For the last day of 7 Days of TED, I decided to go random.  This led to watching an awkward TED talk, but oh well, just gotta go with the flow and learn something.

TED Talk #1: I went with TED’s Top 20 talks for my first two video choices, and I used a random online number generator to find my choices.  My first four results were 2, 10, 9, 7, yet I’ve seen all of them before… but attempt #5 led to lucky number 13 on the list, and thus, we have “Mathemagic” by Arthur Benjamin:

Thoughts and Highlights:

• Wow, that was cool.
• He seemed to be showcasing the peg and major systems for memory

TED Talk #2: Thank you, random number generator for next picking #14 off the Top TED talks, “10 Things you didn’t know about orgasm” by Mary Roach.  Eh, I’m well-versed in awkwardness by now, so here we go…

Thoughts and Highlights:

• (11:40) Oh, this is awkward.  And funny.
• If I was in the audience, I’d probably be giggling the entire time…
• Lesson: the more you know, the more you don’t know…?

TED Talk #3: No more of random number generating from the TED Top 20 list… I just picked willy-nilly from list of suggested videos, and thus we have “How to live to be 100+” by Dan Buettner

Thoughts and Highlights:

• (0:16) Danish twin study article.
• (0:52) Oh, Dr. Oz… he knows his stuff… (he actually does know his stuff, cause he is extremely smart and educated, but he seems to forget that from time to time)
• (3:06) peripheral vs. central nervous system neuroregeneration.  And neurogenesis actually has been shown to happen.
• (3:37) Cell turn-over rates are different depending on the cell type.
• (3:59) I wish I could see his sources for these claims.
• (6:08) “cheese from grass-fed animals… high in omega-3 fatty acids, not omega-6″.  Many studies confirm this, but here is a recent one.  And while metabolites of omega-6 fatty acids are more inflammatory than omega-3 metabolites, this doesn’t mean omega-6 fatty acids are “evil”… Linoleic acid (not to be confused with linolenic acid) is a n-6 essential fatty acid
•  (10:35) “the reason for which you wake up in the morning”
• (15:33) “a stranger is a friend I haven’t met yet”
• (18:59) Where are these stats coming from?
• Those 9 factors seem pretty easy to incorporate, given they aren’t already part of one’s lifestyle