3:17 And away we go from here at the Ferguson Center at Christopher Newport University.

All in the name of Whoopi.

This is supposed to be a conference about ideas worth sharing. Here’s a bad idea from a Ted that has nothing to do with this.  <—-

3:20 Now on stage is Chakaia Booker. She does some fascinating things with rubber from old tires. Brilliant stuff. She also does interesting things with her hair.

Rubber artist.

3:23 She is now showing a piece called “Fatality of Hope.” “These forms begin to describe the different elements organically that you see in nature,” she says.

It’s such an interesting thing about art, to me: it’s desire to emulate what is already there.

Here is one of Chakaia Booker’s pieces:

3:26 After the artist was done there was a slightly awkward gap and then a man with a guitar came onto the stage. With no introduction other than his name–Mike Rayburn– he proceeds to play the guitar so fast it makes me nervous.

3:27 “He’s supposed to be the funniest guitar player in the world,” Hannah whispers, her voice just soaked with cynicism.

3:30 “I learned this from playing in front of drunk people,” he says, then does an impression of a Savage Garden song. “I want to throw you off of a mountain. I want to hold you under the sea,” he sings. “I want you to lay you to rest forever, until the police come looking for me.”

3:34 I just looked over at Hannah. She’s clapping like Mike Rayburn just floated over to her and gave her the perfect haircut using just his guitar pick.

(This guy is actually super talented.)

3:40 Is this guy getting a standing ovation? Jesus, he is.

4:07  Sorry, forgot to mention there was a break, In my desperate rush to not mess my knickers, I ran out of the room. To give you an idea of what kind of party this is, here’s a picture I just took in the lobby:

Yes, that's two men playing chess on a tiny board.

4:20 Also in the lobby is a soccer playing robot, a human hamster wheel, and a half dozen real brains you can hold in your hand. And no, I’m not 4:20 friendly.

4:26 Dr. Sue Morter came out to Caribbean Jazzercising music and urged the audience to stand up and dance. They did. It was like being at a rave just for nerds. The older guy in front of me danced in such a way that… made me want to feel his hip muscles. There, I said it. Whatever. Grow up.

4:34  I’m not sure that I have the mental capacity to live blog, create hyperlinks, and understand Sue Morter at the same time. “Our thoughts, feeling of love… acceptance, these kinds of emotions generated from the heart space… are .25 microvolts,” she says. “The answer is to inject a different vibration into the picture,” she says as she makes a motion like she’s stabbing herself in the stomach. Oh my, I feel dumb! (Or I feel really smart. Not sure yet.)

4:42 “Perceive in the silence what is happening,” she says. The Caribbean Jazzercise music comes back. “There it is… What is it?… That I could let go of… What is it?… Take a stand for what you would have be true in your life… Stand up… Move your body to that… Raise your arms above your head… Deep breath in and celebrate you. Thank you very much.”

Hmm.

Hmm.

Well… uhm… this has nothing to do with anything, but you know that song “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” by Billy Ocean? If somebody says that to you as a pick-up line, what’s the proper response? I think it’s to call the police. Popular music lyrics were .25 microvolts of crazy back in the 80s.

5:01  Dr. Joel Levine, a NASA scientist, in on the stage to talk about life on Mars. Great song (Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’), even cooler concept.

5:03 “I’m going to show you some amazing evidence that there’s life on Mars,” he says. Did I hear that right? He shows a picture of the surface of Mars. “And yes, the Red Planet is red.”

5:04 “Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system,” he says. It’s bigger than the state of Arizona. “Volcanoes are important because they create atmospheres and they create oceans.” I am fascinated. “There are regions on Mars, for some reason, we don’t understand why, the regions are highly magnatized.” I am double fascinated. “There may have been rivers and fast flowing water (on Mars).” Even though is delivery is dry and he has no booty-shaking music in the background, I want this man to keep talking and talking.

5:07 “Mars used to be very Earth-like.” There’s still tons of ice below the surface of Mars. There’s also tons of methane on Mars, which is interesting because almost all of the atmospheric methane on Earth is produced by life. Earlier in the morning a speaker talked about her grandson and then brought him out on stage. If at the end of Dr. Joel Levine’s speach he calls Alf on stage, I will not be surprised. (In other words, he is TOTALLY convincing me there is an invisible society of aliens on Mars right now.)

5:11  I love science, but I always forget that I love science. In that sense, science holds a similiar place as deviled eggs and early Nick Cage movies in my life. But seriously, this has been a fun today for those of us with healthy geek streaks.

5:14 “How do we transport an airplane to Mars? In two words, very carefully.” When you get a phd in science is one of the classes in the core curriculum Straight Man Humor 101? This guy could be a Smothers Brother. (And I mean that in a good way.)

5:31 After one last video is Mitch Albom. This video is amazing. Seriously, take a look, escpecially if you like Tom Cruise movies and want to see that kind of stuff come to life.

Wow.

5:42 Mitch Albom is up in the next minute. His book, “Tuesday’s with Morrie,” is the best selling memoir of all time. Of. All. Time. Jeez louise, are you serious?

5:47 And here he is. From where we’re sitting the highest selling memoirist ever looks like the spitting image of Ryan from The Office.

5:58  Albom has had one clergyman his entire life. This man asked Albom, “Would you do my eulogy?”

“I thought priests and rabbis had this all worked out beforehand. ‘If you go first, I do you. If I go first, you do me.’ I don’t know how I got into that rotation.” Funny.

5:51  His speech is, at moments, almost verbatim to/from an interview I saw with him last week on the TV. It’s a great talk about his relationship with religion and the man who presented God to him. I wish I’d never seen the trailer… kind of takes the bite out of it.

5:56 Albom asked his rabbi for the key to happiness: Be satisfied. Be grateful. For all you have, and all God has given you.

5:58 Also from the rabbi (from his death bed): You ever notice how babies come into the world with their fists clenched? It’s because they think they’re going to take everything. At the end, we truly realize, we take nothing with us.

6:00 And that seems like a nice place to leave this off. There’s whispers that NASA will be holding more events like these. When they do, you should carve out the time to attend. We don’t leave the world with anything, and anything we have now we’re likely to not have in five years time. But the one thing we always take with us is our mind. Thank you, NASA and TED, for helping me look after my most prized possession.