Celebrate Life

Reading list: 23 female TED speakers tell us about the books that shaped them

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Ideas.Ted.Com Mar 7, 2018 / Rajpreet Heir Here are the books that profoundly influenced women from our speaker community, and they’re just as wonderfully diverse as TED itself. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë When I read this book for the first time as a deeply odd fifth-grader (or, as Jane says, “poor, plain, and little”), it felt like grasping onto a life raft that had been flung to me through the folds of time. Feeling such a kinship with Jane and with Charlotte Brontë herself made me feel, quite suddenly, less alone. I still re-read this book every couple of years, and it still speaks to something primal and yearning in me — the outsider woman who is finally seen, finds love, but also has the strength and self-possession to reject that love until she is able to accept it from a place of her own power and dignity. If you haven’t read it, do so immediately; if you read it a long time ago, it is well worth reading again; and if you, like me, can’t get enough of it, may I also recommend Wide Sargasso Sea, which is a prequel by Jean Rhys centered on the story of the mad wife in the attic. — Naomi McDougall Jones (TED Talk: What it’s like to be a woman in Hollywood) Good Woman by Lucille Clifton I read this collection of poems at a time of life when I was […]

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Media

On This Day In History March 7th

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  1876 Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone Following the development of his prototype ‘harmonic telegraph’ device, Scotland-born Alexander Graham Bell receives a US patent on a revolutionary new form of instantaneous communication, the telephone.   1965 Selma civil rights march becomes ‘Bloody Sunday’ Marching for civil rights for African Americans, hundreds of unarmed and peaceful protesters cross the Edmund […]

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Freedom of Speech

It’s not politics or religion separating humans from each other; it’s shame

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IDEAS.TED.com Feb 26, 2019 / Douglas Rushkoff   Excerpted from the new book Team Human by Douglas Rushkoff. Copyright © 2019 by Douglas Rushkoff. Reprinted by permission of W.W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved. Watch his TED Salon: Samsung talk here: https://embed.ted.com/talks/douglas_rushkoff_how_to_be_team_human_in_the_digital_future ABOUT THE AUTHOR Douglas Rushkoff is the host of the popular Team Human podcast. He has written 20 books, including the bestsellers “Present Shock” and “Program or Be Programmed,” as well as regular columns for Medium, CNN, Daily Beast and the Guardian. Rushkoff also made the PBS Frontline documentaries “Generation Like” and “Merchants of Cool.” He coined such concepts as “viral media” and “social currency,” and he’s been a leading voice for applying digital media toward social and economic justice. He is a research fellow of the Institute for the Future and founder of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at CUNY/Queens, where he is a professor of media theory and digital economics.

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Celebrate Life

On This Day In History February 28th

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Have a great day! Thanks for reading and following my blog. I appreciate you. M   ‘MAS*H’ finale airs to record-smashing ratings. 1983 Nearly 106 million viewers, or 77 percent of the American TV-watching public, tune in to the last episode of the beloved series ‘MAS*H.’ After 11 seasons, the television show about a US Army medical unit serving in […]

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Fun

Today In History February 21

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1599 Shakespeare leases marshland on the Thames River William Shakespeare joins seven other men in signing a lease on a Southwark lot along the Thames. The playwright now owns a share in what will become the Globe Theatre, where some of his most memorable plays will first be staged, including ‘Julius Caesar,’ ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Othello,’ ‘King Lear,’ and ‘Hamlet.’   1804 […]

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Chronic Illness

U.S. Pain Foundation Ambassador Network

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Last week I joined the U.S. Pain Foundation Ambassador Program. The work the organization does for people with chronic pain is hands-on and at a government level. There are endless opportunities for you to support the organization with the time you have available. I have to learn how to do screenshots on MAC OS quickly, I’m attending a Webinar on Thursday.  Melinda Dear Junior Ambassador, I would like to personally welcome you into the U.S. Pain family! By joining our Pain Ambassador Network, you are taking action and choosing to help us advocate on behalf of the pain community. Our goal is to support you and provide you with the tools needed to raise awareness. The U.S. Pain Foundation is a nonprofit organization created by people with pain for people with pain. We want the experiences you have as a junior ambassador to be full of fun and excitement. Our mission is to educate, connect, empower, and advocate for pain warriors as well as their families, caregivers, and friends; the hard work and dedication of ambassadors like you is what allows us to fulfill this mission. We greatly appreciate the time, energy, and passion that you have chosen to dedicate towards raising awareness! To thank you for your commitment as a volunteer, we will be sending you a starter package in the mail. We encourage you to use these resources to empower yourself. As a junior ambassador, we would also like […]

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Media

Love the news but hate clickbait and fluff? Here’s how to get more quality and less quantity

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Ideas.Ted.com Feb 5, 2019 / Cal Newport Digital minimalist Cal Newport shows how you can turn off the information firehose and follow current events on your own terms. Are you ready to join the attention resistance? In 2010, a trio of Germans with backgrounds in sociology, technology and market research posted a document titled “Das Slow Media Manifest” (the English translation is “The Slow Media Manifesto”). Following the Slow Foodmovement — which promotes local food and cuisine as an alternative to fast food — the Slow Media Manifesto notes that the first decade of the 21st century “brought profound changes to the technological foundations of the media landscape.” The second decade, it proposes, should be dedicated to figuring out the “appropriate reaction.” Their suggestion: We can embrace the concept of “slow.” In an age in which the digital attention economy is shoveling more and more clickbait toward us and fragmenting our focus into emotionally charged shards, the right response is to become more mindful in our media consumption. The Slow Media movement is still mostly European; in the US, the response has proved more puritanical. Whereas the Europeans suggest transforming media consumption into a high‑quality experience, Americans have tended to embrace the “low information diet”: a concept popularized by author Tim Ferriss, in which you aggressively eliminate sources of news and information to reclaim time for other pursuits. Much like the American approach to healthy eating, it focuses on eliminating […]

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Fun

Today in History February 6th

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1812 Earthquake causes Mississippi River to flow backwards The last of four massive earthquakes that began the previous December strikes in what will be the state of Missouri with a force strong enough to spawn a fluvial tsunami, causing the mighty Mississippi River to run backwards for many hours.   1935 Beloved board game Monopoly debuts Parker Brothers begins selling […]

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Family

Diversity Matters in Research

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By 23andMe on Fri, 01 Feb 2019 17:49:06 Africans and African Americans are among the most underrepresented populations in genetic health research, yet they face some of the most daunting health outcomes.   It’s a bitter irony of the current state of research that among those most in need are the least served by our ever-expanding genetic knowledge. Africans, African Americans, as well as Latinos, still make up less than four percent of individuals included in genome-wide association studies, according to a recent study. Genetic Diversity This despite the fact that Africans and people of African ancestry are more genetically diverse than all other populations in the world combined. This is because humans originated in Africa and have lived there continuously for more than 200,000 years, adapting to the varied climates and regions. The rest of the world was populated by small groups of people who first migrated out of Africa some 60,000 to 130,000 years ago. In genetics this is called the Founder Effect. Including people of African ancestry in genetic study will likely uncover unique genetic variation that help scientists better understand conditions that affect people of African ancestry, who thus far have not benefited from many of the breakthroughs in genetic science. Yielding Results 23andMe’s efforts to improve diversity in its research has yielded results. The most promising is that we now have one of the largest groups, if not the largest, group of African Americans who […]

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Media

Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoCS

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  This is my first go participating Stream of Consciousness Saturday #SoSC, if I miss something please point it out, nicely. 🙂 Television was a step closer to the internet by way of seeing images for the first time. Much like the radio brought words to books. I’ve seen photos and painting of people gathered around the radio, more imagination is needed to listen and draw the story in your mind. I had two favorite shows, Popeye and Gunsmoke. Sounds like a strange combo, I was a grandpa’s girl and Gunsmoke was his show. Looking at both now and then, it’s often the good guys against the bad. Melinda For more on the Stream of Consciousness Saturday, visit Linda Hill’s blog. Here’s the link: https://lindaghill.com/2019/01/18/the-friday-reminder-for-socs-jusjojan-2019-daily-prompt-jan-19th/ Here are the rules for SoCS: 1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing, (typos can be fixed) and minimal planning on what you’re going to write. 2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop. 3. There will be a prompt every week. I will post the prompt here on my blog on Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For […]

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Media

Want to save your mental energy for the stuff that really matters? Set a decision budget

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Ideas.Ted.com Jan 9, 2019 / Dave Asprey Watch his TEDxConstitutionDrive talk here: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Dave Asprey is a Silicon Valley investor and technology entrepreneur. He has spent over two decades and $1 million to hack his own biology and be a better husband, father and entrepreneur. Asprey is the creator of Bulletproof Coffee, founder of the Bulletproof Executive blog, host of the […]

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Family

Will Alexa Become Your Next Marriage Counselor

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DECEMBER 27, 2018  While it’s estimated that nearly 93% of soon-to-be brides use the internet to plan their wedding, we might have more tech to thank when it comes to making our marriage last. According to new reports, home listening devices, like Alexa and Google Home, might have the ability to detect common problems in your relationship. These virtual assistants are always […]

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Mental Illness

Is ‘Bird Box’ About Mental Health?

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Psychology Today Shainna Ali Ph.D., LMHC A Modern Mentality   If you’re a human who uses social media, you’ve likely seen flocks of folks commenting on Netflix’s recently released psychological thriller, Bird Box. Based on the post-apocalyptic novel by Josh Malerman, the adaptation has spiked in recent popularity as Netflix claims it has been watched by over 45 million viewers in just one week.   Bird […]

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