Jeff Iliff: One more reason to get a good night’s sleep
- why is sleep so restorative?
- sleep is an elegant design for the brain’s waste removal
- the circulatory system provides nutrients to every body cell
- every cell creates waste; the lymphatic system removes this but there are no lymphatic cells in the brain
- how does the brain clear its waste?
- brain has cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) which removes waste
- CSF moves along brain blood vessels
- this only happens when sleeping
- when the brain sleeps, brain cells shrink, which makes room for CSF to rush through brain and remove waste!
- when awake, brain is busy, puts off waste removal process until sleep
- what kinds of waste?
- amyloid beta (AB) — Alzheimer’s is the accumulation of AB, but this doesn’t prove a lack of sleep is the cause
- sleep literally “refreshes” the mind!
Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
- USA is an imaginary Lesterland — there’s a general election and a money (the Lester) election
- in Lesterland only the funders get to vote
- 0.26% gave $200 or more, 0.05% gave maximum <— the tiniest slice of 1%
- 132 Americans gave 60% of all Super PAC $$$
- Congress spends 30-70% of time raising money
- they develop a “sixth sense” of what those funders want
- not popular issues 1-10, but 11 to 1000
- funders don’t do it for public but for PRIVATE interest
- Republicans might want small government, but for example if they de-regulated Telecoms, response was (after Al Gore proposal): “if we de-regulate them, how in the hell are we going to raise money from them?”
- an “economy of influence”, feeds on polarization
- Henry David Thoreau: “there are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one striking at the root”
- solution: single statute, for a citizen-funded election
- more funders, smaller amounts, less time spent on fundraising
- this would shrink K Street
- political staffers, bureaucrats are a “farm league” for K Street
- Ben Franklin: “A Republic, if you can keep it”
Here’s a growing list of TED notes (the page can take a few seconds to load).