TED Community » Michael Fulton

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• A comment on Talk: Doris Kim Sung: Metal that breathes

  Oct 30 2012: "As it turns out, evolution has been selecting whales for optimally low viscous-drag coefficients, thus creating a perfectly designed wing. Engineers have been grappling with this in wind tunnels for nearly a century but there's just about no way, independently, that humans may have designed something with equal efficiency in 100 years when natural selection spent more than 50 million years refining the same idea."
  
  Continued at http://discussted.blogspot.com/2012/10/doris-kim-sung-metal-that-breathes.html

• A reply on Talk: Pankaj Ghemawat: Actually, the world isn't flat

  Oct 22 2012: Absolutely valid point, Daniel.

• A comment on Talk: Pankaj Ghemawat: Actually, the world isn't flat

  Oct 22 2012: I really like Daniel Deconick's piece on statistics. It's so true, there are way too many factors for anyone to say it's one way or the other without rigorous inquiry. I think it may be inaccurate to assume he doesn't have and didn't use statistical analysis in his conclusion, but for the average Joe who think we either are or aren't globalized is completely paradigm.
  
  I wrote an article in response to this talk about how a lack of purpose may be the limiting factor in globalization at:
  http://discussted.blogspot.com/2012/10/pankaj-ghemawat-actually-world-isnt-flat_22.html

• A reply on Conversation: Debate: We need to clearly define performance enhancing in sport.

  Oct 19 2012: That was done ages ago, "An exact statement or description of the nature, scope, or meaning of something."
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  A comment on Conversation: Debate: We need to clearly define performance enhancing in sport.

  Oct 19 2012: My buddy brought up a good point related to this a couple months ago. We're huge video-gamers, we take it seriously, play competitively, etc., and as such we watched The International which is a large tournament for the 5-player vs. 5-player real-time strategy game "DOTA 2". Winning the sometimes-hour-long games depends on the ability to plan ahead 30 minutes while constantly making millisecond decisions and executions based on what your teammate(s) or the enemy team did a quarter second earlier. Most players choose an avatar with one unit to control in the game, while it's possible to choose an avatar with several, all of which must be controlled in the same manner as the main one for best efficiency.
  
  Basically, it requires the focus of a chess player to win in the long-term and twitch reflexes to keep your head above water until you get there: Adderall is your friend.
  
  The aforementioned tournament is annual and played for $1,000,000. Viewership and participation increases exponentially year over year (with over a million people watching the 2 week tournament at any given time) and that got us thinking that video games tournaments are becoming more and more mainstream. At what point is the drug use involved with winning going to "hit the fan?"
  
  It's complicated because Adderall has a more legitimate medical justification than steroids in the Armstrong case, so the line between abuse and disability compensation is blurred.

• A comment on Talk: Melissa Marshall: Talk nerdy to me

  Oct 12 2012: "I loathed it at the time, but [my instructor] strongly encouraged us (read: made us) give presentations on our work as often as she could. One time she signed us up for the Seattle Science Festival..."
  
  Continued on my blog at http://discussted.blogspot.com/2012/10/melissa-marshall-talk-nerdy-to-me_12.html

• A comment on Talk: Clay Shirky: How the Internet will (one day) transform government

  Sep 25 2012: Inspired by Clay, I wrote my blog today on how I would create the "perfect" government based on these ideas. Tell me what you think! I think you'll agree with it ;)
  
  http://discussted.blogspot.com/2012/09/clay-shirky-how-internet-will-one-day.html
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  A comment on Talk: Clay Shirky: How the Internet will (one day) transform government

  Sep 25 2012: Clay Shirky, there is so much to say about this. If you publish a book I'll be the first in line.
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  A reply on Talk: Read Montague: What we're learning from 5,000 brains

  Sep 24 2012: If that's the case, I think a new channel for that audience is warranted. TED TV or something.

• A reply on Talk: Read Montague: What we're learning from 5,000 brains

  Sep 24 2012: True, there wasn't much substance today. I hope TED doesn't make this a habit. I didn't think of how easily MRIs can be connected to understand social dynamics in greater detail. That's something that has changed since fMRI was conceived.