[TED] What hallucination reveals about our minds

Oliver Sacks talks about hallucinations, how they seem to come from somewhere outside, not like a regular imagination where we can control what we think.

He once saw a patient who was blind yet completely sane with no medical problems, but was seeing things by hallucination. The patient said that her hallucinations seem to have nothing to do with what she's thinking, feeling, or doing, and that they were silent. Also she could not recognize anyone or anything in her hallucination. Then he talks more about other patients who see aliens, common objects, people they don't recognize, and movie-like scenes.

He said that hallucinations are just starting to reveal how our minds work, because they don't occur just to people with some kind of medical problem, but also to ordinary people.

Question: Mostly hallucinations are said to be one of 'bad' symptoms of many diseases. But if you experience it without any medical conditions, is it safe?

Word: unknown - we still know so little about our brains, when it is something that is critical to human beings.

[TED] Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep

The power of a good night's sleep is more than just relieving stress, but also has to do with succeeding. We can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness -and smarter decision-making.

These days I don't get enough sleep, and I do feel that it's bad for me. I get sleepy at school and sometimes can't concentrate well. So I should sleep more!

Word: Ideal
What is better? Getting more sleep and working more efficiently, or sleeping less and getting more work done? (Quality vs. Quantity)

Question: What happens if you don't get enough sleep for a long period of time???? or what if you can't sleep?

[TED] New data on the rise of women

Hanna Rosin

- dominating professions (50% managers are women)
- women are becoming more successful than men
- power dynamics are changing (women are taking control)
- for every 2 men with college degree, 3 women do
- this year, women became the majority of the work force

It is affecting movies, culture, superhero, marriages, and more.

75% of couples are requesting girls not boys. (I also prefer girls)
Even countries like India and South Korea are not preferring first born sons anymore.

Back then, it was driven by passionate feminists, but this time it is driven by the society.

The global economy is changing.
-nationwide survey showed than young women are making more money than young men.
-the middle earning jobs are dropping (it's is no longer about 'skills' it is about communication and intellectual ability)

ONE WORD: EQUALITY

I imagine my future to be just as good as any men's life would be. I think that things are definitely changing, and it is no longer about the gender, but it is now all about problem solving and how you deal with relationships.

Questions: Although statistic show that women are starting to dominate in many areas, would women ever be treated the same as men? (there are always prejudice and also physical strength that men are better at)

It was an interesting talk and I really liked it.

[TED-youtube] The Inner Life of a Cell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpTmXz8VQF8&feature=related




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8bKTjy2KOg (Shorter Version)


JUST WATCH...YOU'LL BE AMAZED!


questions;

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
ARE WE ALL LIKE THAT EVERY MILLI-SECOND?

[TED] Richard Sears - planning for the end of oil

He says:
-there is a lot of oil all over the world (app. 100 trillion gallons)
-people may predict that it's OK just because we have a lot of it
-In the last 150 years, oil has been an important energy source, but has been decreasing for the last 25 yrs
-there was a peak wood, a peak coal, and a peak oil / in the future he predicts that there will be natural gas and renewables peaks
-energy sources have been becoming less carbon intense
-rearranging molecules can create totally different substances (chalk to stone)


Question:
Would there have to be chemists and geologists to figure out the method?
What happens after the peak renewables?


One word:
prediction
-we hypothesize and experiment in order to find out if our predictions are right. It this one right?

[TED] Teaching kids real math with computers

Conrad Wolfram talks about the use of computer in our education on mathematics. He says that we are wasting our time trying to "calculate" which computers can do easily. He shows how the real math in this world is used in much more diverse settings and problem solvings, whereas the math we teach in schools are far more about calculation. The crucial steps he explains is that we have to be smart about using technology and not waste time solving problems by hand.

He also answers popular controversy where people say solving by hand is beneficial. However it is relatively smaller compared to what we really need to know for real world math.

Questions: How did we discover technologies that can do things we can't ever do better or faster? (A whole new mind, where he says that we have to find a job that no one and nothing can do faster or cheaper)

I think our education system should have a variety of real world teachings. Although we are learning the basics, we should be outside more often, actually discovering the world, not sitting in a classroom doing some math problems.

One word: imagination
-we need to think in terms of the big picture of the world. We shouldn't just look at the short term gaining and loss, but also consider the long term effects. And to do that, we need to use our imagination.

[TED] David Bismark: E-voting

David Bismark speaks about the fraud that wrongdoings that happen during elections. He says that there always is something that goes wrong in an election, especially if it is a country-wide, large one.

He says that the voters have rights to 'verify' their votes, and find out if their votes were counted correctly, while still keeping the votes a secret.

He says, switching around the names of candidates on the ballot form and then shredding the half that has the name on will do the job. The other side with choices will get scanned by its own barcode, and that way no one know who the person voted for, yet it can be checked by going online.


I think it is a very good idea, since many things are already done online. If a safe voting system takes over the traditional type and possibly work better, it would prevent fraud and miscounting that can lead to bigger issues.

The question I had was what if the person loses the encripted vote sheet? Also, what is someone had to find out about the vote? Could it possibly become a problem that cannot be solved?

The word I chose was honesty. Nowaways, people cannot even trust the government who is supposed to protect its citizens and now election methods are starting to be questioned for its effectiveness. When will this world become an honest society?