Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg gave an important talk at TED Women in December 2009. She offers three pieces of advice for women who aspire to be leaders in their companies.

This weeks On The Media focused on the role of online gaming in our society. I found this story, called "The Future of Gaming" very interesting for its discussion of the role gaming is shaping the future of collaboration.

The story includes a sound clip from a TED talk by Jane McGonigal, the head of research and development at the the Institute for the Future, a nonprofit forecasting firm.

The story also includes this clip of Jesse Schell speaking at DICE. Schell is founder of Schell Games and a professor at Carnegie Mellon. This is Schell's full presentation, in which he explains the psychology behind the success of online games. Schell maintains that online games are breaking through to a reality where games are used to incent behavior.

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Magician Keith Barry does incredible tricks with the human mind at TED2004.

This TED talk by Matt Ridley is brilliant.  Ridley talks about how human progress has been fueled by the mating of ideas and the specialization of people.  His statement that there is no one alive today who knows how to make a computer mouse sounds silly at first, but turns out to be a profound illustration of his point.

Aimee Mullins was born without shin bones.  She went on to become the first double amputee to compete in Division I track and field.  She set world records in the 1996 Paralympics. Mullins has been a featured speaker at at least a couple of TED Conferences, including one, very enjoyable talk, where she explains the advantages of having 12 pairs of legs.  

Recently, TED posted a video of her most recent, and most compelling talk about the incredible ability of people to adapt and overcome adversity and the debilitating impact of our labeling people "disabled."  Says Mullin, "the only true disability is a crushed spirit."

I hope you will take the time to listen to it.

"A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

Albert Einstein

This holiday season, consider these two TED Talks and add your name today to the Charter for Compassion. 

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Hans Rosling amazes once again as he uses Gapminder to predict when China and India will surpass the United States. This is a must see. Click here.

Scott Simon, NPR Weekend Edition Saturday host, spoke at TEDx MidAtlanic this week on the importance and meaning of stories. There does not appear to be a version of his presentation that I can embed in this post, but you can find by clicking here.  You should do so.

I had an opportunity to hear Bill Strickland a couple of weeks ago when he spoke to the Economic Club of Grand Rapids. He is a passionate person who is committed to making a difference in the lives of others.

Strickland founded a vocational school in one of Pittsburgh's toughest neighborhoods, the neighborhood in which he grew up and still lives. Convinced that change can be made in people's lives by giving them a beautiful environment in which to learn, Strickland's school has had incredible success. He is now trying to duplicate that success in 200 cities around the country. In Grand Rapids, he has helped found the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology.

Here is his talk.

Eric Giller, CEO of MIT-inspired WiTricity, demonstrates wireless electricity at TED Global 2009.