As a rail/Metro commuter, I am now faced with filling up my time. Books. Check. Newspapers. Check. Magazines. Maybe. Music. Definitely. Video. Yes. While I’m hesitant to watch movies on my iPhone (I’m a purist), I’m OK with watching things educational and even the occasional bite-size morsel of entertainment. YouTube videos are too hard to sift through on the iPhone, so that leaves TED. Perhaps I’m missing some other good sources. Note: If you know of any, please email me or comment below.

TED is the Super Bowl of tech conferences, so who knows if I’ll ever get to attend. They book up way ahead and the tickets are a bit too cost-prohibitive for the average Joe/Jane. So, it’s a good thing TED offers their videos in a Mac-friendly format (yes, they’re available to PC’ers as well) on their website. There are some truly fascinating talks available, which open the senses and engage the mind in ways you may have not thought possible. Once you’ve purused subjects you find interesting, you might start to explore categories you may not have considered before — like, oh, the study of ants, for example. Who knew they had lazy ants who sit around and do nothing? Sounds like the real world.

Ranging from high science to film to music to architecture, TED has something for everyone. A few worth checking out are J.J. Abrams’ “Mystery Box”, Philip Starck’s “Think Deep on Design”, and John Maeda’s “On The Simple Life”, for starters. Get on in there and start watching. It will open your eyes.