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More About Me

I'm passionate about

thinking and decision-making, how we come to our conclusions, how we decide things. I'm passionate about feeling and experience, past and present, and how we'll create our future.

Talk to me about

your beat of life. Tell me why you do what you chose. Talk to me about joy, not happiness - joy, and how you achieve it. Tell me what hurt you so much you changed.

My TED Story

Science is everything, except for everything else.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +24.50 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: How do(did) you raise your kids?

  2 days ago: I would have liked Mr. Gibran. Beautiful and so on the mark. Thanks for that.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  2 days ago: Well, at the risk of seeming insensitive, economic stress can also lead to self-pity and an us-vs-them attitude, which leads to a sort of 'righteous self destruction' whereas we harm ourselves to show how harmed we are. (I'm gonna get a lot of response for that one). There are many 'less affluent' families that refuse to allow themselves or their children to eat junk food, preferring to make every meal at home from scratch - often ethnically oriented. So in that I would say we choose our approach to food, and what we allow into our lives, whether of means or not. Regarding urban farming, I saw an article cover story (I believe it was Fortune magazine) about some entrepreneurs trying to buy large tracts of land in Detroit to convert it into a mega-hydroponic garden - worthy of providing wholesale to grocers and even an international tourist attraction. It seems to have been another victim of politics though. Nothing I'm aware of in Chicago other than the 'neighborhood garden co-ops'.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  2 days ago: Ok. Great. So you see no correlation between a reduction in the activity of smoking and taking illicit drugs (except marijuana which has increased) with an increase in eating - referring to children who do not smoke or take drugs. You also state that race or age groups may be more indicative of obesity. So you feel it's not so much the reduction of 'bad habits' that contribute to a 'replacement' bad habit of obesity but that obesity is possibly racially motivated and age discriminate. I think those would be very interesting statistics and, if true, would bring up a another whole discussion as to why. Thanks for responding.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  2 days ago: Ok. Thanks Lars. So you do not think there is a correlation between a decrease in smoking and drug use to obesity, but believe 'the main reason' there is an increase in obesity is because of increased use of high fructose syrups and artificial sweeteners in beverages, because eating habits 'did not really change over the years'. That is an interesting perspective. I won't ask you to offer any data to support that, but if you care to present some, that would be great. Otherwise, thanks for participating.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  2 days ago: ok. no sweat. thnx.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  3 days ago: That's the correlation I see, but so far not many others would agree. They see other causes more heavily impacting the obesity phenomenon. But I never said the reduction in smoking and drug abuse was 'the main reason - or the most reason' for obesity, I just asked if there were a correlation between them. Cheers!
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  A reply on Conversation: How do you think the future of Tech will affect us socially?

  3 days ago: Ok. So if I understand you correctly, our interactions with one another result in a 'symbiotic' effect upon each other - a mutual exchange. Also, we are little changed in this symbiotic result since 10k years ago, and this symbiotic result also has created our morality, ethics and justice requirements. As tech advances, we will no longer need the support of this symbiosis because it will have been replaced by tech data. Is that about right? If so, then we will have little need for each other. Then, what follows for me is that our innate tendency is not that we are to become a 'homogeneous' group called humanity, but a group of competing individuals to survive, with less and less need to compromise. What's your take on that?
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  A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  3 days ago: A couple of people have reference studies of this correlation, but they seem inconclusive at this point. I think that would be interesting to know, although I feel researchers would be hard pressed to 'discover' that smoking helped prevent obesity. Maybe the cigarette companies would fund such a study. They probably already have. :) Thanks for your response.

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  3 days ago: Very interesting. I have done a small amount of research since posting this question regarding this point of 'sedentary' lifestyle relating to obesity and have found consistent professional viewpoints similar to your response - especially regarding the increase for children. I wonder if, since our occupations have changed to primarily office and service work, or minding machines that perform tasks, whether our biological needs of replenishment (hunger) have adjusted to this relatively new lifestyle from our millenial history of physical labor to provide our sustenance? In other words, have we 'evolved' enough in our biology to 'adapt' to this newer level of need?

• A reply on Conversation: Smoking and illegal drugs are down, Obesity is up. (USA) Is there a correlation?

  3 days ago: Yea Pat, I would have to agree more with ZX. I don't see any evidence that age demographics is a correlation to obesity - other than the rise for children. Although, how do you mean that the demographics affect obesity, or that an increase in life expectancy would impact obesity rather than a decrease in smoking or drug abuse? I'm not clear on that point. Thanks for participating.