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Lakshmi Pratury:  Letter-writing

This talk really touched me, because I too have fallen out of the letter-writing style. Most of the US has, as well. No one writes letters anymore.

Every once and a while I get a letter from my grandpa. I feel somewhat bad because I rarely write him back. Writing a letter just seems like so much of a hastle to me. I’m not sure why. It is the same thing as writing an email. It’s even the same thing as writing a message to someone on Facebook. The only difference is that you are actually putting pen to paper.

Lakshmi Pratury talks about a letter that her father left her when he died. After that she realized that letter-writing has become a lost art. She decided that she was going to leave her son things that have to do with handwriting. In the future what will happen to handwriting. Most schools don’t offer handwriting classes anymore. Handwriting itself could become a lost art. Sure, people may still write in the future, but the beautiful calligraphy will be a thing of the past. Invitations will all be typed and printed instead of handwritten. This is the main point Lakshmi Pratury tries to make in her talk. I absolutely agree with her. I really hope that this turns around in the world. I know that I have started writing more things down instead of typing everything.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Bobby McFerrin:  Hacks your Brain With Music

Bobby McFerrin wrote the song “Don’t Worry Be Happy” and in this talk he demonstrated how the brain can work. He begins by jumping in one place on the stage singing a pitch. He has the audience match this pitch. He then moves up and down giving the audience matching pitches until they finally figure it out. He then moves across the stage while the audience is singing the pitches, and he is improvising a melody over the top.

It is amazing that this could work. It just goes to show how innovative the human brain is. He only needed to give the audience a few pitches before they could figure it out on their own. It is also amazing that they could continue to sing the pitches while he was singing his own pitches over the top. Just another point about the human brain. It can focus on two things at once.

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Sebastian Wernicke:  Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TED Talks)

This talk was very useful when I was preparing my own TED-inspired talk. Sebastian Wernicke gives you all the statistics you could ever want about a TED talk. He put every 1.3 million words of the talks through statistical analysis to figure out what made a good talk, and what made a bad talk. He analyzed everything about a talk from its topic to what colors you should wear while presenting.

He starts off talking about what your topic should be. He organized possible topics into a scale from rational to emotional, and actions to ideas. He then blocked out areas that were most emailed, most commented, and most favorite. He continued to place adjectives along this scale such as courageous, persuasive, informative educating, ingenious, funny, jaw-dropping, beautiful, and inspiring. He then took out the top 10 words used in the most successful talks, and the top 10 words in the least successful talks. He also mentions that the most successful and favorite talks are those that people can connect with.

He then moves on to talk about your delivery. He says a big tip you should use is to utilize every second you have on the clock. He also tells you what you should wear. For example, you should be a little more dressed up than usual, and that you should let your hair grow out a little longer than normal. He then mentions certain 4 word phrases to use in a successful talk, and 4 word phrases to avoid.

If you ever need to give any type of talk, you should watch this talk to help you know how. He even has his own TED Pad that you can download to help you create sentences for your own successful talk.

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Jamie Oliver:  TED Prize Wish: Teach Every Child About Food

I love everything about Jamie Oliver. I used to watch his “Naked Chef” TV show on Food Network where he would only use fresh or “naked” food to cook his recipes. I also watched his Food Revolution show on ABC this year. So, when I saw he had a TED talk I watched it. In his talk he talks about his experience in Huntington, WV dealing with the obesity they have there.

Food nutrition and school lunches is a topic that is close to my heart. I also covered Ann Cooper’s talk on School Lunches where she talked about how she changed the school lunch program in her school district in California. Jamie is trying to do the same thing with his Food Revolution but all over the US. He started his revolution in England by changing the school lunch programs there, and he succeeded. 1 out of every 3 people in the United States are obese. 9% of our children are living with type-2 diabetes, and this year’s generation of children is the first generation to die at a younger age than their parents. Jamie knows that this shouldn’t happen and now he is trying to get the rest of America aware of that fact.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) sets regulations for school’s lunches, but schools are taking short cuts with these requirements because the food they are serving is not chosen by the USDA it’s chosen by the school’s funding agents. Schools are also reimbursed by the USDA’s National Lunch Program. They are given 25 cents per meal served and $2.63 for every reduced price meal. Schools only take about a dollar of that to be spent on buying more food for kids.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Alexis Ohanian:  How to Make a Splash in Social Media

Alex starts off the talk by explaining how he starting a website with a few friends of his. On his site, Reddit, you can submit anything and if the people in your network community liked it they could vote it up or down. He then explained how there was an environmental organization where they are trying to stop the Japanese government on their whaling campaign. So too put an end to the killings of these whales they decided to place tracking devices on them. For some reason that doesn’t make sense to me, they wanted to place tracking devices on these Whales. So to do this they decided to hold a poll with all the different names see which names where most popular. So they had all these serious thoughtful names for the tracking devices, but then there was the name, “Mister Splashy Pants.” When I first saw this part of the video, was a bit confused as to why that would even be a legitimately optional name. However as the video goes on, the story had an important message. This name became the most popular and everyone began to talk about it. Many websites like Reddit began to have post about how it was a good name. Alex and his friends even changed their logo to help the cause. After all of these websites started to promote the name, the percent that this name was voted went up from 5% to 70%! To me this is truly amazing and just goes to show how fast people can agree on something over the internet.

Even after the environmental organization said that it wasn’t a real option and they wanted one of their more serious names to win, people became more driven to make sure that the name of that tracking device was named, “Mister Splashy Pants.” I find it funny how Alex points out that one of the main reasons that everyone probably voted for this name is because everyone wants to hear their news anchor say, “Mister Splashy Pants.” After it was decided that that was going to be its name, the organization began to make everything fro shirts to pins with “Mister Splashy Pants” on it.

What is amazing to me is that they actually accomplished their goal and the Japanese called off their whaling expedition. At the end of the video, I like how Alex points out how great the internet really is. He emphasizes how no one’s link is any better than anyone else’s. Another great thing about the internet is that it cost absolutely nothing to put something up like this.

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Sheila Patek:  Clocks the Fastest Animals

From the beginning of the video I was immediately interested when she started talking about the means of these shrimp getting food. Then it got even better when she showed the clip of the manta shrimp eating, shot with a high speed camera. I found these shrimp to be incredibly interesting. In the first video clip she showed, this shrimp was reaching up and grabbing a piece of food with its ‘arms.’ As the high speed camera showed with 1000 frames per second, you could clearly see its little arms reach up and grab the bait with lighting speed. The second manta shrimp that she showed was even more interesting than the first. This one actually could break open the shells of the snails. Shelia also showed a clip of this shrimp gently feeling the shell of the snail that was in front of it, then it just hit it out of the frame with an appendage that came from somewhere below the shrimp. Shelia explained that this shrimp could either use that appendage to stab with the dagger looking point on the end, or it could smash the will the heel section of the appendage.

After thinking about the special appendage of this shrimp, Shelia wanted to know how fast it could move. The only problem was that she did not a high enough speed camera that was available to her to shoot it. Finally when she got the opportunity to shoot it she discovered some record breaking speeds. After shooting the shrimp smash the shell of the snail, the appendage was calculated to be going at 45 miles per hour. This is extremely fast for something to be going underwater. This shrimp is now the listed as the fastest ways of feeding.

After further investigation with this bizarre appendage, Shelia figured out that for the amount of force to be giving off, there needed to be some kind of spring loaded system that releases this great amount of energy. She discovered this saddle shape on the shrimp that she realized was used to compress, and enable d the shrimp to be able to perform this unbelievable act. After acquiring more technology, she calculated that these shrimp were able to produce over two hundred pounds of force! This is amazing to me.

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Gever Tulley:  5 Dangerous Things for Kids

In this video, I felt like I could relate with Gever in many ways. I find his way of raising children to be very interesting and different from usual methods. Gever explains how everything that is being produce recently has been children proofed. From plastic bags to any remotely sharp objects, there is a warning label on it. He makes a great point when he says that if we are always protecting are children from these kinds of situations, how are they going to handle it when they are out on their own. Gever says, “As the safety zone grows smaller, we cut off valuable opportunities for our children to interact with the world around them.”

If we keep our children from exploring on their own, how are they ever going to learn those essential life lessons? I think that if children learn these lessons on their own, it will be much more meaningful to them. Children can also learn a lot more from the environment around them when their parents are not there to hold your hand and walk them through it. He also make a great point when he reminds us that, no matter how hard we try to keep them in our little safe zone, they will always find a way to do something dangerous. I also think the same concept applies to older kids as well. I remember when my parents first made me order at a restaurant all by myself. At the time it was one of the scariest things in my life, but now I realize how helpful it really was. To me, simple things like this really help prepare you for the real world where your parents aren’t going to be there to walk you through everything.

I also think that being able to explore and learn things on your own is what defines people to be independent when they grow up. Gever gives a great example of this when he discusses one of the five dangerous things, “playing with fire.” He explains how children can learn so many things by carefully playing with fire. To me, this relates to the lesson Gever mentioned earlier about how if you do not introduce them to it now and let them learn fro it, they we get her later on. When the play with dangerous things such as fire, they can learn the basic principle and get a feel for how dangerous it really is. I also like the point that Gever makes about children throwing things.

This is something that you generally think that someone would tell a kid not to do, right?

Well when I think about, when I was a kid I was always throwing things, whether it is a baseball, rocks, or even a wadded up pair of socks when I was bored. Gever says that a part of our brains is designed to throw thing, and just like a muscle, the more we exercise this part of the brain, the more precise it becomes. Throwing also help kids gain depth perception, hand-eye coordination, and three dimensional understanding. Gever also explains how throwing improves children’s attention and concentration skills, which I am sure in turn help out with athletic abilities. Another lesson that Gever shares is to take apart old appliances that are not going to be used again. He says that even if the children do not know what these individual parts are for, they can begin to assume and better understand how things generally work.

I believe that sometimes parents have to be able to let their children go off on their own to get a feel for not being constantly with their family. For example, a child’s first sleepover away from his parents is a very crucial part in their childhood. The first night that they are away from home without their parents they really get a feel for the first stages of becoming independent, and get those first feeling of homesickness that they will later overcome. Children that learn to become independent sooner also mature faster and are going to be the kids that are prepared for the real world.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Renny Gleeson:  Antisocial Phone Tricks

Attention! Attention!

That is something lacking in our society of multitaskers. We are so preoccupied with our own lives that there is no way to give one thing full attention when there are a million other things that need our focus at the same time. This talk shows our social involvement in reality being bombarded by virtual reality.

Gleeson humorously talks about our availability during this new era. With all of our appliances we virtually connected 24/7, 7 days a week. This may be seen as a good thing and bad thing. Always staying socially connected allows you to stay current. Once we lessen our availability we slowly start fading into the background of our own lives because we feel out of the loop and disconnected from a more global community. Once we focus our attention on staying virtually connected we begin to disassociate ourselves with our own reality.

The visuals he showed were striking because of the acts being displayed but also because they are real-life everyday situations. I could walk down the street and see the exact same thing happening. It’s funny how someone can never check their phone normally. It always has to be in an awkward position meant to conceal the fact that you are on your phone. As you see from Gleeson’s talk, these odd ways of trying to pretend we aren’t on the phone when we really are just make us look ridiculous. When i see someone like that i instantly stereotype them into the type of people that are glued to their phones all day. At the same time, its hypocritical because i know i do the exact same thing.

We all do it, but we all look down upon others who do. What does this say about our actions? It means we know we shouldn’t be so involved with our electronics but they have become an addiction. No, not even an addiction; electronics have become necessary for our survival today. Our culture is so advanced in the ways of communication. We use electronics for business, marketing, international communication, socializing with family and friends, and so much more. It’s more the norm to use these convenient means than make an actual trip person to person.

We, as a society, need to take a step back and realize the damage we are causing our relationships and the new perception we have of our two lives:real life versus virtual life.

Original TED page w/ speaker bio, links, comments, etc:

Robert Wright:  Optimism

Optimism is something most people look at as something that involves the idea of hope; whether it is for a better future, for someone else, or even just being a hopeful person in general. But this video in my honest opinion does not deal with the interesting facets or optimism and pessimism. This video did not appeal to me due to many reasons. It claims to be about optimism, however to me, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.

On top of all this, the speaker presents the subject in such a manner that I can’t help but disagree with the majority of what he has to say.

However, I will agree with one thing he said and that one thing only: that people are incredibly tolerable.

However, he is very wrong to overanalyze the situation in the American context, as the world does not hate America for the reasons he states, it involves a much more political stand point then psychological, the standpoint which he seems to find meaning in rather then the political. Also, what Mr. Wright is trying to get at is a subject that is much too broad to broach in a mere twenty minute time span that TED manages to enforce.

He also uses infuriating diction, with phrases such as “Non – Zero Sum Games” and “higher business morals”. “Non – Zero Sum Games” in particular, were absolutely outrageous to me. As much as I agree with the idea that there are an equivalent amount of wins to losses in the world, I highly disagree with the principle that success should be achieved via means of working together, as the whole idea is completely anti capitalistic, a system where numerous people have come out not only winners, but have created winners themselves, all by themselves. Capitalism is open to the idea of working together, but it does not demand it as Mr. Wright’s principles seem to heavily imply. There are also other multiple benefits that Capitalism has over Mr. Wright’s ideas.

For one, capitalism has a way of bringing people together without restrictions, and it allows and individual to choose a path of walking it solo to become successful, or to join business ventures with other individuals to become successful. Also, all capitalistic societies desire prominence, while this system almost desires mediocrity.

I highly disagree with almost everything said in this video, as it disagrees with many fundamental principles of business as well as having almost nothing to do with optimism, which is what the talk claims to be over.

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Joachim de Posada:  Don’t Eat the Marshmallow Yet

Oh that talk gave me a good laugh.

Joachim de Posada used humor to make a point.His talk was not over the top ridiculous. Even though it was funny, I still took it seriously. I think this is a good example of a talk that found a good modest balance between the usage of props, video, humor, and real ideas for the future.

I had already seen the Stanford marshmallow experiment previously. That first time I saw it I had a few lingering thoughts about it but I didn’t really know what to think about it. So for my conclusion I drew a blank.

Mr. Posada makes a great point here when talking about “delayed gratification”. What exactly does this mean? I define it as having the wisdom and self control to pass up instant gratification in expectations of achieving a larger goal in the end. In this consumer age we live in it’s hard to live by this principle. Most of us want what we want now now now and the temptation is too strong to resist. There is no such thing as patience, because we want everything to be convenient, easy, and fast. We believe these small gains really fulfill us and make us happy but in the end we are left feeling empty.

Now we is this trend a problem? Once we become accustomed to this instant gratification we become more and more incapable of waiting for long-term pay out. That means that qualities like endurance, patience, and self discipline and lacking from our society. If one is not willing to wait for true happiness, there is a void left that we start to fill with quick fixes of pseudo-happiness.

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As far as marshmallows are concerned, the experiment is exemplifying this trait in our society at a very small scale and early stage in life. As Mr. Posada said, when they followed up with the one-third of children who didn’t eat the marshmallow they were generally much more happy and successful than the other two-thirds of children. They used their self discipline in all aspects of their life whether it is in relationships, a job promotion, school; anything that they had to work hard for over a long period of time to receive their desired outcome. These kids understood how delayed gratification can really benefit you in the long run, and I hope more of our population will soon realize the same.