6.26.2018

Yuval Noah Harari 3: Why fascism is so tempting — and how your data could power it


Yuval Noah Harari at TED2018
Why fascism is so tempting — and how your data could power it  (transcript)
Summary
I've heard the word "Fascism" for the first time in this story and l didn't realize that the speaker was the virtual image hologram on the stage.
I couldn't explain about nationalism well also. Can l understand the article?

Furthermore, l have a question. Is it true that Japan has a very strong sense of nationalism and it's the prosperous and peaceful country like Sweden and Switzerland in the world?

Fascism is a political system that is based on a very powerful leader, state control and extremely proud of the country, race, and a nation's wish. It attempts to be politically independent.

Nationalism is a patriotism, devotion to one's country, and ambition for national progress. In the country, people can all care about one another, cooperate effectively. They aren't living in tribal chaos because there is nationalism.

And then the speaker explains differences between fascism and nationalism. Nationalism shows that your country is unique and countries have special obligations towards your nation.

Fascism, in contrast, a country is supreme and it has exclusive obligations towards your nation. In fascism, people try to ignore the complications and to make life too easy for themselves. Fascism shows only the national identity, seeks the interests of only the nation, and the truth doesn't matter at all.
In the past, it's good because land was the most important asset in the world, even in a dictatorship.
However, in the modern age, machines become more important than land and data and democracy appear here.
Politics becomes the struggle to control the flows of data, but not to control land. Democracy was better at processing data making decisions, though, democracy is destroyed and polarized by fear, hatred, and vanity. This must be current America.

In fact, the story was told by the speaker at Davos Forum in Geneva, Switzerland this year.
Digital dictatorship will come soon and a new species called a governor of data will appear.

Simply put, just because of ease or comfort, you and your data are manipulated unconsciously by exploiting emotion, desire, and vanity.
And then my opinion is that Japan will be left behind.

Words in this story
species /noun/ race, tribe, species, family
patriotism / nationalism

Anna Rothschild : Why you should love gross science


Anna Rothschild at TEDxMidAtlantic
Why you should love gross science  (transcript)
Summary
“Gross science” is a YouTube program that the speaker announces.
Sorry, she doesn't want to explain her channel, but she suggests that we need to know about gross science to see important sources of knowledge about our health and the world. Gross science is about the slimy, smelly, creepy underbelly of nature, medicine, and technology. It's something that we always don't really like to talk about.

However, talking about gross stuff is a great tool for education and it gives children curiosity. 1)  We can extend the concept of disgust to morality, find out where the limits are and know that there are cycles of decay by fungus. 2) We can tell doctors our own body and health and have to be ready about being few women doctors.

I don't have good examples though l also think what the speaker tells us is important.
We have to know our own body more, even dirty parts really protect us.

P.S. the story reminded me of like the following proverbs. How about you?
You can't just sweep your problems under the rug.
Let sleeping dogs lie.

Poppy Crum : Technology that knows what you're feeling


Poppy Crum at TED2018
Technology that knows what you're feeling  (transcript)
Summary
I think that this experiment is a similar way to detect our lies. 

Now, technology has become incredibly intelligent and already knows about our internal states, even if we have a poker face. It must help us find diseases earlier.

However. sharing something too much is not comfortable for us and we want to keep what's going on inside from what people see.

Various data that are your pictures taken unconsciously by someone, your talks, and something you look at are exchanged, given away, and used to by technology involuntarily occurs every day without you sharing.

Can we create a world where we can care about each other more in such a world?

words in this story
aggression /noun/ offensive

James Bridle : The nightmare videos of children's YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today


James Bridle at TED2018
The nightmare videos of children's YouTube — and what's wrong with the internet today (transcript)
Summary
When I was a child, my mother often said to me, "Stop watching TV!!" Recently, It seems to be different. I've heard from my friend who has children. She always says to her children, "Stop watching Youtube, watch TV instead !!"
She knows that Youtube automatically takes children to weird places which means the programs of violent or sexual.

The speaker tells us that there are parents who don't know that and those programs now can't be stopped because figuring out who's making those is impossible. If they are erased, someone ups them again.
He suggests that we don't think that technology can solve those problems, but we have to know them properly, start to address them and all people are responsible.

People want to watch Youtube for free. Companies want to get advertisement charge and sell products. Parents want children to be quiet. Someone wants videos they made to be known by many people in the world.

I appreciate that my mother forbade me from watching TV and playing games when I was a child.

Words in this story
resistance /noun/ opposition
involuntarily / unconsciously
forbade forbad, forbade, forbid, forbidden

Greg Gage : How you can make a fruit fly eat veggies


Greg Gage at DIY Neuroscience
How you can make a fruit fly eat veggies (transcript)
Summary
I see. It's interesting that taste buds of fruit flies are very similar to ours. Taste buds are made up of specialized neurons and when we eat something that is, for example, sweet taste, those taste neurons will fire a signal to the brain.
Its signal like lights is the trigger that we love sweet taste.
Now, the revolutionary new tool can send a signal to the brain of fruit flies when they eat another food that is not sweet taste. They become loving another food.
The tool is optogenetics that is thought to work in humans, the study has to continue, though.
It means that a lot of children don't like to eat veggies though it can be adjusted by optogenetics.

Words in this story
fruit flies /noun/ a small fly that feeds on fruit in both its adult and larval stages.
receiver /noun/ receptor, recipient
refer /verb/ plot, attempt, devise
replicate /verb/  copy, reproduce

Oskar Eustis : Why theater is essential to democracy


Oskar Eustis at TED2018
Why theater is essential to democracy  (transcript)
Summary
The word for democracy reminds me of my teacher's question. She always asks me what democracy is. This shows what an important word it is really.
Democracy is a system of government in which all the people choose their leaders, or a country with this system, A society characterized by equal rights and privileges, and people can have dreams.

Additionally, the speaker tells us that in a society of democracy, people have dialogues and even if they have the conflict of different points of views, it leads to the truth. The idea that truth comes from the collision of different ideas and the emotional muscle of empathy are the necessary tools for democratic citizenship, though, what happens now?

In America, the previous election has divided people completely.
There's no conversation, emotion, and compassion. It can produce nothing.
In the past, theaters had the commonality that people need and the sense of unity. It's whole senses and people were there. Thus going to a theater must mean that people take back their country, truth that there is in a society of democracy.

Words in this story
unity /noun/  union, unification, integration, coalition, federation
commonality /noun/ the state of sharing features or attributes.
collision /noun/  crash
unitary /adj/ forming a single or uniform entity. of or relating to a unit or units
segregate /verb/ be divided
democracy antonym autocracy

John Doerr 2: Why the secret to success is setting the right goals


John Doerr at TED2018
Why the secret to success is setting the right goals  (transcript)
Summary
Why is the secret to success setting the right goals?
The answer is that the right goals have great objectives why you really want to do it.
In fact, the object: why you want to do it is very important and it should be the right one that you can continue seeking your success, so the wrong objectives lead you to failing.
We have to question more closely why we choose this goal to decide the right goal. Why? Why? Why do you have this objective?

P.S. I thought that we could understand really well his talk of ten years ago after reading the story. Let's read next→Salvation (and profit) in greentech

John Doerr 1: Salvation (and profit) in greentech


John Doerr at TED2007
Salvation (and profit) in greentech  (transcript)
Summary
Although we face a huge problem that is climate change, some companies are addressing well. If we have a right goal, we can definitely do. No, we have to do and this time, the goal and the objective are really clear.
“Our generation created this problem. We have to fix it for our children”.

Many people must think that the problem of climate change is too big to do anything.
However, the keys are that there are many things that companies can do, 1) individuals also matter, 2) of course, policy matters, 3) and now, there's a possibility of radical innovation and a breakthrough technology. 4)

We can reduce our energy consumption, we let China cooperate, and all people and all nations make the right outcome. It means to get the right economic, profit outcome, and we are addressing the problem: climate change.

Words in this story
compulsive /adj/  resulting from or relating to an irresistible urge, especially one that is against one's conscious wishes.
lobby /verb/  seek to influence (a politician or public official) on an issue.
profligate /adj/ recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources

6.25.2018

Small Thing Big Idea



Small Thing Big Idea: Designs that changed the world (article)
I found interesting articles that the title is “Small Thing Big Idea”. I love such ideas because many people don't notice, but it's close to them definitely. Inventing small things must make us happy and might change our life also. Like bluebirds, our happiness must be close to us, but there are many things we don't know. It's also close to us.

After reading them, I try finding “Small Thing Big Idea”, I think that I can't find when I find, though.




Michael Bierut at Small Thing Big Idea 
The genius of the London Tube Map  (transcript)  (my summary)

Paola Antonelli at Small Thing Big Idea
The 3,000-year history of the hoodie  (transcript)  (my summary)

Caroline Weaver at Small Thing Big Idea
Why the pencil is perfect (transcript)  (my summary)
Daniel Engber at Small Thing Big Idea
How the progress bar keeps you sane  (transcript) (my summary)
Kyra Gaunt at Small Thing Big Idea
How the jump rope got its rhythm  (transcript) (my summary
Isaac Mizrahi at Small Thing Big Idea
How the button changed fashion  (transcript) (my summary)
David Rockwell at Small Thing Big Idea
The hidden ways stairs shape your life  (transcript) (my summary)

Margaret Gould Stewart at Small Thing Big Idea
How the hyperlink changed everything  (transcript) (my summary)

6.19.2018

Daily Quotes

Good morning
One of my friends speaks English very well. When she and I saw sentences of Japanese, we made those sentences in English.
Please collect my sentences and tell me how different our sentences are, I understand that I have little vocabulary skills, though.😂(Those Japanese sentences are secret.)

1) All things that really matter start with a strong will.
Me: Your strong will is your start. It’s beginning.

2) Pursue big dreams with lofty ambitions.
Me: Enhance your will and have a big dream.

3) A tailwind is good, but a headwind is even better.
Me: Having problems make you strong more than straight ways.

4) Be as sincere as if kneeling in prayer.
Me: You should address all things seriously like you swear to God.

5) Take steady steps, day by day.
Me: Walk steadily every day.

6) Always revert to "what is right."
Me: Focus on what is right.

7) Success is only achieved through continuous endeavors.
Me: Success never comes to you until you achieve your goal.

8) There are no shortcuts when doing business.
Me: Your business doesn't have the ways of shortcuts.

9) Your most powerful ally is yourself.
Me: Your most strong ally is yourself.

10) There's always something that can exceed the best.
Me: The best way you have must have the more best way.

11) Be prepared to meet hardships
Me: You should understand your problems and you proceed.

12) For those with dreams, every day is enjoyable.
Me: Your dream makes you enjoy.

13) You won't reach your goal unless you keep on walking.
Me: Keep walking. It makes you achieve your goal.

14)  Not bothering to do is worse than not trying to do.
Me: What you can't do is not fear.  doing  nothing is fear.

15) Perform your joy with a sense of joy
Me: You work every day with joy.

16) Repeatedly remember the mindset that "Today's my first day."
Me: Keep having a mind, "Today is my first day"

17) Stick to your goals, and a path will open.
Me: Having your will open the way.

18) The mind can be molded by sheer willpower.
Me: Your thought is flexible.

19) If you become disoriented, go back to square one.
Me: When you lose your way, It must be better to retune to your origin without confusion. 

20)  Ask yourself what it is that you desire the most.
Me: What do you want to do?

21) A dead end is not the end of your endeavor.
Me: There is a way definitely when you can't find the way.

22) Post marker sighs along the way to your final objective.
Me: Your goal leads you to ideal and it's a milestone.

23) Consider the strength of your passion.
Me: What decides you is your passion.

24) You are the one to open up your own pathway.
Me: Open your path by using your hands.

25) Never procrastinate once you're committed.
Me: Procrastinating has no answer.

26) Keep holding high the torch of hope.
Me: Continue holding your hope.

27) Youth is youthfulness of spirit.
Me: Adolescence is a youth of your mind.

28) Step by step until the final step.
Me: Little by little, continue stepping and one more step.

29) Maintain your aspiration and it will be realized.
Me: By keeping thinking, your dream will come to you.

30) In the end, the public's judgment is correct.
Me: Majority will be right.

31) Do what you should.
Me: You should do what you have to do.

Jason B. Rosenthal : The journey through loss and grief


Jason B. Rosenthal at TED2018
The journey through loss and grief  (transcript)
Summary
The speaker's case is rare because his wife was an author who wrote a book about her husband, though, death of your family members definitely comes to you.
What do you do during that time and what will you do after that?

And then people who choose home hospice are also rare for your family members because the speaker tells us that it's not beautiful for the surviving family members.

There are a lot of cases about death of family members. You might want to talk about those because you have already experienced or you might not want to talk.
Acknowledge that. Talking about death might be nice to connect with someone living each day.

Living apart family members might give you courage and joy.
Losing and someone who is not there where one was always are grief, though, the speaker hopes that you can see your fresh start.

Words in this story
excruciate /verb/ afflict, torment, torture
hospice /noun/ a home providing care for the sick, especially the terminally ill.
acknowledge /verb/  recognize, admit, appreciate

6.18.2018

Jeremy Forbes : How to start a conversation about suicide


Jeremy Forbes at TED@Westpac
How to start a conversation about suicide  (transcript)
Summary
"He (the speaker) thinks that we can all be life preservers".
This is a great sentence. Not only for a person who thinks that he/she wants to commit suicide but also for kids, elderly people, and robbers, people in the community are life preservers.  In the past, communities must have been like that. Communities helped people but communities could stop stealing. Every one must have prevented their communities, however, what happens now?
When a person suicides, no one doesn't know the reason why he/she does, the words they say are who's next and even there is a pronounced ripple effect.
People can solve one's hidden troubles, but people can listen and stop suiciding.
The speaker creates a place where people can start a conversation about suicide in the communities. He is a life preserver but it doesn't work unless all people are preservers in the communities where it’s important to have a conversation.

Words in this story
preserver /noun/ a person or thing that saves from damage or harm.

Hugh Herr 2: How we'll become cyborgs and extend human potential


Hugh Herr at TED2018
How we'll become cyborgs and extend human potential  (transcript)
Summary
What are cyborgs?
Can a cyborg feel his legs?
Cyborg is a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body.
I thought that the speaker was a cyborg because he lost both legs in a climbing accident though he became able to run, climb, skip, and dance by him building bionic limbs.
However, he tells us that he is a bionic man, but he is not yet a cyborg.
His commands that are movement desires are communicated to the synthetic part of his body by artificial electrodes sense: his nerve pulses, but those computers can't input information into his nervous system.
When he touches and moves his synthetic limbs, he does not experience normal touch and movement sensations.
If he was a cyborg, he could feel his legs via small computers inputting information into his nervous system.

His thoughts are to have new bodies. It means to have bodies that you can't see the line between the natural and synthetic worlds and to end disability. The key is to be neurally linked to synthetic limbs bidirectionally.
He was possible that. By connecting nervous systems bidirectionally to synthetic limbs, the neurological embodiment is achieved, and a person can think and move a person’s synthetic limbs, and one can feel those movements within one’s nervous systems. It's no longer a separate tool. A person becomes a cyborg and feeling is that the robot becomes part of the one. Not to feel like a cyborg is that becoming a cyborg and extending human potential.

Words in this story
bionics /noun/ the study of mechanical systems that function like living organisms or parts of living organisms.
blur /verb/ make or become unclear or less distinct.  cloud, fog
amputate /verb/  cut off, sever, remove (surgically),
artificial /adj/ made or produced by human beings rather than occurring naturally, typically as a copy of something natural.
prosthetics /noun/ artificial body parts; prostheses.
proprioceptive /adj/ sense
bidirectional /adj/ functioning in two directions.

6.17.2018

Hugh Herr 1: The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance


Hugh Herr at TED2014
The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance  (transcript)
Summary
My thought that technology is now great improving seems to be wrong.
It's because the speaker tells us that deficiencies in technology are the reasons that disability is rampant in the world.
Technology must more eliminate people's disability. Technology advanced can rid the world of disability and it can look disabilities more natural.

Bionics means the study of the functions of living organisms and the use of this information in the design and creation of mechanical systems.

The speaker's thoughts are to bridge the gap between disability and ability and it can succeed by helping science and design. It's called synthetic biology has grown novel technologies.

He lost both legs in a climbing accident. Although it took much time, he could get a new climbing prowess.
Amazingly, his nervous system of residual limb communicate to the bionic limb. Attached the electrical pulse of his muscles is helping.
He doesn't have legs, but when he thinks about moving his phantom limb, the robot tracks those movement desires. He explains that it's used three extreme interfaces in his bionic limbs: mechanical, dynamic, and electrical.
The new bionics that let disability and him run, climb and dance, however, he further seeks to actually feel like flesh and bone.

His thoughts never stop. It's beginning to bridge the gap between human limitation and human potential.

In fact, I understood this story, when I've read his next TED talk. My thought was really bad. Not only technology but also human thoughts are no limits.

 Words in this story
rampant /adj/ uninhibited, wild
nervous /adj/  neurological, neural. anxious
nerve /noun/  neuron, sensitivity
bidirectional / functioning in two directions.mutual, reciprocal
residual /riˈzijo͞oəl/adj/  remaining after the greater part or quantity has gone.

P.S. This is the second time for me to read the article. I'm sorry that my previous summary is strange. I don't understand why I wrote such thing. Hahaha(my previous summary

Heidi M. Sosik : The discoveries awaiting us in the ocean's twilight zone


Heidi M. Sosik at TED2018
The discoveries awaiting us in the ocean's twilight zone  (transcript)
Summary
This is a sad story that we can't save ocean life if we continue fishing and five countries must understand that, but they don't do anything.
Why?
Five countries are China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Spain which alone account for almost 80 percent of the fishing in the high seas. They wouldn't think that not only they lose their jobs if they stop fishing now but also they'll lose their jobs if they continue fishing like that.
I guess that just they must have their own way.

If we stop fishing industries, we can see pristine high seas in only 10 years 1) and fishermen and its countries will make much more money from tourism. 2)
Of course, forests are important to clean our air. The ocean also gives us more than half of the oxygen we breathe. It absorbs much of the carbon pollution that we throw in the atmosphere.  3) In fact, for fishing industries in high seas, huge government subsidies are used. It's more than the profits. 4) The high seas catch does not contribute to global food security because of upscale. 5)

Why do we continue those?  What goals do fishing industries have? Is it important to hire or to be hired there?
The speaker tells us that this is the type of cooperation and willingness to set aside differences that we are going to need.
We are people who kill or protect our oceans, aren't we?

Words in this story
pristine /adj/ in its original condition; unspoiled.
high seas /noun/ the open ocean, especially that not within any country's jurisdiction.
obstinacy /noun/ the quality or condition of being obstinate; stubbornness.

6.12.2018

David Rockwell : The hidden ways stairs shape your life


David Rockwell at Small Thing Big Idea
The hidden ways stairs shape your life  (transcript)
Summary
I'm puzzled by cultural differences of stairs. I thought that the roles of a stair are to get from point A to B different elevations and to lead people safely only in disaster. It's because in Tokyo, Japan, most people don't want to use stirs at stations and their apartments. Even if an elevator and an escalator are crowded, people get in line there. They feel blue not when they see that it's crowded but there is only a stair. Thus stairs are hidden in itself and in disaster, people are compelled to use a stair because an elevator and an escalator stop by electricity failure.

However, in the TED talk, a stir is a form of art in itself, stairs can add enormous drama and emotion in people's lives.  The stoop of there are stairs is a place that invites neighbors to gather, blast music, and watch the city in motion, so in the beautiful movies:  Cinderella,  Beauty and the beast, and Frozen, stairs definitely appear. Standing and sitting on a stair might mean that you're in a kind of magical place.

This story says that beautiful ways are hidden in stairs, where Japan says that stairs are hidden in themselves because people feel blue when they see stairs.
It really shapes our life, doesn't it?

Words in this story
cultural /adj/ of or relating to the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a society.
culture /noun/ the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
malleable /adj/ flexible, pliable, elastic

Margaret Gould Stewart : How the hyperlink changed everything


Margaret Gould Stewart Small Thing Big Idea
How the hyperlink changed everything  (transcript)
Summary
People, now, use hyperlinks naturally and unconsciously.  They must be frustrated if they face no hyperlink where they want to know.
You know that when you see web pages. Words figured out blue color have a link, you know, you can click them and it opens another page.
This is the hyperlink. The speaker tells us that It gives people the opportunity to influence the narrative like jumping around in a story.
The hyperlinks are not only used by many people but also created by many people. That is surprising.

I can do that also. I can see how to create hyperlinks by using hyperlinks.
For me, It changed how to study English first. I don't need to use thick dictionaries. It means that when I don't know even one English word, l sometimes use an English Japanese dictionary, an English English dictionary, a Japanese English, and a Japanese dictionary. And then I go to a library when I want to know something more. I can read TED talk more than before, enjoy, continue, and it can be said to change my life.

The hyperlink is too great to imagine who and how to be invented, isn't it?

Words in this story
democratic /adj/ government run by the people of life the country and it has a principle that equal right and privileges.

Tim Ferriss : Smash fear, learn anything


Tim Ferriss at EG 2008
Smash fear, learn anything  (transcript)
Summary
The speaker tells us that fear is your friend and fear is an indicator that shows you not what you shouldn't do, but what you should do.  It means that you do not do something because of fear, but try doing something though you feel fear.
The analytical frameworks and the capabilities you have must overcome your old fears.

The speaker mastered swimming, Japanese, and tango dancing that were very difficult and he was not good at because of fear.

Now, he thinks that he would feel fear if he wouldn't try them and he couldn’t learn many things.

P.S. I know that. If I didn't start studying English,  I wouldn't have my blog and wouldn't know that writing English is fun. I feel fear when I think about that.
When I've read this article before, I focused only on work efficiency. I didn't remember what I wrote before. Hahaha!! Previous one is this. → (my summary)

Yasmin Green : How technology can fight extremism and online harassment


Yasmin Green at TED2018
How technology can fight extremism and online harassment  (transcript)
Summary
In fact, l had a bad feeling when I started reading this story and it unfortunately happened.  I found a word “Moonshot” that I didn't like.
The speaker said that she partnered with Moonshot to counter radicalization.
In the past, ways that were done with Moonshot and aims that Moonshot had were not accurate.
And then this time, why does technology has to be used to solve this problem?  I don't say that it doesn't have to be used and it must not be used. Just the problem must have other important solutions because the speaker knows the reason why ISIS wins hearts and minds of young people and the answer is that it's not tech-savviness.

The first and the goal are different this time also. The speaker wants to use technology to fight extremism and online harassment but not want to help young people who take on violence and online harassment.

The speaker said, "we have to throw our entire selves into building solutions that are as human as the problems that people aim to solve".
I think that as human as the problem won't be needed to solve by technology and won't be needed to throw into something, but humans can directly solve. No, humans should directly solve.

Words in this story
savvy /adj/ shrewd and knowledgeable in the realities of life.
tech-savviness /noun/
persecution /noun/ hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race or political or religious beliefs. responsibility, blame
prosecution /noun/ criminal
radicalization /noun/

6.09.2018

Daniel Engber : How the progress bar keeps you sane


Daniel Engber at Small Thing Big Idea
How the progress bar keeps you sane  (transcript)
Summary
This is a story that I am also curious about. I think that it's fun and interesting to explore something that people might not notice and care.

The progress bar is an indicator on a computer. It shows what happens inside the device and it's said to show how much a task has done also.

The speaker's opinion is that the progress bar makes waiting more exciting. If there is no progress bar, you must be bored in front of your computer. Surprisingly, according to a study, people didn't care how much a task had done. People just wanted to see the progress bar. It made them feel better.
The speaker wants them to excite waiting for something, doesn't he? He tells us that people seek something that makes them less boring,  painful, and frustrating always and it's one way like mitigating the fear of death psychologically.

In my opinion, existing the progress bar gives me time to do other things when I see it, the speaker says that it’s wrong, though.
I also excite the ber showing because I think that just my command will be right. Anyway, anyway,  there is time that I have to wait, my life is boring, and thinking about mitigating the fear of death are nonsense.
Waiting time is time to do other things for me, I don't have time to be bored, and I think that death is inevitable.
I know that there are traffic signals that have an indicator that shows how long time you have to wait to cross. It's to avoid crossing forcibly.
However, it gives me time to memorize one English word and the calendar of Napoleon Hill that shows you fall down your life quickly is turned over by me. I go up my life stairs hard, but not fall. Too much?

P.S. I wrote this to the best!

Words in this story
duration /noun/  full length, period, term, span
enhance /verb/  increase, add to
mitigate /verb/ relieve, soften
ease /verb/ relax, loose,  relieve

Paola Antonelli 1: Treat design as art


Paola Antonelli at TED2007
Treat design as art  (transcript)
Summary
I thought why the speaker has collected many funny types of furniture and equipment.
In fact, she has been a design curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art which is very famous. It seems to be called MoMA that means The Museum of Modern Art and to work as a shop to develop and collect modernist art.
Thus I thought that she said that she discovered that she was much more comfortable with objects than with people and she has to face high level designed objects every day. She told us about design hard.
We, people, think that "design" has to have high quality and luxury. It's used expensive materials like we can't use.
However, "design" should be very familiar. The arms are to make things better and to answer human needs.
In this generation, we can think that good design lead us to better lives with low prices.
Around us, there must be the very small things that design makes those very big and meaningful. It works not only on objects but also on behavior.
The speaker tells us that this is the design treating as art.
Nevertheless, the New York's Museum of Modern Art is too famous and too high for us to imagine that there are things that we can use.
Additionally, what more surprises me is that there is the shop: MoMa in Tokyo, Japan also. This has been a first overseas store. I will go there immediately.

P.S. I think that Japanese translation in this TED talk is a mistake about the contemporary art and the modern art.

Words in this story
impalpable /adj /unable to be felt by touch.
inflate /verb/  increase, raise, boost
science /noun/ system of knowledge gained by systematic research and organized into general laws. Those are specific field of systematic knowledge, skill and proficiency. 

6.05.2018

Caroline Weaver : Idea Why the pencil is perfect


Caroline Weaver at Small Thing Big Idea
Why the pencil is perfect  (transcript)
Summary
The speaker tells that to her, a pencil is a very perfect object because it’s taken hundreds of people over centuries to come to this design, it’s long history of collaboration, and the average user has never thought twice about those.
In her opinion, there’s nothing that can be done to make the pencil better than it is. That’s why the pencil is perfect.
Again, I was sorry that I didn’t know about a pencil and its history at all. I’d thought that a pencil was invented in Japan and it's exported and donated to many other countries. It's because I've heard that the pencil made in Japan is really easy to write with, a core is hard to break, an eraser that is put also erases something to be written very cleanly.
And then I didn't listen to the sound of the pencil, I always focused on how to write beautiful characters.
I had to use one pencil until the end because my mother said that. I learned from my mother that I should feel gratitude for all things and use them until the end when I started using the pencil. This is the pencil to me. I'd used one pencil until it's very short. No one had it is my memory about the pencil.

Words in this story
patent /verb/ obtain a patent for (an invention).
This technology is patented.
hexagons /noun/ a plane figure with six straight sides and angles.

Paola Antonelli 4: The 3,000-year history of the hoodie


Paola Antonelli at Small Thing Big Idea
The 3,000-year history of the hoodie  (transcript)
Summary
A hoodie is a garment that is made of cotton jersey that has a hood attached with a drawstring and sometimes, it has a marsupial pocket.
I love a hoodie because I think that it's cool, I want to wear the same one that handsome guys wear and I can hide by wearing the hood up.

The speaker tells us that the hoodie has a whole universe of possibilities attached. It's a functional and comfortable garment that is adopted by workmen, skateboarders, athletes, and young people. People can feel warmth and protection by wearing the hood up immediately.

The speaker tells us that no other garment has so much symbolism and history that the hoodie has. The hoodie seems to catch people’s mind strongly from quite long time ago which seems to be from  3,000 years ago.

Words in this story
vigilant /vijələnt/adj/ keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.
vigilante /noun/ a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate.
marsupial /adj/ relating to the marsupials.

Isaac Mizrahi 1: Fashion and creativity


Isaac Mizrahi at TED2008
Fashion and creativity (transcript)
Summary
Although the speaker tells that he doesn't know where inspiration comes from many times,  his stories that are not summarized at all and his thoughts that he wants to do many things always become his inspiration and it must push him.  It'll be said to be his creativity also.
No matter what you want to do many things, what you see a trick, what the tarot card shows, and even what you couldn't sleep, those are your inspiration. He is a big fashion designer. His creativity that doesn't make him sleep makes him a famous designer.

P.S. In this TED talk, he was saying that "you know" and "sort of" too much, wasn't he?

Words in this story
sort of /adv/ rather, kind of, slightly, somewhat
you know / well, so, hey
insomnia /noun/  sleeplessness, wakefulness
denigrate /verb/ insult
ingrained /adj/ deep-rooted

6.03.2018

Isaac Mizrahi 2: How the button changed fashion


Isaac Mizrahi at Small Thing Big Idea How the button changed fashion (transcript)
Summary
According to this story, buttons were decorative for 3,000 years. It means to have the design performance. 1) It's higher than the zipper and the velcro.
When someone invented the buttonhole, buttons were suddenly useful. 2) By putting the button and the buttonhole, it makes your clothes never open and fit your body.
The zipper breaks easily and the velcro makes a lot of noise. If a button falls off, you just only sew on again soon. 3)
Those histories are the answers how the button changed fashion.

The speaker tells us one more key point. There are no bad buttons. It means that I'm a bad person for buttons. It's because I often think that the clothes don't have buttons when I see the clothes. I didn't like those buttons and I tried changing them to a zipper or other buttons often. Buttons are expensive because I have to buy five or six buttons for one dress, but it needs one zipper if I choose the zipper. I failed to put buttonholes often. It's too big and too small to fasten with. For me, It's easy to sew zippers more than buttons.
I'm now having a box of many buttons that were taken down from my clothes.

Words in this story
decorative /adj/  ornamental
endure /verb/  lasting, continue, bear

Kyra Gaunt : How the jump rope got its rhythm


Kyra Gaunt at Small Thing Big Idea
How the jump rope got its rhythm  (transcript)
Summary
OMG! I've done jump roping wrong all this while. While panting, huffing, and puffing, I did it.
In Japan, no one listens to and enjoys the sound of the jump rope. We didn't know that its rhythm was important. We just have to do it to train our body or to count numbers of jumps. I was not good at it, I didn't like it, and I thought that only Japanese people did it and in other countries, kids didn't do it.
We have to enjoy it because the article says that the jump rope is a simple object and it has a history.
It can be said that the ropes can create rhythms and chants and it leads to communities. It changed women's clothes, rules of playgrounds,  and they could get to shine, even they weren't allowed to play sports.
The simple object can carry those memories and can give us creativity with rhythm sound. This is the jump rope.

Words in this story
kinetic /adj/ of, relating to, or resulting from motion.
orality /noun/ the focusing of sexual energy and feeling on the mouth.
rhyme /noun/ the endings of words
rhythm /noun/ tempo
puff huff pant /verb/ breathe with short, quick breaths, typically from exertion or excitement.

Michael Bierut 2: The genius of the London Tube Map


Michael Bierut at Small Thing Big Idea 2018
The genius of the London Tube Map  (transcript)
Summary
What? The map I also use always when I ride in trains in Tokyo works because it really isn't a map at all.
What does it mean?
We call something that rivers, mountains, parks and many other things are drawn maps. If the stations are crammed in those maps, it's too complicated for people to ride in trains.
A man realized that people only wanted to know where to get on and off from a train map. It's shown by only lines and stations are equally spaced dots and he created a route map that was like a diagram or a scheme or a system.
This is a consequence that a man challenged a user interface that is focusing on who you're doing this for, 1) being simple, 2) and thinking in a cross-disciplinary way. 3)

He just wanted people to understand where to get on and off.

Words in this story
periphery /noun/  edge, outer edge, fringe, boundary, border, the outer limits or edge of an area or object.
correspond /verb/ correlate with, agree with, have a close similarity; match or agree almost exactly.
interface /noun/ a point where two systems, subjects, organizations, etc., meet and interact.
disciplinary /adj/ concerning or enforcing discipline

Michael Bierut 1: How to design a library that makes kids want to read


Michael Bierut at TEDNYC 2017
How to design a library that makes kids want to read  (transcript)
Summary
I like and love this kind of story.
First, the reason why I love this is that the title is good because not a person but a thing that is a library makes kids want to read, but it's made by a person. Something that a person made changes someone's life. It means that there is a beautiful library there, thus kids who, of course, love books, but who don't like books also can feel that they want to go there and they can spend with books.
Second is that this is a consequence intended. The speaker's intention is that not he is a great guy but people become to love a library.
The job should be that not you feel really good about yourself but consequences are important.
Although only one room is fixed, the children can improve their school lives. I thought that the thoughts that a new library where children could talk and made loud noises were better.

In this TED talk, colorful libraries were created. I couldn't imagine that shelves are red or green or yellow in Japanese libraries where walls should be white. It couldn't have beautiful pictures that were like students smile.
Japanese libraries and schools should be the image that is the statue of Ninomiya Kinjirou.


beautiful shelves for holding books

Elementary Schools in Osaka where I used to go                     the statue of Ninomiya Kinjirou

             



The image of Japanese library


We have to study there like the statue that is reading a book while walking and shouldering firewood.
Last, this story has one more great consequence, the speaker says that a consequence is unintended, though.
Not only the library made kids want to read but also it gave a librarian inspiration to work.

My opinion is that first intention is not healthy in our world. People just want to take their own credit and benefits. It won't happen and lead to better things.
What is the true intention you do that for?

Words in this story
impractical /adj/ unrealistic, unworkable
humiliate /verb/ embarrass, mortify, humble, shame, make (someone) feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and self-respect, especially publicly.
consequence /noun/  result, outcome, effect
intend /verb/ have (a course of action) as one's purpose or objective or plan

6.02.2018

Ingrid Fetell Lee : Where joy hides and how to find it


Ingrid Fetell Lee at TED2018 Where joy hides and how to find it  (transcript)
Summary
This is a very shocking story, especially for Japanese people.
It's because according to the speaker's study, there is no joy and happiness in Japan. People are packed into gray buildings, offices, and nursing homes, and of course, hospitals are also gray color and uniforms in the hospitals, offices, banks, high schools and business suits are dark colors in Japan. People are said to wear those. They can't try wearing colorful clothes because they will be frowned on.

Although l loved the speaker's vivid pink dress, they’d never speak it well.

In the TED talk, she tells us there is joy in colorfulness like cherry blossoms, rainbow, and fireworks and people seek joy instinctively for survival. Societies should be more colorful to find joy easily. Its drive must bring back youth.

Words in this story
humanity /noun/  humankind, mankind,  compassion, brotherly love, fraternity, fellow feeling
frowned frown /verb/ furrow one's brow in an expression of disapproval, displeasure, or concentration.
insurmountable /adj/ too great to be overcome.
aesthetics /esˈTHetiks/noun/  a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art.

Gene Luen Yang : Comics belong in the classroom


Gene Luen Yang at TEDxManhattanBeach 2016
Comics belong in the classroom  (transcript)
Summary
The story can be said strongly that the time finally comes. In fact, comics lectures can teach visually more than textbooks, films television, animation, and videos. It's because now, students grow up in a visual culture and comics are permanent that means in a comic, past, present and future all sit side on the same page and it shows that the rate of information flow is firmly in the hands of the reader.
When students didn't understand something in the comics lecture, they could just reread that passage as quickly or as slowly as they needed.

In the past, parents and teachers grew up without comics, thus reading those is not studying. Even when many students started reading comics, it continued. When the experiment that comics was used in the classroom started, there was an argument that comic books caused juvenile delinquency unevidently.  At once, video lectures were used in the classroom, but students are unbearable.

People wouldn't think that comics belong in the classroom, even the speaker didn't think that though it was wrong.

Words in this story
juvenile /adj/ of, for, or relating to young people.
delinquency /noun/  crime, wrongdoing
cause /verb/ make (something, typically something bad) happen.