Every now and again, the universe sends me a special gift.

This morning, as I prepared my latest TED “playlist” from the 300+ amazing TED talks by amazing TED women, I stumbled on this gem: a TEDx talk by creator Amy Rosenthal.

Yipppeeee!!! TED is getting closer to achieving gender parity on its world stages: more than 40% of the speakers at TEDGlobal 2012 are/were women.

I watched the conference livestream (sometimes from my TEDxBed) thanks to TEDLive, the next best way of experiencing a TED conference without actually being there. In fact, in some ways, it's better.

Yang Lan (born March 31, 1968) is a Chinese businesswoman, talk show hostess, and co-owner with her husband Wu Zheng of Sun Television Cybernetworks in Shanghai, China.

Yang Lan was born in Beijing to a father who was an English professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University and a mother who was an engineer. After she married Hong Kong entrepreneur Wu Zheng, she became co-owner with him of a new media company, Sun Television Cybernetworks.

TED2012 kicked off on February 27, and runs for four fantastic days.

TEDsters around the world are glued to their #TED2012 livestreams (Yay TED Live!), #Twitter streams, and the TED 2012 website, hanging off of every word, thirsty for the latest in ideas, imagination and innovation.

I myself, a long-time TED fan and associate, and now a TEDLiver, am among them. There are at least a thousand reasons I love TED, and I love that I get to experience this year's conference livestream.