From BEDhead to TEDhead, Session One.

"Unbuckle your safety belts . . ."

That was the opening charge from Chris Anderson.

First a hello from Cady Coleman from the space station . . .

Then physicist Janna Levin played the sounds of the universe: the ringing songs of a massive star collapsing upon itself into a black hole. This is how it ends, not with a bang, but with an ever increasing tempo of thwack thwack thwack . . . but Janna wants to render the audio of the Big Bang, capture the original sound bouncing through our universe unveiling the we are perhaps just a branch off a Multiverse.

Too hippie for you, perhaps?

Well, it was all quickly brought back down to earth, quite literally, by Sarah Marquis who called in from a remote camp sight in rural China, en route HIKING from Siberia to Australia. yes, I said HIKING.

Then things started getting interesting.

David Brooks came on and discussed New Humanism.  And he said a lot of smart things.

Like how Politicians suffer from Logorrhea Dementia - they talk so much they drive themselves nuts.

And how he has seen these Politicians at work in the flesh - they have uber-social skills; the most adept and socially aware people on the planet. And yet they/we have failed to translate this talent into policy.

We rule and guide and decide by reason where emotion is really at the center of all our decision making.

That we understand that our unconscious and subconscious do the dirty work of making decisions and the conscious mind simply makes the bed.

This, was a powerful talk. So much so, it elicited and inspired some to give a standing ovation. Which, further inspired a discussion around what deserves a standing O?

Next up was Eric Whitacre who has developed the Virtual Choir. He previewed his Virtual Choir 2.0 which debuts this April. 2,000 people participated. There is nothing virtual about it.

To conclude the first session: Wadah Khanfar of Al Jazeera talking about the end of corrupt regime and the rise of people in the mideast. The role of journalism and social media ending the regime's ability to deceive.

And then we had lunch.