http://www.ted.com New York was planning to tear down the High Line, an abandoned elevated railroad in Manhattan, when Robert Hammond and a few friends suggested: Why not make it a park? He shares how it happened in this tale of local cultural activism.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

http://www.ted.com When Dave deBronkart learned he had a rare and terminal cancer, he turned to a group of fellow patients online — and found a medical treatment that even his own doctors didn’t know. It saved his life. Now he calls on all patients to talk with one another, know their own health data, and make health care better one e-Patient at a time.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the “Sixth Sense” wearable tech, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

In this video I review Google+.

Sign up for Google+: http://plus.google.com

Google+ Review

Google+ is a brand new (invite only currently) social network that hopes to compete with Facebook. There are four major components of Google Plus, the Stream, Hangout, Sparks and Circles.

Your Google+ Stream is very similar to a Facebook wall. In it you can post status updates, view your updates from your friends and people you follow as well as comment on posts as well as +1 them, the Google+ version of the Like button.

Hangout is one of the best features of Google+. It’s similar to Skype video chat in your web browser but with extra functionality including allowing you to watch YouTube videos as a group and changing the focus between people as they talk.

Sparks are similar to RSS feeds built in to the website. All you need to do is open up Sparks and enter a keyword or two about something that you are interested in and Google will automatically list articles from around the web about your subject.

Lastly there are Circles. Circles are integrated into your Stream and allow you to customize what people you share your updates with. For example you could post an update that’s only viewable by your Family, Friends, Public or you can even make custom Circles to share information with specific people.