A few months ago I listened to Guy Raz's TED radiohour on NPR and stumbled over Amy Webb's talk "How I hacked online dating". In most of Guy Raz's programs there would be one extraordinary TED talk, which outshines the remaining 3 to 5 talks that make up one entire podcast. Most talks just contribute bits and pieces to a topic, some are worth to be watched in its own. Amy's talk was such a case.

Today, I happened to recommend this talk to a friend who failed for several months to find a proper partner using online dating, so I just watched it again and have to confess that I almost started sobbing like a teeny sitting in the movies watching Dirty Dancing. Amy's talk is not only brilliant and humorous, its after all a truly romantic and moving story about her painful search for a suitable partner which turns into a hollywoodesque happy ending because of her own efforts.

The bottom line is this: don't trust online dating. Make up your own check list, if you want re-confirm this check list with friends or family, do so, and then let the data do the work.  As so often, we have to take charge of our life and not hand over responsibility to third parties, in this case, matchmakers, partnership consultancies, superficial online dating algorithms. Each one of us needs a unique algorithm.

More on partnership from TED here.

On ARTE and on youtube

Life expectancy is usually associated with a comparison between different countries like shown in this map. But it seems much more interesting to look at below diagram, which shows the correlation between physical functionality and life expectancy of German's population in 1990. Line 4 visualizes "normal aging" which includes some reduction of physical functionality starting at the age of 70 and rather immediate death around 90. Line 2 visualizes the more and more common life path of people from risk groups which are commonly found in affluent societies (high blood pressure, frequent nicotine and alcohol users, high blood fats). These persons suffer considerable limitations of the physical functionality in their 40ies and 50ies and have a high likelihood to die around 65. Line 5 visualizes the ideal life path which is also described in Dan Buttner's TED talk about "Blue Zones": life with almost no limitations until a sudden death at age 100+.

Recently, there has been found scientific evidence that there is a connection between our antibiotics consumption and autism. "The Autism Enigma" follows the work of an international group of scientists researching the human intestine and the clues their work might hold for treating and perhaps preventing this baffling disorder. Watch the documentary and continue reading on these sites:
http://cogentbenger.com/autism/interviews/finegold-interview/
http://bacteriaandautism.com/
It can be deducted from these findings that wrong nutrition causes mental illness or at least pathological behavior. Another argument in favor of psychosomatic medicine. There is also growing evidence that antibiotics are causal to most allergies which mankind suffers in industrial nations.