Join us for a night of TED. From Wikipedia: TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading."

Normally we choose two videos of about 20 minutes each, but this time we'll do three videos of approximately 10 minutes each:

Video 1: David Gallo on life in the deep oceans
With vibrant video clips captured by submarines, David Gallo takes us to some of Earth's darkest, most violent, toxic and beautiful habitats, the valleys and volcanic ridges of the oceans' depths, where life is bizarre, resilient and shockingly abundant.

Video 2: Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows
Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he's come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human.

Video 3: Theo Jansen creates new creatures
Artist Theo Jansen demonstrates the amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures he builds from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His creatures are designed to move -- and even survive -- on their own.

Arrive between 7:00 and 7:15 for introductions and to get settled in. We will begin the first video at 7:30. We'll spend about 10 minutes watching each video, and up to 30 minutes discussing each, as it is a school night.

Our home is small and humble... be prepared to get cozy... some of us will probably end up sitting on the floor.