Articles from Best of the Best (trending on the web)

TED: Morgana Bailey: The danger of hiding who you are - Morgana Bailey (2014)

Morgana Bailey has been hiding her true self for 16 years. In a brave talk, she utters four words that might not seem like a big deal to some, but to her have been paralyzing. Why speak up? Because she’s realized that her silence has personal, professional and societal consequences. In front of an audience of her co-workers, she reflects on what it means to fear the judgement of others, and how it makes us judge ourselves.

Friend of Silk Road creator details early days of the site

A college friend of Ross Ulbricht, the creator of the Silk Road online exchange, testified on Thursday that he helped Ulbricht troubleshoot the site in its early days, providing more ammunition for federal prosecutors to make the case Ulbricht was the mastermind behind the notorious illegal goods marketplace.The testimony from Richard Bates could help federal prosecutors establish a timeline showing Ulbricht was heavily involved with the site beyond just creating it.Ulbricht has admitted to creating the Silk Road site in early 2011.

TED: Joe Madiath: Better toilets, better life - Joe Madiath (2014)

In rural India, the lack of toilets creates a big, stinking problem. It leads to poor quality water, one of the leading causes of disease in India, and has a disproportionately negative effect on women. Joe Madiath introduces a program to help villagers help themselves, by building clean, protected water and sanitation systems and requiring everyone in the village to collaborate -- with significant benefits that ripple across health, education and even government.

TED: Sarah Bergbreiter: Why I make robots the size of a grain of rice - Sarah Bergbreiter (2014)

By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.

TED: Matthieu Ricard: How to let altruism be your guide - Matthieu Ricard (2014)

What is altruism? Put simply, it's the wish that other people may be happy. And, says Matthieu Ricard, a happiness researcher and a Buddhist monk, altruism is also a great lens for making decisions, both for the short and long term, in work and in life.

Pages