Welcome to day #29 of my daily learning journal. My goal is to watch one Ted Talk and one cataract surgery each day. In addition, I plan to read one journal article and read/listen to a book chapter, short story or significant work.
Here’s today’s list:
1. Ted Talk – My stroke of insight – Jill Bolte Taylor – “Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions — motion, speech, self-awareness — shut down one by one. An astonishing story.” (ted.com)
I usually visit ted.com and pick a Ted recommendation, trending talk, or one which has a catchy title. Always looking for the hidden Ted treasure. The Ted list of most popular talks of all time is also a great resource. Dr. Taylor’s Ted Talk is #7 on the all-time list (26.7 million views) and well worth the experience.
2A. Cataract Surgery – Uday Devgan MD – Small pupil, PXF, and IFIS – Guest surgeon Dr. Dobrin Boyadzhiev from Bulgaria.
2B. Cataract Surgery – Uday Devgan MD – Review: Double Capsulorhexis for White Cataracts
Uday continues to post great videos filled with pearls.
3. Journal – Lin, E., Ke, M., Tan, B. et al. Are choriocapillaris flow void features robust to diurnal variations? A swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) study. Sci Rep 10, 11249 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68204-x
4A. Book Chapter – Herman Melville – Moby Dick. Listened to Chapters 55-63 via LoyalBooks.com. Sparknotes highlights narration. Text is available on Gutenberg.
Melville mentions Lord Vishnu and Matsya Avatar. He writes:
Now, by all odds, the most ancient extant portrait anyways purporting to be the whale’s, is to be found in the famous cavern-pagoda of Elephanta, in India. The Brahmins maintain that in the almost endless sculptures of that immemorial pagoda, all the trades and pursuits, every conceivable avocation of man, were prefigured ages before any of them actually came into being. No wonder then, that in some sort our noble profession of whaling should have been there shadowed forth. The Hindoo whale referred to, occurs in a separate department of the wall, depicting the incarnation of Vishnu in the form of leviathan, learnedly known as the Matse Avatar. But though this sculpture is half man and half whale, so as only to give the tail of the latter, yet that small section of him is all wrong. It looks more like the tapering tail of an anaconda, than the broad palms of the true whale’s majestic flukes.
Moby Dick, Chapter 55.
I was intrigued by this passage. Have always been fascinated by art and lost art. I found an article by Anu Kumar which is well worth a read: ‘Moby Dick’ says Elephanta has the oldest whale portrait. Where on earth did Melville get that idea? (Scroll.in)
4B. Book Chapter – Simon Sinek, Start With Why. (2009). Chapter 4 (“This in Not Opinion, This is Biology”). (See also Protecting Sight #12)
Sinek writes, “This is the genius of great leadership. Great leaders and great organizations are good at seeing what most of us can’t see.” (page 60).
