The Other TED

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Still ranking right below BLU as my favorite clip of the year, is the TED Talk by Jill Bolte Taylor "A Stroke Of Insight".  Now TED has posted enough of their lectures to warrant a Top Ten (via BoingBoing).  

I still remain grateful that we don't have to run out and have a stroke to gain this sort of insight, just like we don't need to run out a practice the methods of others, like Timothy Leary, who had remarkably similar realizations as Taylor, albeit not quite as succinct.  To quote TED: "Neuroantomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientist would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another."
Maybe I am a few years behind, but 2008 feels like The Year That Lectures Broke on the Internet.  It's pretty great that ideas have finally become a pop form.