Top 10 New Year's Questions 2018

Top 10 New Year's Questions 2018.
1. What did you learn about yourself from this year 2017?

I knew that there were a lot of fake news even in my country Japan. and the people have believed them without confirming. If it continues, our important histories might be rewritten. I think that I have to be careful with that.   

2. Which relationship meant the most to you this year and why?

I think that relationship can be broken by benefit. Everyone is leaning on something or someone who can give them benefits. .
It's because I was told that it's important not to create better products but to have to get benefit many times.

3. What was one of the biggest challenges you faced this year and how did you handle it?

It was hard to get new customers. However, I continued doing it. I think that not giving up and continuing are the ways to succeed.

4. What was one of your proudest moments from this year and why?

The proudest moment I have is deciding to keep smiling and not comparing other people and also other things.
It's because I always want to cry and my life is hard. 

5. What was one of the most meaningful compliments you received last year? Why was it so meaningful to you?

I couldn't have it.

6. What did you do for fun this year? What was one of your favorite memories?

Although it was hard, I love my job and I've enjoyed working. 
My favorite memory this year was that my teacher created the video when she received our company's products. 

7. If you could change one thing from this year, what would you change and why?

I want to read Japanese books more. This year, I always read TED talks.

8. What was the most meaningful thing someone did for you this year?

I was told that selling was not only to get new customers but also doing these things: needing to give them more samples, to take part in some events, to eat dinner, and to do other things with them.

9. If you were to brag about one of your accomplishments from this year, which one would it be and why?

Although I don't have something to brag, continuing to work and study English would be deserved to be bragged about.
brag / big talk, tall tale

10. Given all your experiences, insights, and lessons learned from 2017, what's the best advice you could give yourself for 2018?

Don't worry, I can do it. Don't be deluded, believe myself.

Javed Akhtar : The gift of words

(In Hindi with English subtitles)
TED Talks India 2017
Javed Akhtar : The gift of words (transcript)
Summary
We shouldn't forget that the words are the gift.
It is too close for us to remember like air.
In fact, the word is a sound, but when it has a meaning, when a sound, a meaning, and lines are joined, we create the word.
The words can express our emotions and objects. Those can evoke our memories and be used to create a world.
The power of a word is getting across to anyone else.
However, the words we use now look value losing by using speedily.
The words reflect our culture, traditions. inheritance, cultural wealth accumulated over generations. We can't leave words. The difference between animals and us is to be able to use words, tell something through words, and advance.
Words are the gift. We have to learn, love, befriend, speak and listen to them attentively.

Words in this story
versatility /noun/ having many abilities or functions.
identity /noun/ name, ID, specification
crook /verb/ flex, bend, curve, curl

Dao Nguyen : What makes something go viral?

TED 2017
Dao Nguyen : What makes something go viral? (transcript)
Summary
I think that why people really want to participate in something that is shared.
The speaker tells us the reason what makes something go viral is that people want to participate in the shared anticipation of something that is about to happen. It's not that people love baby animals, no that they love office pranks, but not that they love stories about their bosses or birthday surprises. They want to be part of a community instantly, and it would make them happy. The speaker started a project to formally categorize those contents in that way to connect people more easily. She called it “cultural cartography” and said that connecting with another person is one of the greatest gifts of the internet. It's amazing when you find a piece of media that precisely describes your bond with someone. This is really true though…
Hance medias might lose the true customers. People's thoughts must be always wavering and unsettled.
I think that something that is before going viral and that no one notice will be important. This is the story that you can earn money in Japan.

Words in this story
viral /adj/ relating to or involving an image, video, piece of information, etc., that is circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another.
inoffensive /adj/ not objectionable or harmful.
blame /verb/ assign responsibility for a fault or wrong.

Atul Gawande 2 : Want to get great at something? Get a coach

Atul Gawande at TED2017
Want to get great at something? Get a coach (transcript)
Summary
Get a coach. No, no, no. People probably think that they don't need to get a coach. However, the speaker tells us that for understanding our accurate reality,  instilling positive habits of thinking, breaking our actions down, and even in the medical fields, helping patients up again, we need a coach.
First, we don't recognize the issues if we’re standing in our ways, we can't know how to fix them, and then we can't stop improving that is wrong, if we didn’t get a coach. In fact, we couldn't do many things that we’ve learned mostly from textbooks but we didn't notice it and no one could tell us. Every day, bad habits are continuing but it's not us but also around us.
Thus we and our team need a coach. It's not just how good you are but it's how good you're going to be that really matters.

Words in this story
complexity /noun/  complication, problem, difficulty
sterile /adj/ not able to produce children or young.
breathe /verb/ take air into the lungs and then expel it, especially as a regular physiological process.
breath /noun/ the air taken into or expelled from the lungs.

Atul Gawande 1: How do we heal medicine?

TED2012
Atul Gawande 1: How do we heal medicine? (transcript)
Summary
What does healing patients mean?
In fact, in medical fields, it turned out that a very small thing could help patients who had died.
It's not developing new medicines or not using much money but creating checklists.
It's not a recipe for how to perform surgery on a patient like flying a plane, it's a reminder of the key things that are forgotten or missed if performers are not checked.
The pause points are, for example, immediately before anesthesia is given, or immediately before the knife hits the skin or immediately before the patient leaves the room. Those led to cutting the infection rate by half, to falling the complication rates 35 percent and to falling the death rates 47 percent.
The reasons those succeed are that people can't implement them because there is too small. People couldn't find where your failures were, couldn't devise solutions and couldn't implement them.
Wonderful fields must be created if your team can do them.
This is the new system that is new values.
From now, we have to embrace it with humility, discipline, and teamwork.
An independence that we built on hard alone, self- sufficiency, and autonomy seemed to create a strong resistance to use new thoughts.

Words in this story
prescription /noun/ prescribe /verb/
(of a medical practitioner) advise and authorize the use of (a medicine or treatment) for someone, especially in writing.
hygiene /noun/  cleanliness, sanitation
anesthesia /noun/ insensitivity to pain, especially as artificially induced by the administration of gases or the injection of drugs before surgical operations.
mortality / death, especially on a large scale.
fatality / an occurrence of death by accident, in war, or from disease.
fertility / productiveness.

Alex Kipman : A futuristic vision of the age of holograms

Alex Kipman at TED2016
A futuristic vision of the age of holograms  (transcript)
Summary
I thought that this talk was unlikely and a little bit tricky.
The speaker challenged showing us the Holograms that he's seeing by wearing HoloLens on the stage. Its real-life size hologram said that he is in three places. He’s standing in a room across the street, while he's standing on this stage with audiences, and while he’s standing on Mars. It's a hundred million miles away. And then, he said also that people can explore on Mars from a seat behind screen and keyboard now. However, unfortunately, we don't have touch and smell, but in the near future, we will feel the temperature of a virtual object and we might shake hands with holograms.
I imagined. Now, Skype is two dimensional. On the screen, we can see each face. Next generation, it will be three dimensional. Through the screen, we can sit next to a person who is in the opposite side of the screen. Your virtual can move my stuff though you can't bring them. Hahaha. That's amazing.

Words in this story
biometric /noun/ studies the statistic of living organisms.
physics / the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. The subject matter of physics, distinguished from that of chemistry and biology, includes mechanics, heat, light and other radiation, sound, electricity, magnetism, and the structure of atoms.
haptic /adj/ of or relating to the sense of touch, in particular relating to the perception and manipulation of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception.
grainy /adj/ (of wood) having prominent grain.
hypnotize /verb/  produce a state of hypnosis in (someone).

Tiffany Watt Smith : The history of human emotions

TED 2017
Tiffany Watt Smith : The history of human emotions (transcript)
Summary
I see. Our emotions have often changed in response to new cultural expectations and ideas. It's sometimes very dramatically. It means that we humans have different emotions if they see the same thing. And then the words we use to describe our emotions seem to affect how we feel.
When our emotions are changing, the words are also changing, but we don't entirely capture what our emotions are.
Sometimes, it looks like a simple reflex, but our emotions are shaped not just by our bodies, but by our thoughts, our concepts, and language. It's immensely complex and elastic system.

Why is one of the speaker’s favorite emotion a Japanese word “amae”?
I think that for Japanese people, it's not a good situation. I wanted to learn the feeling of dependency like English speakers.
My parents were very strict when I was a kid. Enduring was beautiful but people must not show their emotions. Japanese Samurai has to serve their lord patiently. It must lead to the current generation. Thus when we learn people's emotions, we have to know their histories also.
After all, we explore feelings through words, but we might only understand the word meaning. When we learn its histories, we can understand the words well though we don't understand people's emotions right.

Words in this story
fleeting /adj/ lasting for a very short time.  brief, short
untranslatable /un・trans・lat・a・ble/adj/ (of a word, phrase, or text) not able to have its sense satisfactorily expressed in another language.
ideology /noun/ a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. beliefs, ideas, ideals, principles, ethics
invariably /adv/ certainly, necessarily, surely
impatient / fantalizing, irritate
elastic /adj/ flexible

The flag of ...4

   Dear reader

Hello, my name is Mari. I am Japanese and already an adult woman. I am not good at speaking English. But I know that to study English is very fun because it is possible to talk with you who don't use the Japanese language. Then one day I found one poem accidentally. There was a textbook which my teacher sent me to practice reading English. The moment when I read it the poem moved me and it made me write about all flags.
I would like for you to enjoy looking at my poem of flags.

I looked at the flag. The flag is red, white, and blue. The flag has only three stripes. The three widths are the equal size. It is a horizontal tricolor. The upper stripe is red. The middle stripe is white. The lower stripe is blue. The red is the courage. The white represents the eternal blessings of God. The blue is loyalty. Many flags have three stripes. It is the oldest tricolor flag in the world.                 

                                        The flag of Netherlands

The flag of ...3

I looked at the flag. The flag is red and white. It has only one red circle. The red circle is on a white square. The base color is white. Many flags have yellow sun. This flag has red sun. A few flag has red sun. It is very simple. I love the flag. It is the flag of my country. It is a beautiful flag. No other flag is as simple.


                                           The flag of Japan

The flag of ...2

I looked at the flag. The flag is red, white, blue, and yellow. It has yellow sun and 3 stars. The yellow sun and stars are on a white triangle. The flag has three parts. One is a white triangle. Another is blue. The other is red. The upper part is blue. The lower part is red. With three parts are square. I love its flag. It is the flag of my teacher's country. It is a cool flag. Many countries' flag has the sun. The sun is the slogan of freedom.

                                         The flag of the Philippines

The flag of ...1

Hi! Today, I will share you my favorite poem.
Someday, I want to accomplish this story of the flag. It means that I'm going to write about all countries flags. This can be my expression of gratitude for my teachers who teach me English and customers who buy our company's products. I love flags and studying English.

Tracy looked at the flag. The flag is red, white, and blue. It has 50 white stars. The white stars are on a blue square. The flag has six white stripes. It has seven red stripes. All the stripes are horizontal. They are not vertical. The stripes do not go up and down. They go from left to right. Tracy loves her flag. It is the flag of her country. It is a pretty flag. No other flag has 50 stars. No other flag has 13 stripes.

                                    The flag of the United States of America

Rebecca Brachman : Could a drug prevent depression and PTSD?

TEDxNewYork 2017
Rebecca Brachman : Could a drug prevent depression and PTSD? (transcript)
Summary
It seems to be different, we think that medicines would be prepared by compounding something, though. 1)
In fact, a medicine of the first antidepressant was started from repurposing. Repurposing drugs mean to have approval and generic. It'll be available with a fraction of the price and the time though there are challenges that functional fixedness, mental set, and even policy.
The speaker explains it discovered accidentally, so it seems that accidental discovery is not uncommon in science.
Some medical reports of tuberculosis described that its patients were inappropriately happy and were dancing, many tests were run again and again, and it took a long time. Some medicines of tuberculosis were recognized that it was making people manic and it could suppress symptoms of mood disorders that are, for example, depression.
However, it doesn't mean to cure, so just the drugs suppress symptoms even now for mood disorders. 2) It means that patients basically have to keep taking drugs for the life of the disease. These drugs still have a lot of side effects and there are a lot of patients where they don't work.
Then the speaker's new idea is to use drugs to prevent mental illness as opposed to just treat it. 3)
She had accidentally discovered the first resilience-enhancing drug which works very quickly. Patients don't have to keep taking its drugs and it's not anything that you see with antidepressants.
Today, true causes of depression aren't discovered. 4) However, in 80 percent of cases, the initial trigger of depression is stress. If parents use the resilience-enhancing, they can have an ability to resist stress, bounce back, and not develop depression or other mood disorders when they experience stress.
Summarize. Today, true causes of depression aren't discovered yet, and antidepressants we know and we use now are to just suppress its symptoms. The drug that is the resilience-enhancing is also to only enhance resilience like putting to armor. Those mean not to cure or treat though developing your resistance and resilience must mean that people don't have depression or protect against stress and preventing patients from developing depression.
The ideas that are to use drugs to prevent mental illness as opposed to just treat it and to repurpose drugs have to be kept on guessing.

Words in this story
susceptible /adj/ likely or liable to be influenced or harmed by a particular thing.
contagious /adj/ (of a disease) spread from one person or organism to another by direct or indirect contact. infectious
resistance /noun/ opposition to, hostility to, refusal to accept
resilience /noun/ the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. toughness

Angela Wang : How China is changing the future of shopping

Angela Wang at TED@BCG Milan
How China is changing the future of shopping (transcript)
Summary
The speaker tells us that a huge shopping revolution is happening in China right now. Shopping is always done on mobile, and payment is all virtual. It's very different more than a few years ago and elsewhere in the world. Ultra convenience is gradually becoming a fact.
However, I think that the questioner is really right. The question was whether this kind of impulsive consumption that is both economically and environmentally sustainable over the longer term or not. This will be the important question that the speaker also couldn't say yes.
I think that people have to think that the meaning and the value of shopping and people who create and deliver something that you buy unwillingly.
The huge population can delude us who think it's revolution. Many people must earn though it'll be a better revolution.
Additionally, Japanese people love to line in front of shops of checkout counters, bunk, Pachinko, lottery, and even in the hospital. When they eat Ramen, they willingly stand in a long queue because the line is said to show delicious shops. When they see a queue that people are lining, they start to line even they don't know why other people are lining. Even after a big earthquake, Japanese people waited to be delivered food while lining neatly. They were praised by the world. Thus it's not but an example. However, I don't like to line. hahaha

Words in this story
gossip /noun/ chat, talk
ecosystem /noun/ a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment. cycle.
tease /verb/ make fun of or attempt to provoke (a person or animal) in a playful way.
inspiration /noun/  innovation

Heather Lanier :"Good" and "bad" are incomplete stories we tell ourselves

TED 2017
Heather Lanier :"Good" and "bad" are incomplete stories we tell ourselves (transcript)
Summary
What’s happening to us is not simple but not easy, thus it can't be shown by saying that it's good, it's bad and even it's lucky.
When bad things occurred to us, we want to think that next, good things happen. It might make us strong. However, after that, if a good thing happened, it puts us in an unthinkable condition.
It means that reality is much more fluid and by labeling or judging a situation, it makes our ability close down to truly see the situation.
The speaker has a kid who was diagnosed with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Even doctors and therapists said that it's bad though it's not her daughter's life. It's beautiful, complicated, and hard but it's joyful. The human experience has a lot of expressions that all people have. There is no normal there and it's important to help a kid be as independent as possible.
It's important to fulfill your own potential, thus "Good" and "bad" are incomplete words that you tell yourselves.

Words in this story
attentive /adj/paying close attention to something.
incomplete /adj/ not having all the necessary or appropriate parts. defective

Parag Khanna 2 : How megacities are changing the map of the world

Parag Khanna at TED 2016
How megacities are changing the map of the world (transcript)
Summary
Seven years have passed since the speaker’s previous talk.
I quite understood two things that he told us this time..
One is that FOR NOW, Tokyo is the world’s largest megacity. However,  next seven years will pass hurriedly more than the past seven years, Will Tokyo be there? In Japan, people who can work are really decreasing. The country where the population is increasing is a thread for Japan. Actually, the megacities he tells us are the areas where the world's population numbers are first to tenth.
Next is that overcoming some ancient mythology will create a strong country. I think that Japan is cursed by bad mythologies that are about the stories world war 2, military comfort women, nuclear, an aging problem and etc. Thus there are vast insurmountable distances between Asia countries and Japan. I think that only the seas around Japan help Japan for now. 
The speaker tells us that from now, the power of connectivity will decide how your country is strong. For now, connecting by land seems to coordinate a Pax Asiana and a Pax Africana.
It'll continue while each country decides to focus on economic ties over territorial tensions and digitalization helps it.
We have to really remember that the map of the world is not something we see and we remember but we think what our world is and we have to read and understand our future from the maps. The maps always show a lot of things that we don't notice.


"TOP 20 LARGEST COUNTRIES BY POPULATION (LIVE)"
↓↓↓↓
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#top20

Words in this story
emission /noun/  discharge, release, outpouring, outflow, leak
disparity /noun/  discrepancy, inconsistency, imbalance
insurmountable /agj/ too great to be overcome
mythology /noun/ a collection of myths, especially one belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition. myth, tale.

Parag Khanna 1: Mapping the future of countries

Parag Khanna at TEDGlobal 2009
Mapping the future of countries (transcript)
Summary
This TED talk was spoken about nine years ago. I think that the story is very interesting and I expect that his next story can show today’s world tends.
If he would be a teacher who teaches world history or social science in school, his class would be interesting and students must study very hard. We Japanese people used the time to remember only what was the name of the country and where the country was without thinking why and how the country was in the class.

Then the most important things we have to know is the inertia of the existing borders that we have today is far worse and far more violent.
I'm surprised by it because I think that the borders should be protected.

My opinion is that the world wouldn't want a borderless one. Each country would just want to make a fortune and the world’s military industries just deserve it. Infrastructures would be created to carry fuels, water, and foods during wars.
From now, the big population is...
For Japan, the Chinese population that is over 10 billion is just threat because all countries have to be heavily dependent on all things to CHINA where a lot of foods and oil are needed.
This will be the current war that doesn't use fire in Asia.

About another area, the speaker tells us that now, oil can be used for their own purposes, but I think that it means only a few people not its own country.
I think that the idea that infrastructure makes Palestinian and Israel peaceful doesn't have a strong power.
It's because refugees continue increasing.
My conclusion is that people only do a temporary strategy and it’ll be difficult to see the world's peace on this map today and also future.

Words in this story
map /noun/ a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc.
populous /adj/ having a large population; densely populated.
population /noun/ all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.
inertia /noun/ a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged.

Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely : How can groups make good decisions?

I'm sorry that I misunderstand the article. I fixed all. 13/3/2018
Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely
How can groups make good decisions?
Summary
Although the speaker is speaking to us gently, this problem is difficult.
It's because the decisions we make in groups goes very wrong sometimes.

We, as societies, have to make good decisions collectively, but the wisdom of the crowds is destroyed by peer pressure, publicity, social media, or even simple conversations that influence how people think. If one person has a very confident decision or a higher position, people will follow him/her. When people debate in small groups, it seems to go better judgment, but our social and political issues have a lot of diverse opinions. When there is a moral question, people are more diverse. Thus polarized decisions won't help us.

However, it turned out that in the broad diversity groups, groups’ decisions reached a consensus even when they were composed of people with completely opposite views. It's because there are the middle people who are very confident, they understand that both arguments have merit, and they are much more likely to reach consensus.
Although the situation needs to be researched more,  what intuitive ideas are, who has confidence and who is believed seems to relate. 
It leads to robust average individually and spontaneously without any hint.

The speaker summarizes that good collective decisions require deliberation and diversity of opinion.
It will be effective in balancing between forming small groups that converge to a single decision and maintaining diverse opinions because there are many independent groups. 



Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely at TED Studio  22/12/2017
How can groups make good decisions?
Summary
How can groups make good decisions? (transcript)
The answer that the speaker tells us is that it requires deliberation and diversity of opinion.
It'll be effective when there is balancing between forming small groups that converge to a single decision and maintaining diverse opinions.
It's because there are many independent groups and it's found that groups’ decisions reached a consensus when there are middle people in the group even with completely opposite views.
If small groups make good decisions, but it won't help us because our social and political issues have a lot of diverse opinions.
Those situations need to be researched more, because our intuition, who has confidence and who is believed are thought to influence to make good decisions.
Our decisions are always destroyed by peer pressure, publicity, social media or even simple conversations that influence how people think.
We have to use science more to make good decisions and we have to think what groups we are.

Words in this story
deliberation /noun/ long and careful consideration or discussion.
consensus /noun/  agreement, harmony, concurrence, accord, unity

Justin Baldoni : Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”

TED 2017

Justin Baldoni : Why I’m done trying to be “man enough” (transcript)

Summary 

In our world, still, parents have taught their children to be brave boys and pretty girls somehow. 

And people think that it makes girls suffer. Thus, now there are a lot of stories that parents have to teach their children to be brave girls. 

However, people who are suffering aren't only girls but even men also. If a man was taught that men have to be a kindly better person, he'll be said that he isn't masculine by people, even by men but he can't tell his friends. 

It's not a bad thing for men to help another man, to be helped by men, to have something that a man can't do. 

Sharing shame or asking forgiveness is not wrong for men. 

Honestly, telling them and men are not always strong to women. 

When men will be helped by women, men can help women and people will be growing when people can cooperate with each other. 

Why he's done trying to be “man enough” is because he loves his family. 

This was the TED women thus all audiences would be women. 

Words in this story
authenticity /noun/ the quality of being authentic.  reliability, dependability, trustworthiness, credibility, accuracy, truth, veracity, fidelity
accountability /noun/ the fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility. guality
embody /verb/  personify, realize, manifest, symbolize, represent

G.T. Bynum : A Reublican mayor’s plan to replace partisanship with policy

TED 2017
G.T. Bynum : A Reublican mayor’s plan to replace partisanship with policy (transcript)
Summary
What this TED talk wants to tell us is that your city doesn't depend on your country to solve problems. It's because your city can't solve problems when people are in another partisanship. It means that your city has to be better, even who is a president in your country.
The speaker is a mayor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He suggested the cooperation with Republicans and Democrats to solve their greatest challenges together. All citizens must think that they want to do if there is a better reader who can explain easily and simply about what results will appear.
Start doing first leads you to winning an election instead you do something after being elected.
It's important to work together to address your common goals and to improve the overall street quality throughout your community.
I think that it's completely different from a lot of cities in Japan. Japanese cities depend too much on the country’ government.

Words in this story
incumbent /adj/  necessary for one to, essential that, required that, imperative that
stakeholder /noun/ bet
disparity /noun/ a great difference.
partisanship /noun/ prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias. siding with a particular faction, support or endorsement.

Sebastian Thrun 2: The new generation of computers is programming itself

TED 2017

Sebastian Thrun 2: The new generation of computers is programming itself  (transcript)

Summary 

Recently, we hear the words machine learning often. We would think that it meant that machines could remember all things, humans forgot a lot of things soon, though. Machines don't just forget all things, they aren't tired, but they can't understand our words, and they create nothing.
However, those seem to be wrong. Machine learning seems to have functions and it works.
In this generation, computers are programming itself and deciphering a rule for every contingency step by step. What we do now becomes an example and computers get it and infer own rules.
The speaker said that we can similarly think about how we raise children.  I think that machine learning is still higher level than humans because he tells us that its behavior often surpasses human ability. It can drive cars and find skin cancer correctly more than humans do.
And then, we learned from previous TED talk that the combination of human smarts and machine smarts are important. It makes us stronger.
It was that a weak human player plus a machine plus a better process was superior the most. It could win against a very powerful machine alone and also a strong human plus machine and an inferior process.
It changes the combination that is a smarts human plus a smart machin in the new generation,.
Why can't it say that we are super creative by working with machines?
Our human sides have to change our thoughts that humans will lose to computers, the world “artificial intelligence” is so threatened and the computer is our overlord.
By computers is programming itself, humans, we, humans are capable of more than we doing current jobs.
Words in this story
contingency /noun/ a future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty.
precision /noun/  accuracy
comprehend /verb/  understand, grasp, take in, see
repetitive /adj/ containing or characterized by repetition, especially when unnecessary or tiresome.
decipher /verb/ convert (a text written in code, or a coded signal) into normal language.

Sebastian Thrun 1 : Google’s driverless car

TED 2011
Sebastian Thrun 1 : Google’s driverless car (transcript)
Summary
Summary
In our city, people create cars and they drive it. It's very useful. However, the research of driverless car is really progressing recently.
It's because driving accidents are the number one cause of death for young people, almost all of them are due to human error, and it's possible to be  prevented by machines.
Machines drive are precise. On the highway, even if  there is a little bit closer lane, and there are more two or three times cars, machines are precise to drive, we will reduce our daily commute time and aiso the amount of gasoline.
Can we believe that machines could drive?
Driving accidents are due to human error.
However, if driverless car causes an accident, people wouldn't allow it to drive.

Words in this story
crook /verb/ bend (something, especially a finger as a signal).  bend, curve, curl
precision /noun/   precisely /adv/   precise /adj/

One World in Kimono: Designing Nations

I saw this Kimono by chance, thus I chose the article. This Kimono expresses Australia.
NHK news
One World in Kimono: Designing Nations (article)
Summary
Kimono is Japan's traditional garment.
The owner of this project is Yoshimasa Takakura who thought that he wanted to break an image that Kimono was stale, change it and young people to be able to receptive more.
He and artisans started to design and produce kimonos and sashes representing countries across the globe.
The kimono proposed this time was the innovative design and it's demonstrated that any type of design can be represented by a kimono.
It will be wonderful that all countries can be expressed by each kimono in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic.
You can see the kimono that your country is expressed by using Japan’ traditional garment.

Time : The Top 10 Movies of 2017

Time

The Top 10 Movies of 2017 (article)

Summary
First, I was shocked when I read this article because the movie I knew was only one in it. However, I think that just the writer and I have different tastes but we are living quite different places. Even she tells us that if she had eaten something different for breakfast on the day of making up the list, her number 2 might have been number 1. I think that I'm really lucky to know these movies that haven't been screened in Japan yet by chance.

10. Girls Trip
Her explanation was really funny because I think that unbelievably dirty sex acts wouldn't become a good comedy movie in Japan. This is a cultural difference, isn't it?

9. Get Out
I think that the movie is about racial discrimination. Why is a white woman's boyfriend black?  This is the movie that I don't like the most.

8. Faces Places
I knew him from TED talk. I really understand that his works are energetic and attract people. I want to see his works in the city of Tokyo every day and if I walk there every day and I can wait for someone there, it'll be so wonderful.

7. Dunkirk
I don't know this movie though it seems that people who subscribe to IMAX can watch it in Japan. I think that Japanese people have to learn how to protect our own country.

6. Call Me By Your Name
Although falling in love is beautiful, I think that this is a difficult movie. It's too luxurious when he falls in love with both a girl and a man. It will be released next spring in Japan and the second version will be made.

5. Kedi
"In all great cities, the magnificent intersects with the mundane—that’s what makes them vital".
What is the magnificent? What is the mundane?
Cats intersect with usual people's lives, it makes them vital in Istanbul.
In the movie, they say cats know that God exists. Cats know we're only the middlemen.
If you don't love animals, you don't love people either.
It's true. I want to read it in English because Japanese translation will be completely different to the original.
What is the magnificent in Tokyo?

4. Personal Shopper
A person will wander between the worlds of the living and the dead always.

3. The Lost City of Z
A man devoted his life to locating a mythical lost city in the Amazon.
A man always devotes his life to something.  He is possessed with something and it means that he is alive.

2. Lady Bird
I think that this is not smart, joyous, and tender film and it's too complicated. I love to have an adventure, to work hard, and of course, to fall in love but ordinary, simple, and tough life are beautiful also. Do I envy they are young?

1. The Post
I think that Japanese people have mistaken the meaning of a victory for freedom of the press and for election.

I have to study English more and the culture difference between other countries and Japan.

Which one do you like?

Garry Kasparov : Don't fear intelligent machines. Work with them

TED 2017
Garry Kasparov : Don't fear intelligent machines. Work with them (transcript)
Summary
This is a great story that the speaker is just no other than a world chess champion.
He tells us that we humans shouldn't fight against the machines, because we need the help of the new intelligent machines to achieve our dream.
People say that he’s lost to the machine Deep Blue that IBM created to defeat him. However, though this is a human triumph, so machine’s triumph is always the human triumph. We sometimes tend to forget it and just human’s creations surpassed humans.
And then, it turned out that a weak human player plus a machine plus a better process is superior the most. It can win against a very powerful machine alone and also a strong human plus machine and an inferior process.
We couldn't stop the progress of technologies but feeling fear and pressures will mean humanity has ceased to make progress. We have no choice but to work with them.
We have understandings, purpose and passion that machines don't have but machines have instruction and objectivity that is beyond what we have. Why can't we work with them?

Words in this story
triumph /noun/ a great victory or achievement.
humanity /noun/ humankind, mankind, man, people, human beings, humans

Zeynep Tufekci 3: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads

TED 2017
Zeynep Tufekci 3: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads (transcript)
Summary
Dystopia means an imagined place where everything is unpleasant or bad, and which is a degraded place.
The title shows that we're building a dystopia by clicking on ads on the internet our own hands and the speaker tells us that the real threat is who use collected huge data to control us. Our data is accumulated every day and its system is structured to entice us more.
She said that this needs to change though I think that we have no way and mobilizing our politics is more dangerous. They would want to get big benefits.
We, who not only buy something on the internet but use the internet are still the products that are being sold.
Can we notice who uses it to control us?

Words in this story
manipulate  /verb/  control, influence, use/turn to one's advantage, exploit
accumulate /verb/ gather, collect, assemble, amass, stockpile, pile up
persuasion /noun/  inducement, convincing
persuasive /adj/

Zeynep Tufekci 2: Machine intelligence makes human morals more important

TED 2016
Zeynep Tufekci 2: Machine intelligence makes human morals more important (transcript)
Summary
I've already read a similar article to this.
It summarized that we have to be better people and learn to be better people when technologies develop more.
Now, AI started to work with us. It's very smart. We start thinking that it can do everything soon, it can make better decisions than we do and we don't have to deal with any troublesome questions of ethics. However, machine learning means to only calculate an enormous data.
It can't understand what to do itself, and it can't logically and ethically do something also. Surprisingly, the machine deals with too much data and it's too strong for people who create it to understand what it is thinking.
In our world, thinking subjectively, logically and ethically is important and only thinking objectively doesn't work anything.
We should not seek average society. We need to accept our biases, overcome it and have responsibilities to use AI.
We can only hold on important human values and human ethics morally.

Words in this story
prejudice /noun/ bias
objective /adj/  unbiased
subjective /adj/ based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.
decipher /verb/ convert (a text written in code, or a coded signal) into normal language.

Zeynep Tufekci 1: Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win

TED 2015
Zeynep Tufekci 1: Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win (transcript)
Summary
This is her first talk. When first I'd read her third article, I couldn't understand it. That’s why I tried to read this.
The speaker is a Turkish writer said to be a Techno-sociologist who primarily writes about the effect of technology. Her background helped me understand this talk.
She writes about the effect of technology. She wants us to know about real social movements, how they occur and how you can originate those movements. We've entered a combinational era. Thus we have to use not only technologies but also hard ways. The hard way is a slower work that is tough and a tedious task. People have to think together collectively, make hard decisions together, create consensus, and innovate. By strugglingly gathering to do many things in reality, they can overcome differences and go forward.
Today's movements scale up very quickly by using technologies, but they don't have the organizational base and don't know what to do next. Beyond participation on the internet, people have to think together collectively and effectively use it to win.
In our movements, online social change is easy to organize but hard to win.

Words in this story
convict /noun/ prisoner, inmate, criminal
parole /noun/ the release of a prisoner temporarily (for a special purpose) or permanently before the completion of a sentence, on the promise of good behavior.

Jeff Kreisler : Get Rich Cheating

TEDxEast Salon
Jeff Kreisler : Get Rich Cheating (transcript)
Summary
I thought that I’ve read a poor story.
l started to read this, because l love Dan Ariely who seems to write books with the speaker. However, the speaker’s sarcasm is different from him.
I couldn't believe that the story was told to sell this book “Get Rich Cheating”.
Although it's true that only cheaters can get rich, l don't want to follow this. I don't want to listen to the story that someone cheats someone or tests someone's moral and l want to be a person who is cheated more than a person who cheats someone.
Hiring and working don't  mean to get only money. Those mean to give or to serve someone something. I think that the true meaning of “Get Rich” is difficult. It's because there are people who have a lot of money but who are not happy.
I think that being healthy, honest, cute, hard, and hard working living happily are more important than getting rich.

Due to that,  I'm always cheated by someone. hahaha

Words in this story
sale /noun/ the exchange of a commodity for money; the action of selling something.
sell /verb/ give or hand over (something) in exchange for money.
fraud /noun/ wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.

Dan Ariely : Who doesn’t love sales? There’s just one problem: they lead us to make dumb choices

IDEAS.TED.COM Dan Ariely + Jeff Kresler
Who doesn’t love sales? There’s just one problem: they lead us to make dumb choices (article)
Summary
I thought that I was really a lucky person when I read this title. It's because I was taught by my mother that going bargains led me to making dumb choices. I have to buy something when I use it, even if its price will be high. 1) I shouldn't say to want what everyone has, even its price will be cheap. 2) Something that I use is important more than something of 50% off that I don't use.  Until a product breaks down, I have to use it. Using frequently and usefully means to have value. 3)
We have to be careful when we see the words, "50% off,"
"Marked down," "For sale," and  "Coupons". In fact, the real price might be equal roughly to bargains. It's, at first, raising prices and then lowering them.
There are many difficult prices to measure for us in shops. For example, the larger bottle is cheaper than the small one. Something comes with, but it's not necessary, however, it's not expensive. And then, bundles products sometimes hide one product price.
First, it's wrong to compare though people can't help but compare all things. Especially prices are designed to confuse us, thus it's difficult to know about true value. Was what you bought okay?

Words in this story
bargain /noun/ a thing bought or offered for sale more cheaply than is usual or expected.
lament /verb/ mourn (a person's loss or death).
covet /verb/ yearn to possess or have (something).
compartmentalize /verb/ divide into sections or categories.

Elizabeth Blackburn : The science of cell that never get old

TED 2017
Elizabeth Blackburn : The science of cell that never get old (transcript)
Summary
This is a happy news that women don't need money to stay young.
According to the speaker’s study, our telomeres could stay longer for longer periods of time, it leads to extending our feelings of youthfulness. A telomere is a compound structure that is an enzyme at the end of a chromosome. Chromosomes break down when cells divide and telomeres replenish the caps the end of them. To shorten our telomeres is aging. We have to avoid it. In fact, it turned out that by feeling stress, telomeres became shorter.
However, we can maintain our telomeres if we are resilient to stress. 1)
When you don't think that stress is a threat but you think that it's a challenge, it doesn't damp down your telomeres. 2)
The study also showed that by avoiding outside factors such as violence, bullying, racism, and wars were important to keep telomeres.  3)
We will understand that aging is created by our own hands. When our actions change, our telomeres stay longer and we live long beautifully.

Words in this story
telomere /tɛ́ləmir/
chromosome /ˈkɹoʊməˌsoʊm/
replenish /verb/ fill (something) up again.
resilience /noun/ the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
resilient /adj/
resistance /noun/ the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.
resist /verb/ withstand the action or effect of.

James Bond

Today’s topic is a movie too.
Who's your favorite actor who played James Bond in the movie 007?
There is no person who doesn't know about Bond among the people who like movies. They often talk about Bond.
In fact, l love a man who'd been said to be the next Bond. He is Idris Elba. Probably, he's never been to Japan, he's unknown in Japan, and his dramas and movies are hardly announced in Japan.
Then, unfortunately, he seems not to be the next Bond recently.
I've heard that next 007, the same actor as before will play and the same singer will sing the theme song. The actor is Daniel Craig, the singer is Adele. The movie Skyfall was the great movie, but it's unfortunate for me this time.

Why can we enjoy the movies 007?
I think that the series of 007 is just simply action movies that are not difficult. We don't need to think something deeply and women must think that men are always do something like Bond. He is cool and smart but men will be boys. Hahaha, then we feel that we'll be Bond girls someday. When next 007 is decided, definitely previous one is announced on TV. I think that we need to watch it and I'm looking forward to watching it also.

Recognizing What They Had, 20 Years Too Late

The New York Times

Recognizing What They Had, 20 Years Too Late (transcript)

My views

I think that all people have what they could tell or ask important things to an important person. Probably, we couldn't notice that it's important, even if someone advised it to us. We always think that our decisions are right at that time.

I think that all things that happened to us is inevitable but it's not by chance.

What you couldn't tell him is the reason that you remember him and it reminds you of him.

I recognize that what you’ve had is beautiful 20 years.

Words in this story

eavesdropping /

cushiony /

interpret /verb/ explain the meaning of (information, words, or actions).

Leah Chase and Pat Mitchell : An interview with the Queen of Creole Cuisine

TEDWomen 2017

Leah Chase and Pat Mitchell : An interview with the Queen of Creole Cuisine (transcript)

Summary 

In New Orleans, there has still been a famous restaurant Dooky Chase where white and black people come together, activists plan protests but the police doesn't disturb them during the civil rights movement. The speaker is its owner Leah Chase who is a chef and is known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine. 

When she was young, women couldn't have the education that we have today. At that time, whites and blacks couldn't eat and work together, and men and women weren't equal also. However, she worked hard, so her mother-in-law first started a little sandwich shop. Her mother was just a kind person, she liked to do things for you, and she liked to give. 

The speaker tells us that maybe that helped her out and nobody bothered her. It led to creating a safe haven where people who were working on civil rights could come together and work to change the laws. Then the restaurant became a bridge between the past and present, and she worked and did what she could do hard, even if she couldn't have a good education. 

Everyone can do something for their city. Living in the city means participating with everyone. We continue to give (feed) someone well. We, especially women today, are in great positions that she never thought she could see. We have to build more. 

Words in this story

cantankerous /adj/ bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative.

plaque /noun/  picture (award)

bribery /noun/ the giving or offering of a bribe.

righteous /adj/ correct, proper, accurate

"life is to endure fate, to frolic fortune and to fulfill a mission".

This is the famous quote that President Yoshimitsu Kobayashi at Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Inc.

「宿命に耐え、運命と戯れ、使命に生きる」

"life is to endure fate, to frolic fortune and to fulfill a mission".

I wanted to know how I could explain this Japanese quote in English for a long time. I used the internet though I didn't know. Please help me.

I made this sentence though I didn't have courage where people understand it well or not.  

I think that the quote really shows Japanese entrepreneur's mind that other countries probably never use "endure" for yheir life and also the mind of Japanese people who don't show what they really think. They secretly aim at achieving success and engage their mission.

So people say that their life must be fun, can find happiness and they can enjoy it though I think that life is tough. Only the moment you forget painfulness, you can feel happiness.

"life is to endure fate, to frolic fortune and to fulfill a mission".

All tests - Relational psychology - The river

My answer was the worst possible outcome.

All tests - Relational psychology - The river

Rank five people according to their actions in a scenario in which a lady attempts to cross a river in order to be reunited with her boyfriend.

Charlie and Linda who are very much in love and devoted to one another, are separated by a river with no way of getting across to the other side. On Linda's side of the river, there is a boatman who is able to take her over to the other side of the river but refuses to do so unless she pays him $100, twice his normal fare. Linda has no money and has no other way to get back across the river. Another man, Steve, then tells Linda that he will giver her $100 if she sleeps with him. Linda agrees to do so and on receiving the $100, pays the boatman who takes her over to the other side of the river. She is reunited with Charlie and they are very happy together. However, Charlie's friend, Felix, finds out what happened and immediately tells Charlie. On learning the news, Charlie finds Linda and ends things with her, stating that he wants nothing more to do with her.

My answer

Charlie

Felix

Linda

Boatman

Steve

This was the nasty story though all people would have its thought.

I hate Charlie the most and can't completely forgive him because he changes his mind. Even she did a bad thing though she did it for him. I think that he has to forgive her whatever may happen.

If Felix didn't say anything, people were happy. If l were Felix, I say nothing.

I think that Linda should think about other ideas to meet him, and boatman should bring her for free. Steve is a boring person but he has money.

What do those mean?

Analysis

Your task is to rank these five people, according to how much you sympathize with their characters or identify with their actions.

Here is what each character in the story represents:


Boatman: Business
Charlie: Chastity
Felix: Friendship
Linda: Love
Steve: Sex

Your answer reveals how you rank business, chastity, friendship, love and sex, and therefore their importance in your life.
People having similar ranking systems tend to be compatible - not surprisingly, since the above choices are an important indicator of character and values. People who give opposite or mutually random answers tend not to get along well.

Christen Reighter : I don't want children-stop telling me l’ll change my mind

TED 2016
Christen Reighter : I don't want children-stop telling me l’ll change my mind  (transcript)
Summary
I think that I can’t say its title aloud, because people think that women should give birth in Japan.
Nowadays, according to the article, one in five women in the United State seems not to have a choice that they have a child.
When the speaker was a child, she noticed that she never wanted children but she was continually asked when she got married and when she was going to have a baby.
And then, she had removed a single path to parenthood surgically. Doctors didn't agree with it and they showed disapproval though her decision was strong.
Women have the amazing ability to create babies though the world should not decide that it’s the woman’s value.
I think that this problem is like acknowledging transgender surgery.
We have to create a world where we can understand each other without surgery.

Words in this story
sterilization /noun/ disinfection
persistence /noun/ insistence, obstinacy, perseverance
bodily /adj/ of or concerning the body.
disregard /noun/verb/ ignore, take no notice of, neglect
cling /verb/ (of a person or animal) hold on tightly to.

Laura Schulz : The surprisingly logical minds of babies

TED 2015
Laura Schulz : The surprisingly logical minds of babies (transcript)
Summary
In this TED talk, the speaker tells us a special ability that very young children have. They can't talk yet though they can learn so much from so little and so quickly.
This is the fundamental mechanisms of human cognition and it seems to appear when they try to solve two problems that are  problem of generalization and of causal reasoning.
The problem of generalization means to be able to develop expectations about something and to extend it to almost everything for the rest of their lives.
Another problem of causal reasoning means how babies can use data when they make decisions on what to do.
It leads to being able to think about a connection between two things. Results of this experiment were remarkable, Chris Anderson said that the research was insane at the end of this talk, though.
I think that babies are really honest. I want to say what we are learning, we've had great ability, though.
Then the speaker left shocking messages to us.
This is a story about the problem of human minds but brains.
Our human minds can only perform thought we get the world right.
However. humans are fallible, we take shortcuts, err, make mistakes and we take world wrong in many ways.
This experiment has told us how we start from very small children and continue studying a lot of things.
We need more investment in our minds as same as an elegant form of technology, engineering, design, and brains to study.
We've started having with logical minds from very small children.
Is the way you go getting the world right?

Words in this story
abstract /adj/existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence.
deliberately /adv/  intentionally, on purpose, purposely

Daniel Kahneman : The riddle of experience vs. memory

TED 2010
Daniel Kahneman : The riddle of experience vs. memory (transcript)
Summary
I knew that the speaker published some books about behavioral economics.
Economics is to deal with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, or the material welfare of humankind and to study it. It’s said that people preferentially and rationally think about their benefit.
However, people’s actions have been irrational. The speaker forces it.
He is a psychologist, a founder of behavioral economics and was awarded the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
He declared that economics should be mixed with people's actions, their emotions, and environment because of their irrationality. This is the new economics called behavioral economics.
Then he says that people aren't able to perceive their happiness unfortunately because of several cognitive traps. People are reluctant to admit complex things about happiness that is not a useful word. 1) They confuse between experience and memory 2) but they focus illusions. 3)
Those become the cognitive traps of human beings. When we think about our happiness, we can't think about the distinction between the happiness of the experiencing selves and the satisfaction of the remembering selves and also we can't think about them without disturbing. Our experiments turn our remembrance continuously. At that moment, it's not being confirmed. Between them, there is in conflict but they are really different. All things depend on how you think, and on whether you think of the remembering self or you think of the experiencing self.
However, among them, there are some types of laws and to study it is behavioral economics.
It will take a while and be necessary to be debated.

Words in this story
riddle /  puzzle, enigma
behavioral economics / a method of economic analysis that applies psychological insights into human behaviour to explain economic decision-making.
preferential /adj/ of or involving preference or partiality; constituting a favor or privilege.
reluctant / unwilling,

Margrethe Vestager : The new age of corporate monopolies

TED 2017
Margrethe Vestager : The new age of corporate monopolies (transcript)
Summary
This is the truth that the new age is coming for corporate monopolies though I think that this is a difficult problem.
I think that some examples are not good in the TED talk this time. It's because Google and Apple are thought to be very good companies by almost all people, even if they broke antitrust rules so far.  I thought that the speaker’s side must be thought to be wrong because she fined Google $2.8 billion for breaking antitrust rules, she asked Apple for $15.3 billion in back taxes, but she said that she wanted to keep European markets competitive. 
I think that I'm afraid that this is the same that general people run with the man who has the world record of 100 meters and thanks to him, people can have motivation.
However, it doesn't mean that he can do anything that is making trouble for others.
I think that current opposite opinions will be created from only your envy and just your hate and those won't have the good alternative ideas, especially government sites and organizations. I think that the true power of competition rules is in the people's thought. Rules should be able to draw its power.

Words in this story
fine /verb/ clarify (beer or wine) by causing the precipitation of sediment during production. She fined Google. She’s fined Google. she’s fined. She’s fine.
fine /noun/ very small particles found in mining, milling, etc.
fine /adj/ of high quality.
fine /adv/ in a satisfactory or pleasing manner; very well.