Rob Reid : How synthetic biology could wipe out humanity — and how we can stop it

Rob Reid·TED2019  (transcript)
How synthetic biology could wipe out humanity-and how we can stop it
Summary
In the past, everyone was opposed to gene recombination strongly. However, we must have forgotten it completely since we knew about food shortages and technology growth is great. We now crave enough food, entertainments, beauty, cleverness, health, energy, and even eternal lives. For them, animals' genes are edited, plants' genes edited, and your babies genes must be edited.

However, it doesn’t show that all people can be beautiful actresses who are like Ariana Grande. Just a small part of people can be, it’s less than winning a lottery, and most of the people and our important humanity are absolutely wiped out. It shows the most dangerous event we haven’t ever seen.

The speaker suggests some ideas that it can stop, though, we see that technology growth is more looking attractive in the world. The feeling dangerous is being vague.

Words in this story
nihilistic /adj/ rejecting all religious and moral principles in the belief that life is meaningless.
vague /véɪg/adj/of uncertain, indefinite, or unclear character or meaning

Heidi Grant : How to ask for help — and get a "yes"

Heidi Grant  (transcript)
How to ask for help — and get a "yes"
Summary
I was taught not to ask for help from my mother when l was a kid, thus I thought that l shouldn’t ask something and I have to do all by myself. However, l understood why my mother told me that this time.
It’s likely to feel incentives or payments and it leads to creating distant relationships.

The speaker also tells us the three important things when we ask for help.
It’s to avoid disclaimers, apologies, and bribes,1) to ask very very specific about the help you want and why, 2) and not to use emails and texts. 3)

It’s not easy to ask for help because it makes us feel vulnerable. We want to be strong, but after this, our world needs cooperation to our successes.
And then following up after asking is more important. We can ask for help and we have to help each other and one another and the world has to say and get a “yes”. We must hope such world.

Words in this story
transaction /noun/ interaction between two parties, negotiation, settlement, business deal.
bribe /noun/ a sum of money or other inducement offered or given in this way.
unsolicited /adj/ not asked for; given or done voluntarily.

Sarah Kay 3 : "A Bird Made of Birds"

Sarah Kay TED2019  (transcript)
"A Bird Made of Birds"
Summary
A few days ago, I've said that poems were difficult to understand because for understanding it, it'll require to know about words' meaning, writer's character, those backgrounds, and so on, though, l chose this because she whose mother is Japanese and whose TED talks are read by me is friendly. How fast she speaks this time again!

The story has her comment that she shares how and where she finds Poetry, she seems to love a poem that says, "The universe has already written the poem you were planning on writing," and the title is "A Bird Made of Birds".

Talking of a bird must be a bluebird which shows that your happiness is close to you or in your mind. For her, happiness is a poem. When she is in somewhere, the poem she wants to tell is already there somehow and her mouth unconsciously must start moving to create voices. This is her poem that she devotes always. The place that we live in, she said it's the universe, is where a great thing is born.

I am cheering for her and I want to see her when she will visit Japan next time. I was very surprised that two years have passed since reading her previous TED talks.

"If l should have a daughter…"　→　Sunday, July 23, 2017
"How many lives can you live?"　→　Monday, July 24, 2017

Esther Perel : Rethinking infidelity ... a talk for anyone who has ever loved

Esther Perel at TED2015  (transcript)
Rethinking infidelity ... a talk for anyone who has ever loved
Summary
First, I didn't know what to do after reading this story.
I'd thought that many people must have thought that it's not wrong to have an affair!! No, no, no!!

I've understood that the speaker just must want to make her TED talk have fun. It's because she is a professional and an expert to study about infidelity and she cures a lot of patients who are suffering from not only their partners have affairs but also they themselves have had affairs surprisingly, so this is the story that is talked for anyone who has ever loved to rethink infidelity.

The speaker doesn't tell us that it's right or wrong. Just people want to decide it, we don't understand about it well or in the first place, we don't understand why there are rules of marriage, infidelity and our trait. The definitions of an affair that the speaker like are a secretive relationship, an emotional connection, and sexual alchemy. With those and the era which entitles us to pursue our desire with straying tendency allows us to be happier. It’s difficult to stop it.

The example of the speaker using words "a patient of cancer" really shows our behaviors,  I first thought why cancer appeared, though. Various studies have revealed people's desires again, so all of us who are patients have tremendous bad desires biologically.

The conclusion of the speaker is that affairs are thought about hurt and betrayal, though, it's not the end and with growth and self-discovery, you would like to create a second one!

What an uncomfortable conclusion it is!!

Words in this story
monogamy /noun/ the practice or state of being married to one person at a time.
infidelity /noun/ adultery, immorality
affair /noun/ an event or sequence of events of a specified kind or that has previously been referred to. a love affair.

Rui Hachimura Is Ready to Make History for Japan in the N.B.A.

The New York Times  (article)
Rui Hachimura Is Ready to Make History for Japan in the N.B.A.
Summary
Super historical news has come to Japan. Japanese people are small thus selecting N.B.A was impossible, though, this time, Rui Hachimura became the first Japanese player ever selected. Hs is 6.8 feet tall, that means over 2 meters!!  The interviewer tells us that not only he is tall but also he is very very talented player and have a great jumping power.

There must be many Japanese people who don’t have an interest in basketball, who don’t know a lot of black and half-Japanese, and, I don’t want to say, who don’t know that there is discrimination in Japan.

Writing about that makes me a little bit sad, though, I saw his Japanese pride by putting a pin on his suits and with overcoming those, he, Rui Hachimura,  must be a more great player. Japan and the World are cheering for him.

Marie Howe : "The Singularity"

Marie Howe at TED Salon: Belonging  (transcript)
"The Singularity"
Summary
By chance, l found this poem and l thought that it wouldn't be using difficult English, though, it’s not easy to understand about poems, so poems are in the first place, difficult to understand because we have to know about words' meaning, characters, backgrounds, and even culture widely and deeply. When I saw the title, I've completely forgotten about Hawking singularity theorems. I thought about being single more than The Singularity, so the poem doesn’t show about happy things.

In the past, he, Stephen Hawking told us that we who lived on the Earth were the only civilization within a hundred light years though civilizations wouldn’t last very long. They destroy themselves. Them means, you know, us.

Even we don’t know difficult theorems, we can know about our daily actions against our earth. We must think about the whole Universe. It would be wrong thinking about living on other planets because we couldn’t live on earth.

Words in this story
tribute /noun/ accolade praise commendation salute testimonial

Anjan Chatterjee : How your brain decides what is beautiful

Anjan Chatterjee at TEDMED 2016
How your brain decides what is beautiful
Summary
In fact, I've read a book about why people are attracted by beauty. The book told the same things to this article and knock me down.

In the article, the speaker’s explanation of how your brain decided what is beautiful has been that it relates to averaging,1) symmetry 2) and hormones. 3)
Those parameters seem to make your face attractive. It seems to be for feeling adaptability to an environment, genetic diversity and health and leads to leaving species.

Therefore, not only men but also women typically find beauty and as reproductive advantages, it’s realized and it’s universal. Our brains unconsciously respond to attractive faces and have been printed in beauty is good for a long time. 4)  There are shockingly many social effects of beauty for attractive people who are looked more intelligent, are given higher pay,  and are given lesser punishments, you know, even when such judgments are not warranted.

The speaker apologizes about his explanation that might be lacking and inappropriate but tells us that it's printed in disfigured is bad also. 5) It means that with media, we can't treat people fairly and unconditionally.

This is the thing that I get from the article about how our brain decides what is beautiful. His last words have been that beauty is changing and the selection criteria for reproductive success from that time doesn't really apply today, life was nasty, brutish from a very long time ago, though.

My thought is that now also, life must be nasty and brutish because men and women seek beauty strongly with businesses, media, and the internet.   
It's without end and a man who says that it's not necessary to help ugly people appears. Its ugly meaning included not to have a job, not to be marred, and not to have babies. 

I who am not beautiful and not having babies is needless, aren't I?

The question has made me worried, even I've gotten a great answer.
In fact, we living now is really special and human species is very fragile that is the same as other species had been extinct already, thus it's said that diversity is important. For leaving human species, we have to cooperate to protect and help all.

This is the amazing answer, though, I couldn't feel that our behavior is right. I don’t think that the story is changing.

Words in this story
ping /verb/ silent g/ make or cause to make a ping.
nasty /adj/ dirty, unclean
brutish /adj/ mean, beastly

Enric Sala : Glimpses of a pristine ocean

Enric Sala at Mission Blue Voyage  (transcript)
Glimpses of a pristine ocean
Summary
The speaker suggests creating really large protected areas to protect our oceans. However, the government is not right, fishermen don't know about protected areas, and funding models are also wrong.
Probably, Japanese systems must be more wrong because the government and fishermen think that they want more money, and if they understand, Chinese fishermen will come into Japanese areas immediately.
We lost our oceans already,  but we have ways to bring it back. The world has still pristine oceans which are far small areas and it has power to resilient if we, people, help a little bit more.

Jeremy Jackson : How we wrecked the ocean

Jeremy Jackson at Mission Blue Voyage  (transcript)
How we wrecked the ocean
Summary
In the article, the speaker explains important ecological systems of our oceans to understand really well.
For beautiful coral reefs, no fish is important. 1)
However, overfishing leads to dying sea urchin because fish that big fish eat had been caught by people. 2)
The seaweed can grow immediately because sea urchin that eats seaweeds dies. 3)
There is no fish, though, there is a lot of seaweed and slams.  4)
And then, overfishing, pollution, and climate change prevent sea recovering. 5)

However, the answers about how we wrecked the ocean are not those.
The answer is that we, people, are continually doing. It's our greed, need for growth, and selfishness. Ocean recovering depends on us.

Words in the story
urchin /ˈɚːtʃɪn/

Chika Okoro : How colorism shapes our standards of beauty

Chika Okoro at TEDxStanford  (transcript)
How colorism shapes our standards of beauty
Summary
l thought that colorism is discrimination between white people and black people and now, it's only among actresses.
However, colorism means prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. lt’s even the same ethic and children also think that there is discrimination of colorism. In the article, a small kid tells us that a girl having the darkest skin is the dumb and ugly girl.
I've felt greater sadness and It's the same feeling when I saw the five different face colors’ emoji in the past.
Furthermore, l remembered that among the same Asian ethnic people, there is it, they think that they want to have white skin, and they buy cosmetics written the letter “WHITE”.
We have to know about the beauty that all people have. The beauty standard is not related to different skin colors. 

Navi Radjou : Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits

Navi Radjou TEDGlobal 2014  (transcript)
Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits
Summary
Every year, 5th of June is World Environment Day (WED) thus my teacher gave me a great article to study English.

In the article, the speaker introduces creative ways to solve our energy problems that face extreme limits and I think that the important words are frugal innovation and ingenuity.

Frugal innovation is the ability to create more economic and social value using fewer resource. It means that we have to use our energy resources with more frugality. We can't do what we don't use energies thus frugal innovation is important.
Ingenuity is the quality of being clever, original, and inventive. It means that we have to more think about reducing energy usage and it's needed more ingenuity.
Some areas of the world, even developing countries,  use telemedicine 1),
mobile payments 2) and clean energy 3) instead of building expensive hospitals and banks. However, a lot of areas of the world, especially developed countries use tons of natural resources to create ever more complex products, though, people won't be able to continue buying those because of expensive, will run out of energies, and existing products and services won't be needed by customers soon.

The conclusions that the speaker gave the point of creative problem-solving are simple, same and small. It means that complex functions, new products, and being widely big are needed tons of natural resources. This is the key to Frugal innovation, 3S is named by me, though.

Words in this story
ingenuity /noun/ the quality of being clever, original, and inventive.
frugal /adj/ sparing or economical with regard to money or food.
frugality /noun/

Rogier van der Heide : Why light needs darkness

Rogier van der Heide at TEDxAmsterdam  (transcript)
Why light needs darkness
Summary
Indeed, different light conditions create an environment that is never boring, never dull, and it seems to help us enhance our lives because the human eye turns out to be remarkably adaptable to them.

When we get up in the morning, it's said to get sunshine is important.
Before we go to bed, it's said that it's not good to see blue light. Our bodies' rhythm seems to be created by rising sun and sleeping in dark spaces.
Those can be created by not only the sun but also light and without proper darkness, there is no good lighting which is for our health and well-being. Only bright cities use much energy and make birds disoriented.
Light needs darkness.

Words in this story
ambiance /noun/ atmosphere, mood
enhance /verb/ increase, improve, raise the value of

Kavita Ramdas : Radical women, embracing tradition

Kavita Ramdas at TEDIndia 2009  (transcript)
Radical women, embracing tradition
Summary
The article really made me worried because I've probably understood this. In the past, l laughed at the story of Chimamanda Adichie. She’s Nigerian and lives in Nigeria where women struggle for their rights that are thought to have only men, though, she thinks that she wants to happily marry a man. I couldn't think of.
However, the speaker tells us that there is not a single story of women's struggles for their rights, there are many stories and women, even men, are doing the preserving traditions and radicalizing. We are always in a paradoxical world which doesn't have the line between solved and unsolved arias.
This is because feminism that is against a deeply held set of beliefs and assumptions that we, women, hold ourselves. Human must have great traditions in each country and we are changing with it little by little.

Eric Liuat : How to revive your belief in democracy

Eric LiuatTED2019  (transcript)
How to revive your belief in democracy
Summary
I thought that it's dangerous to have biases for understanding something because I didn't understand the article first.
The biases are that the speaker is Chinese and there are some difficult words that are not accepted easily even if those are written in Japanese. Those are, for example, "Civic Saturday", " Civic religion" and so on.  It's because a people's question is not how to revive their belief in democracy but how to revive their money in business probably.  (I thought that a really nice idea hit on me and my English skill might be improving！ )
However, people must now lose many interests for comfortable spending but it's only used by the internet.
First, there must be a better society and second, there must be a better belief. Even small groups and communities will help you.
Belief is an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists.
Democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
Civic Saturday is to nurture a spirit of shared purpose.
Civil religion seems to be the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols, and countries having a civil religion seems to be said France, South Korea, and the former Soviet Union.
I think that it will be more simple to tell for Japanese people that having a little bit of interest for your better life. Please knock on the doors which are little communities. You can find your leaders or you might be a leader for something and it's a start for democracy.
It's said often that participating is important also.

America Ferrera : My identity is a superpower — not an obstacle

America Ferrera at TED2019  (transcript)
My identity is a superpower- not an obstacle
Summary
The speaker is now an actor of Hollywood, a director and an activist who believes her identity is a superpower.

However, in the past, she who was too poor Latine had brown skin had stereotypes that Hollywood actress should have beautiful hair, she shouldn't be too fat, she shouldn't be too poor, she should have expensive clothes, and of course, when people look at her, they shouldn't see her who was a such person.

She believed that a successful way was hiding those identities, though, it's wrong. When she's changed her fundamental values and beliefs with courage, when she's stopped resisting them, when she's started existing as authentic self, her dream has come to her, it took much time, though.
Stop resisting your identities that are not obstacles. Believe and go ahead.

Why you should eat your fruit in the morning

Why you should eat your fruit in the morning (article)
Summary
My English teacher asked me whether it's better to eat fruits in the morning or not thus I chose the article.
It had better answers.
When we eat fruit on an empty stomach, the digestive system breaks down the sugars in the fruit quickly and allows us to get the full nutritional benefits.
When we eat fruit and other food, its process is slowed down only.
Fruits mixing with nut butters or coconut milk in a smoothie will be also fine, however, the article tells us that keep your fruit meal planning as clean as possible.
Our breakfast is very important for our daily better action, you know.
I don't feel annoyed at eating fruit only in the morning, though, in Japan, just fresh fruits are very expensive.

Bunker Roy : Learning from a barefoot movement

Bunker Roy at TEDGlobal 2011  (transcript)
Learning from a barefoot movement
Summary
In the first place, working and learning must be what the speaker tells us. It means to give something back in your own way, it doesn't need much money and higher skills. However, those have turned into what people earn much money unnoticeably.

The speaker received high education so he had his ways that he could be all, though, he realized that there was a better way that many people in a village more than having high positions in a big city or country.
In fact, in small villages where poor people die of starvation, there are extraordinary knowledge and skills for living better. Those small ideas are not to waste water, to use solar energy, to learn about domestic animals, and so on.

The most important thing is that all people who have no money, who are illiterate, who are elder or children having jobs and who are women opposed studying can learn. The speaker created a school called the Barefoot College where those people can go. They learn and work and solve their living problems with their ways.  Learning what they don't know and then teaching what they learned and experienced. Those must be a skill that helps their communities so the cycle is learning from a barefoot movement.

 Words in this story
illiterate /adj/ unwritten
bare /adj/ naked, bare, nude
bear /verb/ endure, bear, abide

What Does VUCA Really Mean?

Forbes (article)
What Does VUCA Really Mean?
Summary
A few days ago, I heard that a book written about VUCA was published in Japan thus I chose the article and I really expected that l could understand it and the word was used in my everyday life soon or when I worked. However, those elements are too negative to be used in the businesses so I've had more questions.
The four elements of VUCA are  Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
The meaning of the words is simple thus those refer to instability, unpredictability, difficulty, and indecisiveness, though, in the scene of businesses, the world is always changing fast and then predict, analyze, and interpret are also hard.
The writer tells us that this is the overall mindset strategy of the businesses only.
My understandings are that the VUCA world is always changing fast more than people who include great economists think and say, thus their predict, analyze, and interpret must be uncertain and there are no absolute right things.  Do you have better strategies in such uncontrollable environments?

Words in this story
indecisiveness /noun/ uncertainty, vacillation
indecisive /adj/ not settling an issue