TED Community » Dean Radcliffe

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• A reply on Talk: Taylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor

  May 3 2013: "We" can encourage that, but not if we first presuppose that it wasn't an individual achievement, that's probably just our egos getting in our way of acknowledging that someone did something amazing, that we didn't, with more or less the same resources. That's why it's called genius. Sometimes individuals just leap ahead, it should be inspiring not threatening.
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  A comment on Talk: Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors

  May 3 2013: How in the world are we so blessed, that a handful of decades after the birth of QED, someone like Taylor Wilson can understand and engineer something like this before he can even buy himself a Dom Perignon to celebrate ?? I look forward to decades of amazing work from you Taylor, and I know you're reading this !

• A reply on Talk: Michael Merzenich: Growing evidence of brain plasticity

  May 2 2013: Well said. And I sympathize with those for whom his manner of speaking obscures the information. Perhaps they should try following along on the transcript.. It's a talk worth putting in some effort to try and understand, it is dense dense dense with great information !

• A reply on Talk: Michael Merzenich: Growing evidence of brain plasticity

  May 2 2013: Dancing (partner dancing) is shown to reduce the effects of aging in both body and mind.
  
  I do in fact love lumosity and other targeted games, but their approach is a bit reductionist, when in fact the interactive, physical skills like hunting, martial arts, and team sports are holistic, and arguably what the body-mind became so sophisticated in order to do (theres a TED talk to this point, that brains evolved for movement)
  
  Regardless of the theory, a wide array of activities that involve the entire body and brain both socially and independently are the best hedge I've ever seen (anecdotally, of course) in old people. I hope that I age well mentally, being able to partner dance, juggle/pass, do martial arts, play drums, guitar, and a little piano, run half-marathons, and program computers for a living. I also play lumosity because its suite of scored games allows you to progress along a fun spiral and see your "Age Group Percentile" go up over time (incidentally, something I aim to do in my running as well, if only by holding out longer than others)..
  
  The more you engage in activities, the more your true interests will show themselves - have fun doing it !
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  A comment on Talk: Dan Pallotta: The way we think about charity is dead wrong

  Apr 5 2013: Smart talk. Brave talker. I didn't know the whole TeamWorks story, but was glad to see Dan speak his own mind in his defense. I think he may have changed my mind. Are there not more people with this perspective ? I could really get on board if I heard more of that.. As a successful software professional, I certainly have passed on potentially more noble jobs due to feeling bad about essentially getting paid to help. His calling out of the origin of this is interesting. Why should it have to be this way ? If our 'morality' is hurting us, should we not reconsider it ? I wouldn't be a humanist if I didn't think so. Very interesting. Please refer me to other points of view like this !

• A comment on Talk: Jessica Jackley: Poverty, money -- and love

  Mar 21 2013: You are a beautiful and tremendously successful entrepreneur with a really good heart.
  
  Let me relate that after my divorce, I wound up with money that had previously been tied up in my house. I sat with that money for at least a year, thinking it was nothing a poor consolation for a broken marriage. Then I discovered Kiva. And Lending Club. I've made myself into a better person by putting that money to work far away from me, to better the world (or at least I believe I'm doing so).
  
  In the case of Kiva I get heart-warming stories, and relationships to people in places I've been (Peru, Mexico), and places people in my community are from (Mongolia). This is better than getting updates from the news media - this is direct. People have bought animals, textiles, building materials, and I'll be getting a stream of this money back over time - a hedge against losing my own job.. (I currently reinvest avidly, but should I lose my job, the repayments become a source of income). In the case of Lending Club, I get more interest in a week - helping mostly Americans doing debt-consolidation - than my bank gave me in a year.
  
  I used to work for a payday-lender so had a fairly rough introduction to short-term/micro-lending. Now, through those inspired by Muhammad Yunus, my nest egg built up from there can be put to work doing more good hopefully than I've ever done with my money.
  
  Thank you Jessica, and by proxy to your mentors. Let me say I *heartily* encourage anyone to make even the smallest loan on Kiva or LendingClub just to feel what it's like, if that's within their means.
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  A reply on Talk: David Anderson: Your brain is more than a bag of chemicals

  Mar 17 2013: Making someone aware of a self-treatment option is not the same as shifting blame. The comment's a bit glib, but the truth in it you admit. I don't know anything about your situation specifically but I also find it silly that doctors will issue treatments without even asking about what the inputs are to the person's life (diet, exercise) that may be triggering them.

• A comment on Talk: Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

  Jan 30 2013: I watched this talk - a few minutes into it, got out my juggling balls and played while listening to the rest - and followed up by having my most creative evening in months ! Thank you for freeing what I didn't know was already in my mind, trying to get out !

• A comment on Talk: Paul Romer: Why the world needs charter cities

  Nov 10 2012: The intelligence in this talk blows me away.
  
  The idea to (in my paraphrasing) - to create cities as experiments - breeding grounds for new rules, to accelerate the evolution of the human race, while alleviating the wealth gap, and better using resources today..
  
  Now that's a TED theme !
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  A comment on Talk: Stephen Hawking: Questioning the universe

  Nov 2 2012: What a brave and intelligent man - I'm surprised not to have heard the audience laughing at his jokes ! For a nerd like me - they were quite funny "I'm discounting UFO's, because why would they only appear to cranks and weirdos?" How lucky my life has been enriched by overlapping with his !