Category: Educational

Michael Moore’s Documentary on Health Care: “Sicko”

Michael Moore’s film “Sicko” compares (sometimes with ironic humor) at the US’s broken healthcare system with universal health care systems in other countries such as Canada, Britain, France, and even Cuba.

There are interviews with health care professionals as well as citizens of the various countries. There is a testimonial by an former medical reviewer who denied an insured of medical treatment which subsequently caused the insured his death — and all because of profits. There are many other first-hand accounts of heart-breaking stories where people have been denied treatment and who subsequently died because of it. And most of whom do have health insurance. As is covered in the extra “special features” of the DVD, it is a myth that if you have health insurance you are safe. The number one cause of bankruptcy and homelessness in the US is due to health care bills. And in 75% of those cases, the person did have health insurance.

Well, at least there were some happy parts to the film. Michael Moore took a group of sick people (including some 911 workers) to Cuba. They had not been able to get the care that they needed in the States. But in Cuba, they did. One person almost cried as she found out that she could get an medicinal inhaler for an equivalent of $0.05 — one which would cost $120 in the States.

Brain Scientist Describes Her Stroke and How She Achieved Nivana

WATCH VIDEO on TED.com »

Brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor gave this talk at TED where she showed us a real brain and how it consists of two separate halves. The right half thinks in parallel and knows the concept of “we”. The left half thinks in serial and knows that concept of “I”. One day she had a stroke on the left hemisphere and she is able to describe to us today what happened on that day as her brain functions started to shut down. She described how she lost the normal brain chatter that are always in our head, how she gained a perspective as an outsider looking at herself, and how she experienced nirvana.

Video of Mark Bittman telling us what’s wrong with what we eat

WATCH VIDEO on TED.com »

Mark Bittman goes over the history of how we eat and explains what is wrong with the way we eat today. He advocates eating more plants and less animals — both for our own health as well as help prevent global warming. Oh, you didn’t know that raising cattle contribute to global warming? Mark Bittman says “livestock is the second highest contributing factor to atmosphere-altering gases. Nearly one-fifth of all greenhouse gases is generated by livestock production — more than transportation.”

Dr. John Medina Talks At Google About Brain Science

WATCH VIDEO on YouTube »

Dr. John Medina, developmental molecular biologist, gives an informative and humorous talk at Google about brain science and his book “Brain Rules”.

In this talk he talks about brain rule number one which is that aerobic exercise boosts cognitive performance especially executive function. He says “if you have an active lifestyle you have a 50% reduction in the risk of Alzheimer”. He answers the question of how much exercise if required to get these benefits: Two to three times a week for 20 minutes per session. Aerobic exercise increases blood flow to the dentate gyrus of brain and elevates BDNF which is like Miracle Grow for brains.

Then he talks about stress on the brain. Stressed brains does not learn the same way and hurts learning. He says “stress damages cognition in virtually every way cognition can be measured.”

And he ends with the most important brain rule of all: curiosity.

Book: “You Want Fries With That”

“You Want Fries with That: A White-Collar Burnout Experiences Life at Minimum Wage” was written by Prioleau Alexander. Alexander was an advertising executive who got tired of his white-collar job. He quit to do various work in the service industry such as pizza delivery, emergency room technician, ice cream person, etc. Is it better or worst than his white-collar job? This book tells of his experiences and his answer to that question.