TEDxPhoenix

TED stands for Technology Entertainment Design.  It is a small nonprofit organization which started in 1984.  It has grown and presents to the world ideas worth sharing.  The x stands for independent conferences which occur in various cities.  To understand a little more, go to TED.com.  The collection of talks under TEDtalks are well worth listening to.

Last night we heard Dr Charles Gerba from University of Arizona talk about germs (the cleanest place in your house is the toilet seat, the dirtiest the kitchen sink and we won't even go into all the nasty places you can get germs).  I think I'm going to imitate Monk and have a Natalie hand me wipes every time I take an escalator or push the 1st floor button on an elevator.

Then Dr Jane Maienschein from ASU explained stem cells.  She was passionate about the topic and made it quite fascinating.  Each talk is only 18 minutes long and we also had videos, music and a funny little film about a bear.

Fredi Lajvardi, who is an instructor at Phoenix Union High School told about his program where he took a group of inner-city kids and they built an underwater robot.  Took it to a national competition (for college kids) and beat out MIT to win the national championship.  Quite inspiring. 

There were other speakers as well and we came home all charged up and ready to talk.  John was tired and went to bed so I had quite a conversation with Chauncy.  (Abby said it was too late for her to be talking)