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Chris Anderson - Stay Curious 

Really liked this one

Theresa Coble - Global Change 

This was about the loss of her daughter in a shooting range accident, which segwayed into a talk about Anthropogenic Global Warming. On a related note, there is nothing I despise more about modern U.S. politics than the politicizing of scientific phenomena. She kept it to science, only mentioning once the same problem with politicizing science I hate, and I thank her. A good resource I've used about this topic: http://www.skepticalscience.com/ As with Wikipedia, this is not a source in and of itself, but it does have lots of links to good academic sources. Did you know: the 97% scientific consensus figure that is often brought up on political newscasts comes from an analysis of abstracts in the environmental science field? http://www.skepticalscience.com/97-percent-consensus-robust.htm 

Leeland Thompson - Power to the People

This guy's argument was that we are not passive food consumers, but rather informed purchasers in the modern time where nutrition information is easier to find than ever. While there is evidence that nutrition labels do not change eating habits (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131115154458.htm), I do hope the trend continues, as it makes my diets so much easier to follow.

Mario Livo - The Case for Curiosity 

 

I especially liked this guy's presentation

Gene Moon - The Conducter in You

Another SFASU professor who got his degrees in NY demonstrated what a conductor does and how it changes the shape of a musical piece by having a few students play without and then with his conducting. This was great, as it really is something I've always been curious about. I'm going to look up more about conductors later on, I think.

Annah Elizabeth - The Power of What If?

This woman went through several miscarriages and being cheated on by her husband, among other things,  but learned to replace negative with positive what ifs later in life. 

I have a lot of empathy for her, as I've had to do the same. 

Interestingly, a guy I just met, Kyle, disagrees with what he calls positive psychology very strongly and wants to work forcing ppl to accept and confront misery in order to cure the same. 

I heavily disagree with his approach just as much as he heavily disagrees with my route of therapy and medication for the following reasons:

- what he's talking about isn't new, it's the same method used to assuage people's phobias of elevators, heights, etc; in those cases, psychologists have people directly confront their fears to show them the irrationslity inherent in certain phobias; this works because 

- phobias are not in  the same ballpark as chronic problems like depression that can creep into all aspects of life that he wants to treat with the same methods. He disagrees with depression being an abnormal state, and this makes me suspect he has never had depression and is confusing it with sadness. Just like you can overtrain your physical body, I think what he's talking about doing is more likely to cause PTSD than cure someone, the way he describes it. Now if he's talking about just letting yourself be sad, like Louis C.K. has (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HbYScltf1c), I actually agree with him, but again, not the same as depression or chronic anxiety, which are not the same thing. Next time we talk, I may tell him so, but having only met him Friday (and he seems like a nice, cool guy) I didn't feel like an argument. 

Skylar Tibbits - The Emergence of 4D Printing

This was actually cut for time, but damn it's fascinating! By the way, my cousing graduated from MIT doing a program that allowed him to simultaneously get his Master's and Bachelor's degrees in engineering, and has worked on secret projects like govt. sattellites; he is not this guy, I'm just bragging about family. 

Alan Bartell - Art/Outdoor Education

This guy loves bikes and he looked like it (looked a lot like Jamie from Mythbusters, in fact, but with more beard) and talked about going to a motorcycle museum in Vegas that is now a place used for Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concerts and his experiences teaching students to draw what they hear out in nature. Actually, camp kids, not students. Maybe it was both?

Adam Savage - How Simple Ideas Lead to Scientific Discoveries

Another good one fulfilling that 25% prior TED Talks video quota

Derek Sivers - How to Start a Movement

This was funny

Then it all ended with the next TEDxSFA date (March 2015) and theme (open new doors). 

And I'm done. Now I need to get "breakfast," go work out, get a couple things for my date, possibly start on that paper due tomorrow, and of course, go on that date at 7pm. Wish me speed!