Monkeys seem to have the ability to share the sentiment of the #OccupyWallStreet when it comes to equal pay. Grapes and cucumbers are not equal and these monkeys seem to know it. It’s part of an experiment type that has been duplicated numerous times. Animals that are rewarded for performing a task are okay when they each receive the same compensation for performing the same work regardless of how good or bad the reward is, but once one animal seems to be getting more reward than the other, they take offense to it. In the case of the angry monkey in the TED video below, one monkey takes great offense. …

There was once a time when being a geek or a nerd wasn’t cool until you bought your first Porsche. Today, thanks in part to a heightened awareness of intellectual necessities mixed with the onslaught of the internet, smart is chic and the wildly popular TED conferences and their Talks series are leading the charge to make it even more socially acceptable. Part of the revolution has been social media. In the early days, it was better to be frivolous than brainy on social. Today, the funny cat pictures are still popular, but there is a growing sentiment of more refined sensibilities and contributions…

In theaters, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s first major motion picture Ted was a huge hit.  It combined the brash frat boy humor of Judd Apatow comedy films with the over the top toilet humor of Family Guy, and included a sexy love interest in Mila Kunis.  How could you go wrong?  This isn’t the most incredible feat of the movie Ted though, shockingly.  Ted is still gaining fans at an alarming rate. Long after leaving theaters, the Facebook page for Ted continues to gain followers as the movie’s creators continue to create new images, videos, and written content as if the page is run…

The TED2011 Conference unveiled new technologies, encouraged imagination, and highlighted innovation as some of the most brilliant minds in the world converged to discuss everything from the seemingly mundane to the biggest problems plaguing the globe today. On the last day, emotions were touched by film critic Roger Ebert as he, his wife, his friends, and his Macbook moved the audience in ways they did not expect. For months I’ve been combing through various TED Talks from this year’s conference. The best was the very last one. “These are my words but this is not my voice,” the computer voice…

Every day, new uses are thought up surrounding current technologies. The gadgets and gizmos that populate western culture have begun to make expand upon themselves and grow in functionality without improvements in software or hardware. It’s humanity that can take these devices and make more out of them than what we originally expected. It’s innovation and creation that drives these non-technical technology advances. Magic, for instance, is something inherent to the devices themselves. Once you add a creative mind to the equation, such as in the case of TEDTalk’s Marco Tempest, something…

Man has possessed the power of technology-assisted flight for over a century now, but the way that birds are able to fly is something that has eluded us until now. We first covered the Festo SmarBird earlier this year. Now, TED and Festo team leader Markus Fischer give us the flight of the bird once again, this time to a standing ovation in England. As a bonus, Fischer voice has a striking resemblance to a former governor of California. …

Michael Crichton and Steven Speilberg were onto something with Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, it wasn’t real science. This is. Paleontologist Jack Horner and his team are attempting to reconstruct and grow dinosaurs by genetically engineering chickens. Yes, chickens. As one of the most common living descendants of the dinosaurs, they may be able to be manipulated by activating ancestral traits that are remnants from their roots. Using soft tissue, they’ve been able to find just about everything they need other than DNA itself. Crichton’s dream may be impossible, but this technique may…

Google made big news last year when the search giant announced it had developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Google’s fleet of automated cars had successfully traversed more than 140,000 miles across California with the help of video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic. Mapping data from Google’s own data centers also came in handy for their tests. At TED 2011 this week, Google gave a more detailed look at this incredible technology. In a parking lot adjacent to the conference, first-hand demos of the driverless cars were given. Among…