ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG

Man Working in Alley - Dhaka, Bangladesh

I passed this alley on a walk through Dhaka and snapped a shot of this man working.  My best guess it that he could not afford electricity and was using the daylight for his work, something I often see in my travels.

The Bangladeshi Girl

I cant remember what building this is in the background, I am sure someone will be kind enough to put it in the comments section.  I do remember the neighborhood well, it is near the river in Dhaka, an interesting area full of merchants selling their goods.  I also found a large number of street children who were into severe cutting...I will post some of those images soon and hope to explore that subject more on my next trip to Bangladesh.

I took this image after being caught in a rainstorm.  We bunkered down in an old warehouse and watched the locals run for cover as the rain poured down.  The storm stopped as quickly as it started and as I walked outside I saw this young woman standing in front of this gate.  I have been more drawn to black and white and subtly toned color images the past year or so but this one just needed to be in color. 

Bangladesh Rickshaw

A rickshaw driver is reflected in a puddle on the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh after an afternoon rain storm.

Daily Life - Dhaka, Bangladesh

I am slowly making my way through all of these images from Bangladesh (actually I should say SOME of these pictures from Bangladesh.  Why did I take soooo many???

Men stand in front of a home in one of Dhaka's many back alley ways.

TED Talks - The Best TEDtalks and Ideas Worth Spreading

I wanted to put together a list of what I believe are the best, top, number one, most interesting TED Talks of all time.  There are so many great TEDtalks it is really hard to choose favorites, but below are just a few of mine.

Over the past several years I have found few things more inspiring than the ideas expressed in TED Talks.  For those of you who may not have heard of TEDTalks, here is a bit more info:

TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a series of conferences designed to make "ideas worth spreading" available for the general public to experience.  Basically they gather together some of the greatest and most inspiring people on the planet and give them 18 minutes to express their ideas in lectures.  These lectures are then put on the internet for the world to hear and see.  There is plenty more information on the net about how and why it was started so I wont go into it in detail here.

I will say that it is incredible to me the amount of knowledge one can gain (for free) just by watching these wonderful lectures and presentations.  To have this wealth of knowledge available to us is truly a gift and for those of you who have not had a chance to fall in love with TED, I hope this post will get you on your way.

I am making this post on New Years Day because we talk about New Years Resolutions and if these TED talks cant inspire you to come up with a few, maybe nothing can.  I would also like to encourage people to not limit their resolutions to just new years.  We always need to push ourselves to be better and this is something we need to do year round, not just on one day and maybe a couple weeks following.

I have written a tiny bit about each talk below the title but most of them you just need to watch to get the full experience.  They all contain so many wonderful and inspirational ideas and thoughts, it is hard to sum them up and absolutely no way I could do it as eloquently as the speakers themselves do. 

If there are TED talks that you love or that have inspired you, please post links to them in the comments section.  I would love for this to become a long list of some of the best of the over 800 TED Talks.  I also look forward to watching your favorite TED Talks myself.  I will add more of my favorites in separate posts every couple of months.

 

Matt Ridley - When Ideas Have Sex

A wonderful lecture on how we use our "collective brain."

 

Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original."

 

Ken Robinson - Bring on The Learning Revolution!

Making the case for schools to become more personalized and less standardized, letting children's natural talents shine through.

 

Dan Gilbert - Why Are We Happy

Synthetic vs Natural Happiness...very interesting.

 

Benjamin Zander - Music, Vision, Passion and Shining Eyes

"I will never say anything that could not stand as the last thing I ever say."

 

Dave Eggers - Once Upon a School

An inspiring story about normal people thinking outside the box and helping children learn in a unique way. 

 

Rory Sutherland - Life Lessons From an Ad Man

A change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as a change in real value.  A new way of looking at life.

 

Jonathan Harris - Collecting Stories

For all of us that love stories and searching for new and effective ways of telling them.

 

Sheena Lyengar - The Art of Choosing

A wonderful lecture about how we make and feel about our choices.

 

James Nachtwey - Searing Photos of War

The great photojournalist and war photographer presents and talks about his images.

 

Hans Rosling - The Best Stats You've Ever Seen

An interesting way of looking at the developing world.

 

Dean Kamen - A New Prosthetic Arm 

A short piece on the development of a new technology.

 

James H Kunstler - Disecting Suburbia

This scathing commentary on suburban america is such a wonderful series of observations and one of the reasons I get depressed in the vast majority of areas in the US.  One of my favorite wake up calls.

 

Majora Carter - Greening The Ghetto
A reminder that you don't have to go far to find poverty and injustice but also the inspiration that these things can be reversed.

 

Malcolm Gladwell - Spaghetti Sauce
Although it is interesting throughout, the real pay off is the final sentence :)

 

Theo Jansen - Creating Creatures
Nothing is more amazing than human creativity!

 

Ursus Wehrli - Tidying Up Art
A funny, utilitarian view on art and organization :)  The comments on order and chaos are really nice.

 

Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke of Insight
A pretty amazing story of a brain scientist's experience and analysis of her own stroke

 

Joshua Klein - The Intelligence of Crows
One mans quest to prove an idiot at a party wrong :)

 

Nellie McKay - Singing "Mother of Pearl" and "If I Had You"
I am sure there are some, but I don't know how anyone could not this...so good.

 

Nathaniel Kahn - My Architect
The part in Bangladesh is wonderful for anyone who loves architecture...and people.

 

Moshe Safdie - Building Uniqueness
Some of the best architecture of this time!!!

 

Please don't forget to post links to your favorite TED Talks in the comments section below and feel free to comment on the talks I have included in this post.