
Welcome to my daily learning journal. My daily goal is to watch one Ted Talk and one cataract surgery. I also 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 – Gary Liu – The rapid growth of the Chinese internet — and where it’s headed. “The Chinese internet has grown at a staggering pace — it now has more users than the combined populations of the US, UK, Russia, Germany, France and Canada. Even with its imperfections, the lives of once-forgotten populations have been irrevocably elevated because of it, says South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu. In a fascinating talk, Liu details how the tech industry in China has developed — from the innovative, like AI-optimized train travel, to the dystopian, like a social credit rating that both rewards and restricts citizens.” (ted.com).
Superlatives aside, this is a superb talk. I see a similar movement underway in India. I remember once reading that in the 1970s, the Indian government’s goal was to have at least one telephone in every village. Now, a villager may go from no phone access to an iPhone or Android.

2. Cataract Surgery – Uday Devgan MD – Cataract Quiz: many small opacities. Dr. Devgan writes, “Quiz time! You are doing what seemed like a routine cataract case and then you see many small opacities in the center of the red reflex. These are small and tend to move around a bit, close to the plane of the posterior capsule. What are these opacities and how do we handle them?”
3. Journal – Pupil light reflex metrics and concussions:
- Utility of Pupillary Light Reflex Metrics as a Physiologic Biomarker for Adolescent Sport-Related Concussion Christina L. Master, MD; Olivia E. Podolak, MD; Kenneth J. Ciuffreda, PhD; et al. (JAMA Ophthalmology online September 2020)
- Audio Author Interview: The Utility of Pupillary Light Reflex Metrics as a Physiologic Biomarker for Adolescent Sport-Related Concussion
- Invited Commentary: Interpreting Multiple Outcomes of Pupillary Light Reflex in Sport-Related Concussion in Adolescents ; Wesley T. Beaulieu, PhD; Adam R. Glassman, MS
I look forward to seeing how pupillary light reflect metrics are used in concussion management in the future.

4. Book Chapter – Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass: Sparknotes, Wikipedia, and Gutenberg. Book 21 (Part 2).
5. “Harvard’s Chetty Finds Economic Carnage in Wealthiest ZIP Codes: The celebrated economist has built a data tool with a God’s-eye view of the pandemic’s damage—and soaring inequality.” (Bloomberg Businessweek 9/24/2020). Fascinating data aggregation.
