Since 1845, Americans have been voting on Tuesdays -- but why? In this humorous talk, Jacob Soboroff shares the history of Election Day and shows how voting on a Tuesday affects voter turnout. [Directed by TED-Ed].

Got an idea to make your workplace better? Labor organizer and TED Fellow Jess Kutch can show you how to put it into action. In this quick talk, she explains how "productive conflict" -- when people organize to challenge and change their work lives for the better -- can be beneficial for employees and employers alike.

Could we anticipate the next big disease outbreak, stopping a virus like Ebola before it ever strikes? In this talk about frontline scientific research, ecologist Daniel Streicker takes us to the Amazon rainforest in Peru where he tracks the movement of vampire bats in order to forecast and prevent rabies outbreaks. By studying these disease patterns, Streicker shows how we could learn to cut off the next pandemic at its source.

As a "corporate suit" (his words) and former VP of sustainability at McDonald's, Bob Langert works with companies and their strongest critics to find solutions that are good for both business and society. In this actionable talk, he shares stories from the decades-long transition into corporate sustainability at McDonald's -- including his work with unlikely partners like the Environmental Defense Fund and Temple Grandin -- and shows why your adversaries can sometimes be your best allies.

Before the world of humans began, there was the world of the gods. Four brothers wandered this celestial realm. One day, the brothers snuck into a spirit's house and spotted a giant gourd hanging in the corner. But as they tried to look inside the gourd, they dropped it. It broke apart, releasing a deluge that formed a new world. Bill Keegan details the Taino myth of Deminan and the sea. [Directed by Franz Palomares, narrated by Adrian Dannatt, music by Carlos Palomares].

The year was 1776. In Bavaria, new ideals of rationalism, religious freedom and universal human rights competed with the Catholic church's heavy influence over public affairs. Adam Weishaupt, a law professor frustrated with the Church's ideology, decided to spread his ideas through a secret society: the Illuminati. Chip Berlet dives into the history, ideals and rituals of the infamous group. [Directed by Brett Underhill, narrated by Addison Anderson, music by Stephen LaRosa]

Stories help you make sense of your life -- but when these narratives are incomplete or misleading, they can keep you stuck instead of providing clarity. In an actionable talk, psychotherapist and advice columnist Lori Gottlieb shows how to break free from the stories you've been telling yourself by becoming your own editor and rewriting your narrative from a different point of view.

The cells in your body are like computer software: they're "programmed" to carry out specific functions at specific times. If we can better understand this process, we could unlock the ability to reprogram cells ourselves, says computational biologist Sara-Jane Dunn. In a talk from the cutting-edge of science, she explains how her team is studying embryonic stem cells to gain a new understanding of the biological programs that power life -- and develop "living software" that could transform medicine, agriculture and energy.

Regardless of how passionate we are about our niches, blog posts don’t always flow effortlessly out of our brains. Luckily, there are some great ways to get your readers to generate high-quality content for you. And WordPress has excellent tools to help you accomplish this. We’ll discuss different options for user-generated content, how to select an option that aligns with your goals for your website, and how to engage and encourage reader participation and contributions. We’ll look at examples of WordPress plugins for a few types of content.

It’s never been a more exciting time to be writing PHP in the WordPress ecosystem! WordPress core recently bumped the minimum-supported PHP version from 5.2 to 5.6 and plans to bump it again later this year all the way to 7.2! Whether that least sentence incites feelings of jubilation or anxiety in you, this talk has your back. We’ll take a deep dive into ways devs of all levels can breathe new life into their plugins and themes with modern PHP features and principles. We’ll cover back-compat gotchas, including how to deal with version-specific features and code partial plugin activation so you don’t break users’ sites with your upgrades. We’ll also go over modern principles such as using autoloaders and namespaces, setting up group aliasing, using return type declarations, leveraging traits, and more. Finally, we’ll talk about how to create a development plan for the short- and long-term so that continual and improvement and iteration can keep you up to date with modern PHP development. Full presentation slides: https://www.slideshare.net/DrewAPicture/wordpress-development-in-a-modern-php-world-162879124