Government Of Geeks, By Geeks, For Geeks

No, I don't mean Obama's vulcan salute. According to its official blog, the White House has set up the first-ever government-sponsored TED talks. The topic is Secretary Clinton's Global Partnership Initiative, an effort to partner the State Department with "foundations, businesses, non-governmental organizations, universities, and faith communities" to advance the Administration's key development goals.

For the uninitiated:

I realize that you might be wondering what all of this excitement is about and who or what TED is anyway. If you don't know about TED, then click away from this page immediately and visit www.ted.com. Spend a few minutes watching the videos that pop up on the screen. While it is easy enough for those minutes to rush away and turn into hours (or whole afternoons and evenings, in my case), no matter how much time you spend watching these videos, discovering for the first time that TED exists is one of those phenomenal little moments in life that is only rivaled by a few experiences -- for me, traveling abroad (anywhere) and learning about other people (anyone) elsewhere in this world, or watching that first Blu-Ray video and not even caring about picking my jaw off the floor because the effects were just so incredible, or listening to the Beatles for the first time and realizing that there was a whole new level of genius I just been missing out on entirely. TED often has that kind of a spontaneous, drastic impact. And it should: these futurists, visionaries, scholars, and experts are challenged to give the best speech of their life on any topic of their choosing in eighteen minutes or less. Now that's setting the stage for something really magical to happen. And I have not even mentioned the best part: TED shares all of this wisdom, inspiration, and passion on the internet for free by posting the videos on their website. Really, you have to visit www.ted.com. You are going to get addicted to this stuff.

Two personal favorites in the TED-o-sphere: Hans Rosling dazzles with data on public health in developing nations, and Malcolm Gladwell explains why we have so many different kinds of spaghetti sauce.