Coca-Cola Christmas

Seen on: YouTube

Most people can agree on what Santa Claus looks like -- jolly, with a red suit and a white beard. But he did not always look that way, and Coca-Cola advertising actually helped shape this modern-day image of Santa.

Warren Buffett on Charlie Rose

Seen on: Charlie Rose

The world's greatest stock market investor -- lives in a house he bought for $31,500, quotes Mae West. He's worth $36 billion ... give or take a few mil.

Economist Report on International Banking

Seen on: The Economist

"A diversified bank is like a cube of jelly-it wobbles but it doesn't break."

Alan Greenspan on Charlie Rose

Seen on: Charlie Rose

A conversation with Alan Greenspan about his life, his 18 year tenure as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board and his book, The Age of Turbulence.

Insights on Poverty

In a follow-up to his now-legendary TED-2006 presentation, Hans Rosling demonstrates how developing countries are pulling themselves out of poverty.

Strangling Creativity

Larry-Lessig gets TEDsters to their feet, following this elegant presentation of three stories and an argument. The Net's most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the "ASCAP cartel" to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some hilarious remixes.

Next Web Innovation

The dot-com boom-and-bust is often compared to the 1849 Gold Rush. Amazon.com founder Jeff-Bezos offers evidence showing how similar they were.

Google: Behind the Screen

Seen on: YouTube

This documentary gives an in-depth look into the world of Google and search.

A Young Rebel

Speaking at TED in 1990, the not-yet-legendary architect Frank-Gehry takes a whistlestop tour of his work to date, from his own Venice Beach house to the under-construction American Center in Paris. In this 50-minute slideshow (before TED's 18-minute limit), Gehry explains the site-specific nature of his buildings -- context he felt was lost in the discussions of his then-controversial work.

The Smallinator

Seen on: YouTube

A transistor is the fundamental building block of all modern electronics...so how can we make them smaller? Artist Geoff McFetridge takes a frolic through the engineering wonders of the ever shrinking transistor that Intel is now creating.

The Business of Social Networks

Seen on: YouTube

Social-Networks have impacted millions of lives worldwide. Here's how and why.

Life in Design

Novelist Amy-Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It's a wild ride with a surprise.

Thinking-Big and Scaling Up

Seen on: YouTube

Fazle Abed's organization BRAC has attained success in fighting poverty on an unparalleled scale -- in Bangladesh and now in several other countries. He shares his experiences as a leader of the citizen sector, and offers advice to like-minded organizations seeking to create viable, broad and long-lasting change.

The Other Side of Outsourcing

Seen on: YouTube

A Thomas Friedman / Discovery Channel look at high-tech outsourcing to India.

Thug-Life

In an eye-opening talk -- presented before the publication of Freakonomics -- Steven-Levitt presents one of the book's more fascinating analyses. Sifting data collected through first-person interviews with a Chicago drug gang, he shows that drug dealing is not at all a quick route to riches.

Doing-Business in Africa

Negative images of Africa dominate the news: famine and disease, conflict and corruption. But Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the former Finance Minister of Nigeria, says there's a less-told story unfolding in many African nations: one of reform, economic growth and business opportunity. Cracking down on corruption -- and the perception of corruption -- will be the key to its success.

She tells how Nigerian officials taking money illicitly have been jailed, and prospective business partners are getting at least a partial picture now.

Inside Nanostellar

Nanostellar CEO Pankaj Dhingra takes us into the lab where the company is cooking up new ways of reducing auto-emissions around the world.

The Five-Predictions

Speaking at the first TED Conference in 1984, Nicholas-Negroponte waxes on the converging fields of technology, entertainment and design. Years before anyone was using the word "convergence," Negroponte was thinking about the "electronic books of the future" and computers as the future of education.

In excerpts from his 2-hour talk (this was before TED's 18-minute time limit), he foreshadowed CD-ROMs, web interfaces, service kiosks, the touchscreen interface of the iPhone, and his own One Laptop per Child project.

Power of the mobile-phone

Why does poverty still exist despite decades of development aid?

In this talk, Iqbal-Quadir explains why "aid does damages: because it empowers authorities instead of people," and advocates a new approach to development from below, "by the people for the people." His own experience as a child in Bangladesh and later a banker in New York brought him to realize that "connectivity is productivity" -- and that a simple cell phone has enormous power. Now his telecom company, Grameenphone, offers service to most of rural Bangladesh, creating new opportunities by connecting villages.

Becoming Buddha -- on the Web

In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob-Thurman, is our first step toward becoming Buddha. When we can know everything, we can see how everything is interconnected -- and we can begin to feel compassion for everything.