After watching Jessa Gamble's video on how every living organism with two or more cells has an internal clock, I found it slightly controversial because the examples that she used weren't very numerous and convincing. She spoke as though she expected her audience to believe her instead of having their doubts about what it was she was saying. Her presentation technique was also really bland and boring, which made the four minutes of her presentation seem longer than they actually were. I can honestly say that this TED talk was not one of the greatest ones done; a fifth grader could've done better.
She spoke about how if you took away the light, regular and artificial from a person, then they would start to run on an internal clock called the "body clock". Does that mean then that their clock starts running because of the person's habits, or because that's just the was their clock runs? Does every body's clock run on a different time, or on the same? I feel that if every body's internal body clock ran on the same time, we wouldn't be as diverse of a society as we are now, but it would also be interesting if clocks did run on the same time because we all have the same body parts.
Ms. Gamble said that the internal body clock was chemical, but does the battery every run out? Is that when you die, or does the clock not have any influence on a person's life itself? If we as a race don't use our internal clocks, because of environmental influences, then wouldn't we just evolve them away? Why do we all have internal body clocks? Her presentation was so short that either they haven't studied body clocks for very long, or scientists just don't know the answers to these questions. Of course, both of these scenarios wouldn't qualify her for a TED talk because there isn't enough information known and therefore isn't worth the time of the public knowing.
This connects to me because I know realize why I have a hard time waking up so early in the morning and on weekends, my internal clock hasn't set an alarm and the sun is up interfering with my sleep. I don't however know how this TED talk topic relates to education and the world because I don't know why having an internal body clock is relevant to our everyday lives because may of us don't use them. Why do scientists study our internal clocks if we don't use them because of the external clocks we use?
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
New Sense of Worth, Ric Elias
I found that while his presentation was mundane, the story itself made me think. He spoke about being in a plane crash and living through that with certain goals, to eliminate all of the negative energy in his life, to be a great dad, and that it all changes in an instant. The way his told his story was full of emotion, and captivating because he had been in such a traumatic incident that tightened your breath until he said that he survived.
If a person is put in that type of life and death situation, do their entire lives flash before their eyes, or just key parts? Do the survivors get a sense of determination to live forever, or does the feeling eventually dim to a point of no return? Would it be possible to know? I find that I can't personally answer these questions, because I have never had a near-death experience before; unless almost falling backwards in a chair counts.
When Mr. Elias said that he wanted to eliminate negative energy from is life, my first question was, is that possible? After all, he is human, and anger is a regular emotion to feel. Did he mean negative emotion he feels, or just negative emotions overall? If he meant overall, I don't see how that would be possible because of the fact that he can't control what other people feel. Why would he even want to get rid of that kind of emotion in the first place? Even though anger is not a good feeling to have, it makes all of the positive emotions that much better, it doesn't really make sense to get rid of it completely.
To me, Mr. Elias' speech sent the message that life is short and that I should do what I want/need within reason. I guess that education could help reinforce that statement because after school, students go out into the real world and have to start making decisions for themselves, so why not teach the kids how to live early instead of having them never figure it out unless they almost die. This relates to the world, because there are people in the world that live lives and don't face any scary situations because they believe that they have all of the time in the world, but if they were informed that their time on Earth was actually limited, they might actually start facing the scary situations.
I would recommend this blog to anybody interested in living.
If a person is put in that type of life and death situation, do their entire lives flash before their eyes, or just key parts? Do the survivors get a sense of determination to live forever, or does the feeling eventually dim to a point of no return? Would it be possible to know? I find that I can't personally answer these questions, because I have never had a near-death experience before; unless almost falling backwards in a chair counts.
When Mr. Elias said that he wanted to eliminate negative energy from is life, my first question was, is that possible? After all, he is human, and anger is a regular emotion to feel. Did he mean negative emotion he feels, or just negative emotions overall? If he meant overall, I don't see how that would be possible because of the fact that he can't control what other people feel. Why would he even want to get rid of that kind of emotion in the first place? Even though anger is not a good feeling to have, it makes all of the positive emotions that much better, it doesn't really make sense to get rid of it completely.
To me, Mr. Elias' speech sent the message that life is short and that I should do what I want/need within reason. I guess that education could help reinforce that statement because after school, students go out into the real world and have to start making decisions for themselves, so why not teach the kids how to live early instead of having them never figure it out unless they almost die. This relates to the world, because there are people in the world that live lives and don't face any scary situations because they believe that they have all of the time in the world, but if they were informed that their time on Earth was actually limited, they might actually start facing the scary situations.
I would recommend this blog to anybody interested in living.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Passion Lives Here, Isabel Allende
Of the many things to take away from this video, I would take away the knowledge of passion and empowerment of women. Isabel Allende really opened my eyes about how passion is really key to a person's heart and life. She taught me this by sharing stories, both happy and sad about women filled with passionate hearts and how in using that passion they exceed their situation.
If a person were to define heart and passion, what would be the explanation? Are there different definitions? As Ms. Allende explains passion and heart go hand in hand, they interconnect, but one can't fully understand her meaning unless there is a definition that goes along with them as well. She said that passion also goes along with women (I don't know if that's more than men, but that might be implied) and that 80% of displaced people and refugees are women and children; why is that? This can be interpreted in two ways, one: that the women help the children survive because of their heart and passion while the men die, and two: there is something wrong with the environment that they live in; it might even be a combination of both.
Once passion is defined, the next question is, how do people get it? Are they just born with passion already inside of them, just waiting to come out, or does the person have to go through some sort of traumatic experience or series of experiences to achieve passion in their hearts? If a person does have to go through a traumatic experience to get passion in their hearts, does that also mean that passion can be a negative thing? What makes people think that passion is always a good thing? Does it always help their will to live?
Even though Ms. Allende's TED talk brought up a lot of questions, I found that the thing to take away from the passionate speech on passion, was the beautifully phrased storytelling that went along with it. She told stories that had sadness to them and weight heavily on my heart, but they helped to define her point, to make her statement. This relates to Story in A Whole New Mind , and how using stories to help with a point can really get it across; if education was like that, we would have a whole lot of big thinkers in our society as a nation, and as a world.
If a person were to define heart and passion, what would be the explanation? Are there different definitions? As Ms. Allende explains passion and heart go hand in hand, they interconnect, but one can't fully understand her meaning unless there is a definition that goes along with them as well. She said that passion also goes along with women (I don't know if that's more than men, but that might be implied) and that 80% of displaced people and refugees are women and children; why is that? This can be interpreted in two ways, one: that the women help the children survive because of their heart and passion while the men die, and two: there is something wrong with the environment that they live in; it might even be a combination of both.
Once passion is defined, the next question is, how do people get it? Are they just born with passion already inside of them, just waiting to come out, or does the person have to go through some sort of traumatic experience or series of experiences to achieve passion in their hearts? If a person does have to go through a traumatic experience to get passion in their hearts, does that also mean that passion can be a negative thing? What makes people think that passion is always a good thing? Does it always help their will to live?
Even though Ms. Allende's TED talk brought up a lot of questions, I found that the thing to take away from the passionate speech on passion, was the beautifully phrased storytelling that went along with it. She told stories that had sadness to them and weight heavily on my heart, but they helped to define her point, to make her statement. This relates to Story in A Whole New Mind , and how using stories to help with a point can really get it across; if education was like that, we would have a whole lot of big thinkers in our society as a nation, and as a world.
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