TED Tuesday - plus 60+ hours of train ride this week!

PLEASE give me suggestions for online articles or TED Talks to download that I can pass the time with. In a few hours I'll be departing for a 33 hour cross country train ride to Mumbai for a conference. I'll have plenty of time over the 60+ hours of train travel this week to read some interesting articles and watch movies. 

My bookshelf in India - big fan of Penguin books!

Heres a TED by Salmar Khan, founder of the Khan Academy. His idea is to use video to reinvent education. Now that computers are just as affordable as textbooks, and the internet is becoming more available in developing countries, this could be revolutionary for improving education in places that previously could not afford the infrastructure of large schools, skilled teachers, and multiple textbooks. 

I'll be attending the Sankalp Forum, a conference that brings together companies, speakers, and investors in the social business field. ONergy has been nominated for an award in the Clean Energy category, one of the high impact sectors they focus on, along with: Agriculture, Food & Rural Business, Education, Health, Water & Sanitation, Technology for Development.

I'm really looking forward to the conference and interested to hear talks from some of the leaders in their respective fields.The social enterprise space is still developing, with new business models required and everyone collaborating together to learn from each other what works and experiencing the hard way what doesn't. Scale is the buzz word, with many ventures having been in operations for 3-5 years and still working on proving their model can achieve profitability and scale. Many large investors and VCs are still skeptical, obviously wanting to see proven results before they fund, creating a Catch-22 since companies often are unable to run large-scale pilot projects without additional funding.

I don't think I can call myself a blogger and not comment on the results of the Canadian Federal election. India is 9.5 hours ahead of Ontario, so I just found out the results this morning: Conservative majority, ouch, definitely did not expect that. I have no problem voicing my political opinion, and disappointed is a bit of an understatement. Though I believe he has done a decent job steering Canada through these "tough economic times", his stance on many social and environmental issues enrages me. I am distrustful and worried what he'll do with his new-found power. As I posted a few weeks ago, our international reputation has been blemished by some of our recent stances and lack of support for climate change mitigation policies, and I doubt this will help. 

Cheer me up and post something I should read, watch, listen to on the train! I'm almost done 'Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinback and will be scouring the used book stalls in Mumbai for my another good read.