve sent him the links to your blog and to the TED site as I know he’ll get a kick out of both.
Have fun!
Brian
Oh totally. We’ve often talked about wind and solar power. Last year Richard Branson set out his plan to build ethanol plants, and in fact last week Virgin Airlines tested the first eco-fuel powered airline flight. One of the most astonishing talks this year was by Craig Venter, one of the guys that decoded the haman genome, whose institute is very close to creating synthetic organisms that can be programmed to do a number of tasks—including synthetic fuel that can completely replace the petro-chemical industry!
Whether we like it or not,technology advances on a daily basis,As always, Throughout the journey we are constantly trying to balance the scales Efficency/Practicallity/Expense
If it wasn`t for peoples dedication and imagination we certainly wouldn`t be where we are today.
They always say” great minds think alike”,I think that the saying in itself shows the importance of mass colaberation and it`s effectiveness,10-20 yrs ago if you spoke about global concerns You would be viewed as either a tree hugger or an activist,Fact is we must be responsible for the damage we cause to our planet and do anything within our power to preserve what we use and replenish it where ever possible.
Together we can change things!
Not on our own!
Jon
That is amazing. I have a lot of friends/contacts in those industries and now I wonder if any of them are there. One of my clients here in Chicago is Airtricity (http://www.airtricity.com/international/) and they are putting windmills all over the world. They are a really great team of people. Another client full of my friends is Lansing Ethanol Services, LLC in Kansas City and they trade ethanol and provide merchandising and risk management services to ethanol producers. They jumped on the ethanol bandwagon early on and have been having a great time in that industry. So much happening on the green side, and Mr. Venter’s progress sounds extremely promising. I’ll be doing some research on him tonight. If you run across any more of the cool green initiatives, please share on the blog as I’d love to pass it on to my friends who are trying to make a difference. Thanks!
Brian
The green movement has really begun to roll. It is great to see support for energy conservation from people and industries that matter. Regardless of one’s position on man made global warming, it is in the best interest of everyone that we develop better ways to produce and use energy. It just makes sense.
Ok, I’m one of the techie types, and I can’t help noticing your change in rig setup. Last year at TED you had a smilar setup to your live tour rig, with trigger finger, CME, etc. Does this mean you are changing your configuration a bit? Any thoughts on piano action KB controllers? I was at NAMM and fell in love with the Korg M3 88 key keyboard action, and I’m bummed because they don’t sell it as a separate controller. The electric piano version is kind of klunky.
Oh, and I noticed on some of your recent live stuff you haven’t been using your electric keyboard stand. Did the Vatican finally come down on you for your onstage joke about it?
Doug