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Rossland Library hosts TEDxLive event

The Rossland Public Library live streamed talks from TED2016: Dream in Vancouver on Thursday at its TEDxRosslandPublicLibraryLive event.
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Attendees at TEDxRosslandPublicLibraryLive were invited to share their favourite TED talks on a bulletin board after viewing the live stream.

The Rossland Public Library live streamed talks from TED2016: Dream in Vancouver on Thursday at its TEDxRosslandPublicLibraryLive event.

The library streamed three two-hour sessions during the day, including the afternoon session, “The Dreams that Define Us.”

Speakers included Kang Lee and Angelica Dass.

Lee is a Canadian developmental researcher who studies how and when children learn to lie and who has helped develop a new imaging technology that uses conventional video cameras to show facial blood flow changes that can reveal hidden emotions associated with lying.

Dass is a Brazilian artist and photographer whose experience growing up in a multi-racial family eventually led to her ongoing photography project, humanæ. She photographs people of various races and uses an 11x11 pixel sample from their face to find the Pantone that matches their skin tone and then uses it as the background for the photo. The purpose of the project is to record and catalogue all possible human skin tones (humanae.tumblr.com).

Dass’s emotional talk went over well with Rossland viewers.

“I really liked the speaker. I liked her energy; I liked that sort of global peace feeling she had, [it] was really very cool,” said Mayor Kathy Moore.

“When somebody shares emotions, it empowers me to listen and learn more,” said Adrian Barnes.

TED first started in 1984, but the first six TED Talks weren’t posted online until 2001. Since then over 2100 talks have been made available online at TED.com, with the organization celebrating one billion video views in 2012.

People find the videos both informative and inspiring.

“It makes me feel hopeful and I get good ideas,” said Barnes.

“Using the spoken word you can communicate much more quickly than through written media, and so you just have this extraordinary window into someone else’s world, and thinking, and experiences in quite a short time, which is extraordinary,” said Gail (who asked her last name not be used).

“They’re always so interesting, and it makes me feel there’s so many people doing such fascinating stuff in the world,” said Moore.

This was the first time the Rossland Library had done a TEDxLive event and library director Beverley Rintoul had to apply to get access to the live stream. She’s hoping that next year the library can apply to live stream over three days instead of just one.