The poetic, brilliant, amazing Adital Ela, founder of WindyLight, has launched a kickstarter campaign.  That means you can contribute to this world-changing visionary TED Fellow’s work and help bring wind-powered light to the masses.  Check out her video, contribute if you can (every little bit helps!) and help spread the word:

While I haven’t been consumed by the passing of the great Steve Jobs, like many I admired his brilliant gifts to the world. I read a few stories about him, I checked out the website link with all his patents, I watched on YouTube that famous Stanford commencement address he gave, and watched parts of video of the celebration of his life on the Apple campus in Cupertino. Mostly because people sent me these links and I was curious to learn more about this legend. But none of the materials I’ve read or watched impacted me as much as this heartfelt, insightful, and beautifully written eulogy. Trust me, this is worth the time:

I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. I hoped he would be rich and kind and would come into our lives (and our not yet furnished apartment) and help us. Later, after I’d met my father, I tried to believe he’d changed his number and left no forwarding address because he was an idealistic revolutionary, plotting a new world for the Arab people.

Even as a feminist, my whole life I’d been waiting for a man to love, who could love me. For decades, I’d thought that man would be my father. When I was 25, I met that man and he was my brother.

CLICK LINK TO READ THE REST: mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

It was truly an honor to spend 4 days with the amazing TED Fellows at the SupporTED Conference in New Orleans.  Their work in the world inspires me, and gives me hope for our collective future! The video below is a quick look at the inaugural SupporTED event:

“Earth From Above” is the result of the aerial photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s five-year airborne odyssey across six continents. It’s a spectacular presentation of large scale photographs of astonishing natural landscapes. Every stunning aerial photograph tells a story about our changing planet.

Click the link, sit back and enjoy…this is like a vacation!

My friend Kate is a brilliant artist and I’m so happy to share with you the video of her TED talk from many months ago that just got posted. It’s only 5 minutes and you can see how she creates her amazing artwork using the science of nanotechnology to create color.  Fascinating, engaging, powerful, and incredible!  She’s truly merged art and science and is a pioneer and leader in the art world.  Check it out!

You’ve gotta see this video from TEDxHouston, where the researcher/storyteller Brene Brown shares her learning from a decade of research into the intangibles of connection, fear, vulnerability, and worthiness.

It’s a 20 minute video, so make sure you’ve got time – it’s brilliant! And she’s funny, too.

A few notes I jotted down while watching it:

• Connection is why we’re here
• Connection is the source of purpose and meaning in our lives
• Shame is defined as a fear of disconnection or a fear we won’t be worthy of connection
• We all have the excruciating vulnerability of “I’m not good enough”
• Allow yourself to be really seen in order to create connection
• A sense of worthiness comes from a strong sense of love and belonging
• Those who live with that sense of love and belonging are only one variable away from those who struggle for it
• The differentiating variable is that they believe they are worthy of love and belonging
• Courage is to tell the story of who you are with your good heart, from the latin word “cour” or heart
• Be imperfect, have compassion for yourself, connection is a result of authenticity
• let go of who you think you should be for who you are
• fully embrace vulnerability:  what makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful
• vulnerability is necessary:  the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees, to invest in a relationship, to say “I love you” first
• we numb vulnerability with addictions, but you cannot selectively numb emotions, so when you numb the bad feelings you numb everything
• you numb joy and happiness
• we make everything uncertain CERTAIN:  religion, politics
• blame is a way to discharge pain and discomfort
• YOU are worthy of love and belonging
• Let yourself be deeply seen
• Love with your whole heart even when it hurts
• Believe:  I AM ENOUGH

Here’s Brene in her own words:

I just watched the amazing TED talk by Elif Shafak, a brilliant, French-born Turkish novelist, with an incredible message of diversity, spirituality, and a vision of global leadership through stories and the literary arts.  Prepare to be amazed!

It was fabulous fun to be part of the TEDxPotomac event at the GWU campus. I tweeted about the event (evidence…see photo below of me caught in the act!), and you can find tweets at the hashtag #TEDxPotomac if you want to see the full spectrum, and you can also see all the photos of the event HERE.

For those of you who don’t know, TED is an annual conference in California and non-profit (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) that focuses on ideas worth spreading. Most people know it to be an AWESOME website that has hours upon hours of interesting and inspirational short talks (18 minutes or less) from AMAZING people. TEDx is the independently organized local TED-like experience created in the format of TED, also in the spirit of promoting ideas worth spreading. In the last year alone there have been 500 TEDx events all over the world.

Probably the best writeup of the event is here on ReadySetDC by Ally Behnke!

Photos courtesy of Jimmy Gardner http://jjg3photo.com

This man will blow your mind.

Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic artist.  His “artism” is his genius.

His autism makes communication challenging, but gave his brain a phenomenal gift.  He’s called “the Human Camera” and you’ve gotta see him in action.  The video clip is only 5 minutes, and it’s a real WOW.