CBS World News documentary, Global warming

PART 1


PART 2


PART 3


PART 4


PART 5

NASA Chief Climate expert

James Hansen talks about the urgency of the climate crisis

Do you beleive in miracles?

(WARNING: RELIGION. If you are confortable with your religious beliefs this video might be offensive)

Free mp3 music via Google

Hacking wi-fi networks

Hacking with G

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

Hacking PC XP passwords

How to hack a password protected XP computer


How To Get Admin Rights On Any Computer - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Google, search in privacy

Hide From Google - Search Google In Privacy! - The most popular videos are here

Google server farm

In the words of Swiss technophilosopher René Berger, "It's becoming impossible not to visit with Google daily". But when you do, what do you visit exactly? In other words: what does a search engine really look like? It actually looks like this:

This picture of Google's new server farm in The Dalles, Oregon was published a couple weeks ago in the New York Times. The facility, which is under construction, is only one of several Google data centers, but John Markoff and Saul Hansell in their article speculate that it may "soon be one of the world's most powerful supercomputers". TED sponsor Google is known primarily as a search engine, they write, but it is actually "foremost an effort to build a network of supercomputers (...) that can process more data, faster and cheaper than its rivals". The choice of The Dalles as the location of the data center has apparently to do with the availability of low-cost electricity (the grey structures protruding from the two football-field-sized buildings on the left are cooling towers) and easy access to data networks.

Markoff and Hansell have some interesting figures: In March 2001, when Google was serving about 70 million pages a day, its computing system had about 8'000 servers; by 2003 that number had grown to 100'000. Today "the best guess is that Google has more than 450'000 servers spread over at least 25 locations around the world". For comparison, they write, Microsoft's Internet activities currently use some 200'000 servers. In a recent Fortune article TED regular David Kirkpatrick puts the number of Google servers around the world at one million and confirms that Microsoft is also investing billions in infrastructure. Kirkpatrick quotes Microsoft's Ray Ozzie: "Just think about where there are windmills, dams, and other natural power sources around the world: that's where you're going to see server farms".

Hubble Deep Field picture

In 2003, the Hubble Space Telescope took the image of a millenium, an image that shows our place in the universe. Anyone who understands what this image represents, is forever changed by it.

International Space Station

STS 116 wake up calls

This is the Wake Up Call made by NASA to This is the Wake Up Call made by NASA to the crew aboard STS-116 at the beginning of Flight Day 9. Wakeup calls are a long-standing tradition of the NASA program. Each day during the mission, flight controllers in the Mission Control Center will greet the crew with an appropriate musical interlude.

Journeys from earth and space

Perceptions of Earth

Tzunami Dec. 2004

Wild animals attacks

Wild batle, Kruger National Park South Africa

One of Youtube most unique videos. A battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park while on safari.

20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches

20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches - Dumb Little Man

9-11 NY attack from space shutle

Low orbit views of Earth

Cockpit view, carrier landing

F-16 flight HUD view

Crosswind missed approaches and landings

Boeing 747 KLM landing Saint-Maarten

Iraq A-10 friendly fire incident

F-22 modern marvels

Jet fighther bird accident

Ultralight flying

Apollo 13 a succesful failure

Ride of your life...

STS-65 Cockpit Footage (Ascent and Descent)

Shutle landing video

Columbia disaster from NASA TV

Jennifer Lin piano prodigy, TED talks

"If you follow only one link from this blog in your life, let it be [this one]," wrote Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, pointing his readers toward this performance by pianist and composer Jennifer Lin. Lin, then 14, starts by playing Joseph Hoffman's "Kaleidoscope," then Robert Schumann's "Abegg Variations." She talks about the process of composition and discusses the state of flow, when she can improvise beautiful music instantly -- a state of mind that cannot be forced. Lin invites audience member Goldie Hawn to choose a random sequence of notes, from which she improvises a beautiful and surprisingly moving piece, known to draw tears even via podcast. She finishes with a lightning performance of Jack Fina's "Bumble Boogie."

Little geniuses among us...

Gifted children



8 years old.... Chopin vals 14



3 years old... vs. the Rubik cube



3 years old... prodigious painter



8 years old, Aria... an opera soprano





6 years old, Ethan... a magic pianist "Rondo Alla Turca" W.A.Mozart



7 years old, Landon... a professional and incredible pool player



4 years old, Muslim Saeed... a young Iman preaching the Quoram



8 years old, Sara... an accomplished singer



7 years old... Bach Invention #13



7 years old, Chun Hoo... a Rubik cube in 39 seconds



9 years old, Rachel... Reinhild Impromptu in C sharp minor Op.28 No.3



3 years old... a music performer

Tale of two cities 1956. Japan nuclear bombings

Wars of the Century, original footages

Just some of them...
Spanish American War


Russian Civil Revolution


World War I




Spanish Civil War




World War II






Korean War






Vietnam War




1973 Yon Kipur War


1991 Balkan War




First Gulf War

The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War

Hailed as "powerful" and "quietly unflinching," Patricia Foulkrod's searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir ... all » audiences. The filmmaker's subjects are patriotic young Americans - ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service in Iraq - as they experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home – with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all - the truth.

Einstein Revealed

Einstein, the man behind the genius

Albert Einstein remains one of most famous scientists in world history. His image is instantly recognizable and for many people, Einstein ... all » personifies genius. But who was Einstein really? What was he like as a person? What did his science actually mean? From his years in Europe where he was known mainly for his scientific genius to his life in the United States where his scientific contributions declined as he aged as he became more involved in the political, humanitarian, and social concerns, Alice Calaprice, co author of Albert Einstein, a biography explores the man behind the genius.

Fighters low level passes, breaking sound barrier

Shutle STS 115 pitch maneuver

Space Shutle STS 115 lunch

Al Qaeda video. Iraq attacks

I.S.I - TOP 10
Uploaded by Nadjaf

1950s film on Nuclear Tests

Nuclear Weapon Test Atomic Nuke Bomb Explosion - Joe Bonica
Uploaded by lesylvanus

Helen Fisher: The Laws of Chemistry

"We form enduring pair bonds. The vast majority of other mammals—some 97 percent—do not.
Humanity has evolved three distinct but overlapping brain systems that enable us to fall in love and form long-term emotional connections: the neural systems for the sex drive, romantic love, and attachment. We are all alike in having these three primary brain networks. In other ways, however, each of us is unique. We don't fall in love with just anyone. We have deep and idiosyncratic preferences."


Psychology Today: The Laws of Chemistry

Psychology Today: Cupid's Comeuppance

"Dopamine and norepinephrine levels surge when a person is confronted by the unknown. In the initial phase of romantic love, they engender such exhilaration that we lose the desire to eat or sleep. The French refer to this as le coup de foudre ("lightning bolt"). Less romantic Anglophones call it lovesickness. Fisher, for her part, equates romantic love with addiction. She argues that whether the motivator is cocaine or Cindy in apartment 4B, elevated levels of dopamine and norepinephrine electrify the reward system in the brain. "Romantic love is an urge, a craving, a homeostatic imbalance that drives you to pursue a particular partner, and to [experience] emotions like elation and hope, or despair and rage," explains Fisher.
The awe of dopamine eventually subsides, followed by love's rear guard, vasopressin and oxytocin, hormones that lead to long-lasting attachment. Researchers hypothesize that these "cuddle chemicals," released during sex, facilitate the bond needed to raise children. Warm and fuzzy though they make us feel, these hormones can't match dopamine's edgy high. Oxytocin, in particular, may subdue levels of dopamine and norepinephrine."


Psychology Today: Cupid's Comeuppance

Helen Fisher, The Biology of Attraction

Psychology Today: The Biology of Attraction

"...First the woman smiles at her admirer and lifts her eyebrows in a swift, jerky motion as she opens her eyes wide to gaze at him. Then she drops her eyelids, tilts her head down and to the side, and looks away. Frequently she also covers her face with her hands, giggling nervously as she retreats behind her palms. This sequential flirting gesture is so distinctive that [German ethologist Irenaus] Eibl-Eibesfeldt was convinced it is innate, a human female courtship ploy that evolved eons ago to signal sexual interest..."


"...Body synchrony is the final and most intriguing component of the pickup. As potential lovers become comfortable, they pivot or swivel until their shoulders become aligned, their bodies face-to-face. This rotation toward each other may start before they begin to talk or hours into conversation, but after a while the man and woman begin to move in tandem. Only briefly at first. When he crosses his legs, she crosses hers; as he leans left, she leans left; when he smoothes his hair, she smoothes hers..."

"...Psychologist Dorothy Tennov measured the duration of romantic love, from the moment infatuation hit to when a "feeling of neutrality" for one's love object began. She concluded, "The most frequent interval, as well as the average, is between approximately 18 months and three years..."

"...Only 16 percent of the 853 cultures on record actually prescribe monogyny, in which a man is permitted only one wife at a time. Western cultures are among them. We are in the minority, however. A whopping 84 percent of all human societies permit a man to take more than one wife at once—polygyny..."

Middle East timeline map

Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Persians, Europeans

Timeline MAP: History of religions

Brain, Consciousness and Creativity

The inside story on transcending the brain, with David Lynch, Award-winning film director of Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mullholland Drive; John Hagelin, Ph.D., Quantum physicist featured in "What the bleep do we know?;" and Fred Travis, Ph.D., Director, Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition Maharishi University of Management.

Nobel Laureates: Energy Self-Sufficiency in the 21st Century

UC Berkeley's Nobel Laureates: Energy Self-Sufficiency in the 21st Century

UCB invited a group of Nobel prize winners to discuss the energu challenges of the next century

Speakers - Steven Chu, Physics, 1997 - Donald A. Glaser, Physics, 1960 - Yuan T. Lee, Chemistry, 1986 - Daniel L. McFadden, Economics, 2000 - George F. Smoot, Physics, 2006 - Charles H. Townes, Physics, 1964.

Stephen Hawking, A brief History of Time

Stephen William Hawking, (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist. Hawking is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes, and his popular works in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general. These include the runaway popular science bestseller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestseller list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

His key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical discovery that black holes emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation).His scientific career spans more than 40 years and his books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and world-renowned theoretical physicist. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Carl Gustav Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875, Kesswil – June 6, 1961, Küsnacht) was a Swiss psychiatrist, influential thinker, and founder of analytical psychology.
Jung's unique and broadly influential approach to psychology has emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life's work was spent exploring other realms, including Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. His most notable contributions include his concept of the psychological archetype, the collective unconscious, and his theory of synchronicity.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which occur in a meaningful manner, but which are causally inexplicable to the person or persons experiencing them. The events would also have to suggest some underlying pattern in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity.
Carl Jung coined the word to describe what he called "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events." Jung variously described synchronicity as an "'acausal connecting principle'" (i.e. a pattern of connection that cannot be explained by direct causality), "meaningful coincidence" and "acausal parallelism". Jung introduced the concept in his 1952 paper.

Worldometers - real time world statistics

World Odometers - real time world statistics

World Statistics updated in real time•
It will calculate values based on current interesting statistics and demographics data.

Major Religions Ranked by Size

Major Religions Ranked by Size

(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)

Christianity: 2.1 billion
Islam: 1.3 billion
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Hinduism: 900 million
Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
Buddhism: 376 million
primal-indigenous: 300 million
African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
Sikhism: 23 million
Juche: 19 million
Spiritism: 15 million
Judaism: 14 million
Baha'i: 7 million
Jainism: 4.2 million
Shinto: 4 million
Cao Dai: 4 million
Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
Tenrikyo: 2 million
Neo-Paganism: 1 million
Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand
Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
Scientology: 500 thousand

Psychology of the Miraculous

Psychology Today: A Psychology of the Miraculous

Is there enough evidence in the various case reports of patients who showed spontaneous remission from life-threatening illnesses to prove that the human psyche has the power to heal itself?

Flickr Color Selectr

Select a color from the palette and great maching Flickr pictures will be selected.
Flickr Color Selectr

Predictions made in 1900 for the year 2000 !!!

Predictions of the Year 2000

from The Ladies Home Journal of December 1900

The Ladies Home Journal from December 1900, which contained a fascinating article by John Elfreth Watkins, Jr. “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”.
Mr. Watkins wrote: “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible. Yet, they have come from the most learned and conservative minds in America. To the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning I have gone, asking each in his turn to forecast for me what, in his opinion, will have been wrought in his own field of investigation before the dawn of 2001 - a century from now. These opinions I have carefully transcribed.”

Link 1900 Predictions

Top Accidental Discoveries

Top Accidental Discoveries

MIT makes case for wireless power - Engadget

MIT makes case for wireless power - Engadget

Ricahrd Dawkins. The God delusion

Subtitulos en espanol

(WARNING: RELIGION. If you are confortable with your religious beliefs this video might be offensive)

Sam Harris. The end of faith, the future of reason

(WARNING: RELIGION. If you are confortable with your religious beliefs this video might be offensive)

The Paradox of Choice , Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz studies the relationship between economics and psychology, delivering startling insights into modern life. His latest book, The Paradox of Choice, argues that the abundance of choice in today’s western world leads not to happiness but psychological distress.

Why you should listen to him: In his 2004 book The Paradox of Choice , Barry Schwartz tackles one of the great mysteries of modern life: Why is it that societies of great abundance — where individuals are offered more freedom and choice (personal, professional, material) than ever before — are now witnessing a near-epidemic of depression? Conventional wisdom tells us that greater choice is for the greater good, but Schwartz argues the opposite: He makes a compelling case that the abundance of choice in today’s western world is actually making us miserable.

Infinite choice is paralyzing, Schwartz argues, and exhausting to the human psyche. It leads us to set unreasonably high expectations, question our choices before we even make them and blame our failures entirely on ourselves. His relatable examples, from consumer products (jeans, TVs, salad dressings) to lifestyle choices (where to live, what job to take, who and when to marry), underscore this central point: Too much choice undermines happiness.

Schwartz’s previous research has addressed morality, decision-making and the varied inter-relationships between science and society. Before Paradox he published The Costs of Living, which traces the impact of free-market thinking on the explosion of consumerism -- and the effect of the new capitalism on social and cultural institutions that once operated above the market, such as medicine, sports, and the law.

Both books level serious criticism of modern western society, illuminating the under-reported psychological plagues of our time. But they also offer concrete ideas on addressing the problems, from a personal and societal level.
"Whether choosing a health-care plan, choosing a college class or even buying a pair of jeans, Schwartz shows that a bewildering array of choices floods our exhausted brains, ultimately restricting instead of freeing us."
Publisher’s Weekly

David Deutsch. Our place in the universe

David Deutsch's 1997 book The Fabric of Reality laid the groundwork for an all-encompassing Theory of Everything, and galvanized interest in the idea of a quantum computer, which could solve problems of hitherto unimaginable complexity.

Why you should listen to him: More than any other thinker, David Deutsch will force you to reconsider your place in the world. This legendary Oxford physicist is the leading proponent of the multiverse (or "many worlds") interpretation of quantum theory -- the astounding idea that our universe is constantly spawning countless numbers of parallel worlds.
In his own words: "Everything in our universe -- including you and me, every atom and every galaxy -- has counterparts in these other universes." If that doesn't alter your consciousness, then the other implications he's derived from his study of subatomic physics -- including the possibility of time travel -- just might.
In his 1997 book The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch laid the groundwork for an all-encompassing Theory of Everything by tying together quantum mechanics, evolution, a rationalist approach to knowledge, and a theory of computation based on the work of proto-computer scientist Alan Turing. "Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense," Deutsch wrote, and he continues to take seriously the most mind-bending aspects of particle physics, including the tendency of matter to exist in more than one place at a time. Though famously reclusive, Deutsch proved himself marvelously at home on the TED stage, drawing big laughs and a well-earned standing ovation for his reflections on the future of our species.
"Amazingly enough, it is Deutsch's idea -- one he has harbored since childhood, he says -- to truly understand 'everything' that is known. Even more amazing is how close he seems to have come and how well he explains it to the rest of us."
The San Jose Mercury News

Apache attack in Irak

Moon Landing Apollo 11, 1969

Hallelujha - Allison Crowe

Human Development Trends

Humans have a hard time picturing certain things: long-term consequences, very large numbers, global trends ... For better or worse, our brains evolved to understand the immediate, "middle-sized" world that confronts us daily. We're grateful then, to the designers and thinkers who make abstract concepts accessible. Case in point: Gapminder, a Stockholm-based non-profit. Their extraordinary interactive graphs help you visualize complex global trends — like the distribution of poverty, in different regions of the world, over time. The raw statistics would bore you to tears; the web graphs — dynamic, colorful and clear — are utterly compelling. They're worth a look — not only for their particular content — but for the possibilities presented by this marriage of technology, information and design.


Estadisticas mundiales mostradas en graficos interactivos.

Sitio Principal link



Gapminder - Human Development Trends, 2005

Muppets. Manamana

Apple Think Different Ads

Carl Sagan on SETI Drake Equation

The Drake equation (rarely also called the Green Bank equation or the Sagan equation) is a famous result in the speculative fields of xenobiology, astrosociobiology and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

This equation was devised by Dr Frank Drake (now Emeritus Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz) in the 1960s in an attempt to estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy with which we might come in contact. The main purpose of the equation is to allow scientists to quantify the uncertainty of the factors which determine the number of extraterrestrial civilizations. In recent years, the Rare Earth hypothesis, which posits that conditions for intelligent life are quite rare, has been advanced as a set of arguments based on the Drake equation that the number of civilizations in the universe is small, and possibly unique to Earth.

Carl Sagan on Human Brain

Helen Fisher, The science of love, and the future of women

Anthropologist Helen Fisher studies love: its evolution, its biochemical foundations and its vital importance to human society. She outlines the three stages of love (lust, infatuation and long-term attachment), shedding light on eternal questions like why we love, and why we cheat. She also discusses the natural talents of women, and their new significance in the modern world. She ends with a warning about the widespread use of antidepressants -- and a truly hilarious story of romantic pursuit.

Michael Shermer, Beliefs

As founder and publisher of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer has exposed fallacies behind intelligent design, 9/11 conspiracies, the low-carb craze, alien sightings and other popular beliefs and paranoias. But it's not about debunking for debunking's sake. Shermer defends the notion that we can understand our world better only by matching good theory with good science. Thus, in order to explore a conspiracy theory that pre-planted explosives caused the World Trade Center towers to fall on 9/11, the magazine called on demolition experts.

Shermer's work offers cognitive context for our often misguided beliefs: In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can powerfully combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear Satanic lyrics when "Stairway to Heaven" plays backwards, for example). In fact, a common thread that runs through beliefs of all sorts, he says, is our tendency to convince ourselves: We overvalue the shreds of evidence that support our preferred outcome, and ignore the facts we aren't looking for.

Bjorgn Lomborg, Global priorities

Bjorn Lomborg isn't afraid to voice an unpopular opinion. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine after the publication of his controversial book The Skeptical Environmentalist, which challenged widely held beliefs that the environment is getting worse. Now the Danish economist is taking on the world's biggest problems. In 2004, he convened the Copenhagen Consensus, which tries to prioritize the world's greatest challenges based on the impact we can make, a sort of bang-for-the-buck breakdown for attacking problems such as global warming, world poverty and disease.

It begins from the premise that we can't solve every problem in the world, and asks: Which ones should we fix first? The Copenhagen Consensus 2004 tapped the expertise of world-leading economists, as well as a diverse forum of young participants; collectively, they determined that control of HIV/AIDS was the best investment -- and mitigating global warming was the worst. Lomborg summarized these findings in How to Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a Better Place. The next Copenhagen Consensus is scheduled for spring 2008.

Sir Martin Rees. Is this our last century TED - Talks

Martin Rees, one of the world's most eminent astronomers, is a professor of cosmology and astrophysics at the University of Cambridge and the UK's Astronomer Royal. He is one of our key thinkers on the future of humanity in the cosmos.

Why you should listen to him: Sir Martin Rees has issued a clarion call for humanity. His book, ominously titled Our Final Hour, catalogues the threats facing the human race in a 21st century dominated by unprecedented and accelerating scientific change. He calls on scientists and nonscientists alike to take steps that will ensure our survival as a species.

One of the world's leading astronomers, Rees is a professor of cosmology and astrophysics at Cambridge, and UK Astronomer Royal. Author of more than 500 research papers on cosmological topics ranging from black holes to quantum physics to the Big Bang, Rees has received countless awards for his scientific contributions. But equally significant has been his devotion to explaining the complexities of science for a general audience, in books like Before the Beginning and Our Cosmic Habitat

E.O. Wilson: TED PrizeHelp build the Encyclopedia of Life

Biologist E.O. Wilson explores the world of ants and other tiny creatures, and writes movingly about the way all creatures great and small are interdependent.

Why you should listen to him: One of the world's most distinguished scientists, E.O. Wilson is a professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard. In 1975, he published Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, a work that described social behavior, from ants to humans.
Drawing from his deep knowledge of the Earth's "little creatures" and his sense that their contribution to the planet's ecology is underappreciated, he produced what may be his most important book, The Diversity of Life. In it he describes how an intricately interconnected natural system is threatened by man's encroachment, in a crisis he calls the "sixth extinction" (the fifth one wiped out the dinosaurs).
With his most recent book, The Creation, he wants to put the differences of science- and faith-based explanations aside "to protect Earth's vanishing natural habitats and species ...; in other words, the Creation, however we believe it came into existence."

Richard Dawkins on evolutionary science TED

Oxford professor Richard Dawkins has helped steer evolutionary science into the 21st century, and his concept of the "meme" contextualized the spread of ideas in the information age. In recent years, his devastating critique of religion has made him a leading figure in the New Atheism.

Why you should listen to him: As an evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins has broadened our understanding of the genetic origin of our species; as a popular author, he has helped lay readers understand complex scientific concepts. He’s best-known for the ideas laid out in his landmark book The Selfish Gene and fleshed out in The Extended Phenotype: the rather radical notion that Darwinian selection happens not at the level of the individual, but at the level of our DNA. The implication: We evolved for only one purpose — to serve our genes.

Of perhaps equal importance is Dawkins’ concept of the meme, which he defines as a self-replicating unit of culture -- an idea, a chain letter, a catchy tune, an urban legend -- which is passed person-to-person, its longevity based on its ability to lodge in the brain and inspire transmission to others. Introduced in The Selfish Gene in 1976, the concept of memes has itself proven highly contagious, inspiring countless accounts and explanations of idea propagation in the information age.

In recent years, Dawkins has become outspoken in his atheism, coining the word "bright" (as an alternate to atheist), and encouraging fellow non-believers to stand up and be identified. His controversial, confrontational 2002 TED talk was a seminal moment for the New Atheism, as was the publication of his 2006 book, The God Delusion, a bestselling critique of religion that championed atheism and promoted scientific principles over creationism and intelligent design.

Dan Dennett: A secular, scientific rebuttal TED - Talks

Philosopher and scientist Dan Dennett argues that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes and are not what we traditionally think they are. His 2003 book Freedom Evolves explores the way our brains have evolved to give us -- and only us -- the kind of freedom that matters, while 2006's Breaking the Spell examines religious belief through the lens of biology.
Why you should listen to him: One of our most important living philosophers, Dan Dennett is best known for his provocative and controversial arguments that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes in the brain. He argues that the brain’s computational circuitry fools us into thinking we know more than we do, and that what we call consciousness — isn’t.
This mind-shifting perspective on the mind itself has distinguished Dennett’s career as a philosopher and cognitive scientist. And while the philosophy community has never quite known what to make of Dennett (he defies easy categorization, and refuses to affiliate himself with accepted schools of thought), his computational approach to understanding the brain has made him, as Edge’s John Brockman writes, “the philosopher of choice of the AI community.”
“It’s tempting to say that Dennett has never met a robot he didn't like, and that what he likes most about them is that they are philosophical experiments,” Harry Blume wrote in the Atlantic Monthly in 1998. “To the question of whether machines can attain high-order intelligence, Dennett makes this provocative answer: ‘The best reason for believing that robots might some day become conscious is that we human beings are conscious, and we are a sort of robot ourselves.’”
In recent years, Dennett has become outspoken in his atheism, and his 2006 book Breaking the Spell calls for religion to be studied through the scientific lens of evolutionary biology. Dennett regards religion as a natural -- rather than supernatural -- phenomenon, and urges schools to break the taboo against empirical examination of religion. He argues that religion’s influence over human behavior is precisely what makes gaining a rational understanding of it so necessary: “If we don’t understand religion, we’re going to miss our chance to improve the world in the 21st century.”
A prolific writer, Dennett’s landmark books include The Mind’s I, co-edited with Douglas Hofstedter, Consciousness Explained, and Darwin’s Dangerous Idea.
"Dan Dennett is our best current philosopher. He is the next Bertrand Russell. Unlike traditional philosophers, Dan is a student of neuroscience, linguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science, and psychology. He's redefining and reforming the role of the philosopher."
Marvin Minsky

Eva Vertes is a microbiology prodigy. Her discovery, at age 17, of a compound that stops fruit-fly brain cells from dying was regarded as a step toward curing Alzheimer's. Now she aims to find better ways to treat -- and avoid -- cancer.

Why you should listen to her: Eva Vertes may not yet have the answers she needs to cure cancer, but she's asking some important -- and radical questions: If smoking can cause lung cancer, and drinking can cause liver cancer, is it possible that cancer is a direct result of injury? If so, could cancer be caused by the body's own repair system going awry?
She asks this and other breathtaking questions in her conference-closing 2005 talk. Her approach marks an important shift in scientific thinking, looking in brand-new places for cancer's cause -- and its cure. Her ultimate goal, which even she calls far-fetched, is to fight cancer with cancer.
"Vertes and her colleagues are gifted researchers who realize that stem cells hold an infinite amount of possibility within their amazingly small frames. Unlocking their potential will produce cures that could end the suffering of hundreds of millions of afflicted people."
Digital Journal

Julia Sweeney- Letting go of God

As a solo performer, comic actor Julia Sweeney explores love, cancer, family and faith. Her latest solo show and CD, Letting Go of God, is about the "quest for something I could really believe in" -- which turns out to be no God at all.

Why you should listen to her: Known for her four-year run on Saturday Night Live and her powerful solo shows, Julia Sweeney is carving out her own territory in entertainment, one that moves between the personal and the political, the controversial and the comical. Her most recent piece, Letting Go of God, traces a spiritual journey that takes an unexpected turn toward science (a turn that, incidentally, also led her to TED) and ends with atheism.

In this, as in all her performances, Sweeney projects a warmth and sincerity on stage that's unmatched in today's theater; you immediately feel you're chatting with an old friend. And this gift of intimacy allows her to achieve the impossible: an utterly disarming show that honestly confronts the most controversial topic of our times. Her earlier shows, God Said “Ha!” and In the Family Way also garnered praise and prizes for their pairings of humor and poignant truth.
"Without breaking her affably conversational tone, in Letting Go of God she inhabits the emotional memory of each step on her path."
New York Times

(WARNING: RELIGION. If you are confortable with your religious beliefs this video might be offensive)

Pale blue dot

Carl Sagan Pale blue dot.
A parting gift from Voyager
Inspired by the words of Carl Sagan in 1991, as he presented to the world, the most distant image yet taken of ourselves.( from 4 billion miles )
What ever each of us believes in , this is something we all share, and through sharing ,we might some day learn humility.

"We succeeded in taking that picture from deep space [Voyager 1, 4
billion Km from earth, GT] , and, if you look
at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it,
everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out
their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of
confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter
and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of
civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love,
every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and
explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every
superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history
of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the
rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in
glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a
fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the
inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their
misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent
their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the
delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are
challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in
the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity -- in all this
vastness -- there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save
us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astromy is a
humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind,
there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits
than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our
responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another
and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've
ever known."