I Didn't Clip Her Wings

We were treated yesterday to a brief video of Mulala, the bold young woman who fought for women's education rights against the Taliban and was shot in the face for her efforts. She spoke eloquently from where she now lives and studies in England.

Then her educator father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, gave a totally inspiring talk, which earned another standing ovation. As a teacher he strives to use education to help students unlearn damaging cultural habits. He wants the girls to unlearn the habit of meek obedience and for the boys to unlearn the code of so-called honour.

He says he's asked what he did to nurture Malala's courage. He said it's not what he did but what he didn't do - he didn't clip her wings.

Handwriting Analysis

TED had a handwriting analysis alcove this year. Given the chance to have my handwriting analyzed, I jumped.  I don't really believe in these things of course, but . . .

I sat down with this lady, as she looked over my handwriting sample:

First words out of her mouth were "You have too much to do". Well, I've been accused of that many times. She went on with other characteristics I'd have to own up to: "curiosity one of the main aspects of my personality", "hard to slow down because I have so many ideas", "find it hard to deal with dullness", "like to take charge", "don't mind telling people what I think". Well, for better or worse, those resonated. She categorized me overall as a Straight Shooter: Purpose-driven with a Punch. I thought that many TEDsters might share those traits, so perhaps it was a lucky guess. However, we were asked to sign under the poster representing our type, and there were names in all the other categories too. Hmm, maybe she might be onto something. 

Then she totally stunned me. She said my handwriting showed I'd recently been very ticked off.  For heaven's sake, had she read yesterday's post? Ticked off doesn't begin to express how enraged I am at US Airways! I couldn't believe it.

Maybe I'll have to rethink my scepticism.

TED in Canada

Well, I finally made it to TED after yesterday's fiasco at the airport. What a pleasure to arrive at Vancouver's spectacularly beautiful airport. Made me proud as a Canadian that all these TEDsters would be greeted with this beauty, and grateful their first impression of Canada didn't come from the Toronto airport.


The traditional TED banners on the street outside the convention centre have a maple leaf on them - no coincidence that TED's colours are red?

The main theatre is magnificent. I took a peak this afternoon and was in awe.  Specially architected for TED, the entire edifice was built in just a week. It feels very Canadian and very TED.  I heard people mentioning it felt more like the intimacy of Monterey (original home of TED) than Long Beach (where it was held for the last several years). As Chris Anderson said, having a totally empty space was both intimidating and inspiring, and the architects did a beautiful job.  I don't have a camera to give a full panoramic view, but here is the lovely space from several angles. There are comfortable and diverse seating areas all around, with a real feeling of openness and intimacy.

The entire space is built of wood, as you can see from this shot of the stairs, and you can smell the fresh wood! The interior stairs are equally interesting, covered in some sort of soft spongy carpeting that looks, and feels, like a forest floor.


The infamous TED clock that so thoroughly intimidates speakers is there, and bigger than ever. See it there reading 00 under the big screen?

Canadiana continued as Chris Hadfield earned a standing ovation with his lyrical description of the sense of wonder and fulfilment as he achieved his childhood dream of going into space, his fear when he went blind in one eye (and then two) on a space walk and  overcoming that fear because of training and relentless practice. That Canadian flag on his space suit was pretty special to Canadians in the audience, I'm sure.

He ended with a snippet of the Bowie song he made famous on YouTube here.

The decor theme for the party was very Canadian too.

Never fly US Airways! It's the WORST Airline!

This blog was started as a way to capture big ideas at the TED conference and grew into covering other ideas too. This post is the first time I've used this modest platform for a rant, but today, here it comes.

I set off for TED today full of anticipation. US Airways was able to utterly destroy that excitement and replace it with rage. I am resolved that this will be the LAST trip I will EVER book with US Airways. And I will arm wrestle any friend or relative who considers making such a reservation.

So what's the back story to this venom?

I had checked in yesterday for my flight from Phoenix to Vancouver, and received confirmation email telling me to be at the airport 45 minutes ahead of time. To be on the safe side, I turned up over 2 hours ahead of time. I was met with US Airways chaos. In front of the counter with 20 or more kiosks, the line snaked back and forth 5 deep with hundreds of people waiting. But that was not the end. The line then proceeded past the counters to the end of the airport departure area, where there were again line snakes 4 deep, then back through the length of the departure area again, with further snakes in every empty space by a door, until the line exited the airport completely. After standing in this line for almost an hour and a half, I reached the kiosk to check in within the original required time of 45 minutes, to be told that it was too late to check in for my flight. 

I was turned away to a long painfully slow line of people waiting to rebook flights. I was not allowed to rebook online to grab one of the few remaining seats on flights out of the airport tonight, and the phone number I was given to rebook under my original confirmation number issued a statement that they were not taking calls on that line.

Nobody at the airport had any information, and all the flights out of Phoenix quickly became totally booked, with all of tomorrow's flights showing they're not available either. At no time was any US Airways employee informative, helpful or apologetic. Their only skill seemed to be in planting more stanchions and rope barriers for the ever-growing lines. As far as I could see, in spite of hundreds of people missing their flights because of US Air's unpreparedness, flights were not being delayed to accommodate passengers who had, after all, arrived much earlier than suggested.

I was able to book, at my own expense, on Air Canada through Denver tomorrow morning at 5:43!! This was done through the quick action of my hero travel-agent daughter in Toronto, since the Air Canada site seemed to be experiencing problems and she was able to get through to them by phone for me. Perhaps overload from distressed US Air passengers?

To add insult to injury, I arrived home to a notification that US Airways had cancelled my return flight! I will miss part of TED because of US Air's incompetence. Now it may be that I'll never get back from TED!

I am livid, enraged, and any other word you can think of to describe this fiasco.