Magical Glasses

According to Joshua Silver, a physicist in the UK, one of the biggest problems in developing county is shortage of optometrists. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, an eye care professional has to take care of more than eight million people. It means that shortsighted
people can hardly get glasses or contact lenses there. To ameliorate this situation, he invented glasses of which we can correct the degree by ourselves. With the glasses, we don't need for optometrists anymore.


Even though I live in a developed country, I want to have such kind of glasses, because it would make my life easier. First of all, if I have them, I don't need to go to meet eye doctors so often.  Our sight tends to be swayed with our age, so actually I have to go there often. Next, that means I can reduce my medical expense. I don't have to buy new glasses according to the transition of my sight. I really wish they will be mass-produced in the near future.

How Can I Think Like Her During Hard Time

Stacey Kramer is a brain tumor survivor. Despite her severe experience, she considered it as a gift, because it totally made her life changed.


According to her, thanks to the tumor, she was able to feel loved so much by her family, friends, and acquaintances like never before. What is more, it made her enable to recalibrate what was important in her life. Thus, she concluded her speech by saying that when people faced with something that's unexpected and unwanted and uncertain, we should consider it just as a gift.


Actually it is only few people who can think like that during their hard time. When I suffered from infertility, which was really difficult experience for me, I just couldn't help cursing everything. I didn't want to get in touch with people and to think about my life. I couldn't study as much as I like and go out for fan. The tough time was just a tough time. Doubtlessly, it is only the person who takes an elevated view of things that can think in this way.　 

The Significance Of Pregnancy Period

When do people start to learn?  Most people may think it would be after birth, but the right answer is when they are in their mother's womb.


Surprisingly, fetuses literally learn many things. For example, they learn their mother's voices. This is why after their birth, they can recognize them and they prefer listening to them. Also they can acquire not only the taste but also the smell. At the point of seventh month of a pregnancy, fetuses' gustatory and olfactory organs are fully functioning. Therefore, they can experience what their mothers eat during the gestation through umbilical cord and tend to be fond of it after birth. In short, we can say that mothers' nutritional status or conditions can affect their babies and the influence might decide their later likes and dislikes.

What made me more surprised was the fact that fetus can feel their mother's emotion as well, and they are readily influenced by that. For instance, the mother with post-traumatic stress syndrome while being pregnant can transmit their mental vulnerability to their babies. 


These things indicate that mothers unconsciously teach their children about what the new world is like. In short, mothers are making them prepare in order to make them easily adapt to their new world. I think this video wants to say that the pregnancy period is a special term, it is very important, and this is why expectant mothers have to be attentive to their condition.

The End Of Erosion Of Western Culture

Proponents of the clash of civilizations are saying Islamic culture and Western one never came in contact. However, her experience was different from that. According to the speaker, people who live in Islamic religion are trying to accept Western culture, for example, music and cartoons. Surely the Islamic music video clip in this presentation was very similar to MTV, and so was its cartoon. Then she thought embracing of Western culture was good for Islamic people. 


However, it seems one sided. It is only Islamic people that are acculturating. In fact, even though some Islamic culture can be seen in Western religions, but it is little. Moreover, it can be said not only to Islamic culture but also to other Asian cultures. For instance, Japan has been accepting a lot of Western culture like movies or foods, but not the way around. Why is it like that? 


I think the reason is that Western countries has been faring well especially in economics so far. This is why their influence has been strong and a lot of Asian countries have been keen to adopt it. However, how is it going to go from now on? Now China is the second biggest power in the world and other Asian countries are trying hard to catch up with it. On the other hand, the American economic is not so good and when it comes to Europe, it is filled with a lot of anxiety. Thus, I think the time when Asian culture will dominate the world's trend will come before too long.

To Achieve Something Tremendous

David Blaine is a famous magician, who looks just funny and cheerful. However, he is a very hard worker who has strong fortitude.

After some mind boggling challenges like, keeping standing on top of a hundred foot pillar for 36hours, he decided to challenge a world record―holding his breath more than 17 minutes. As we knew, it was very dangerous and that was why doctors stopped him. Nevertheless, he never changed his mind and through a lot of trials and errors, he achieved the goal.

In the last of this video, he said "Magic is practice, training, and experimenting, while pushing through the pain to be the best that I can be." How strong his remark is! He was able to say so, because he himself made a tenacious effort for his goal and succeeded in it. I think we can apply his remark to our lives. To achieve something tremendous, practice, training, and experimenting are absolutely necessary. What is more, I think, a life without these is boring and worthless.

Using Our Ingenuity Is Fun!

A lot of people tend to think that being fashionable and unique cost a lot. We apt to think we can get nice clothes only from big‐name shops. Needless to say, they are expensive.  Can't we  get gorgeous coordinates from really reasonable shops? 

Yes, we can. Actually, she does. At first glance, the speaker looks just a very fashionable woman, but she has a secret; She never buy anything new. She always buys some secondhand clothes only from flea markets or thrift stores and coordinates them effectively.

Before, when I heard of the word "secondhand clothes", I didn't have good images on them; It would be a bit dirty, out of date, and useless. I had been thinking that wearing such a kind of clothes would make me feel less confident and uneasy, until I watched this video. Here, she looked very stylish and sophisticated with them! What was more, how happy she looked!

I think her message was that we could make the most of anything by using our ingenuity. Besides, exercising ingenuity is kind of fun. I really enjoyed not only her fashion show but also her way of thinking.

Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers

Accepting a challenge from the National Federation of the Blind, Mr. Dennis Hong, together with his team, started to invent vehicles for blind people.


For this goal, his team had to take perception, computation and non-visual interfaces into account. Needless to say, the drivers weren't supposed to see, so something had to perceive the road condition or obstacles on it instead. Then his team invented very sophisticated sensor. Next, they needed a  computer to accumulate this information and instruct the drivers how to drive. Hence, they devised a special one that was able to consolidate and organize the information, and instruct the blind.


For his team, the problem was how these instructions were conveyed to the visually impaired. To solve this problem, after a lot of trials and errors, finally they made a special interface for non-visual users. This gadget had many holes where compressed air come out, which made blind people image the shape of the roads or the existence of obstacles.


Later, their effort were rewarded. Even though it was just a prototype, but they succeeded in achieving their goal. However, according to him, what is more important is the wonderful technologies that come from their experiments. They may be able to use these technologies to make safer cars for sighted people. They may be able to utilize them to make home appliances for blind people. 


Honestly, the saying ”making a car for blind drivers” sounds unrealistic. Many people must have thought he was kind of mad. However, no one could say that it was 100% impossible and actually, they succeeded. I hope he will develop his study more and the vehicle will be made into a product.