Web Stuff Friday: Hi-res Muffin Dimensions

Super hi-res photo of Obama's inauguration has made the rounds, but I want to link to it as well. Here is the photographer's description of how he did it.

The Loneliest Ultra-Conservative Corn Muffin in the World made four short videos. Sadly, the director passed away recently at the age of 28, so this is a good time for a retrospective:

• Episode 1: Right to Death
  
• Episode 2: These Colors Don't Run
  
• Episode 3: Minute Muffin
  
• Episode 4: Promise Keepers
  

My favorite part is the scene in episode 2 with the hairdryer.

Dimensions is a series of videos by some French mathematicians. It's a journey from two dimensions to four dimensions. Some of these videos are really trippy. I liked the first three. After that, it gets pretty hard on my little brain.

And here is a nice little music video. The song is Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie:

Facebook Connections

I like Facebook. I'm not the kind of person who is going to post regular updates (and I don't do Twitter), but I do like connecting with people from long ago. Recently I have been connecting with people I went to school with as long ago as second grade. It's cool.

Today, I made some interesting connections through Facebook, but the most unique individual is someone I'll call Boulder. Now, don't get me wrong: everyone is special and unique, but Boulder is particularly unique. To give you an idea about how unique he is, I asked Mrs. Kid to guess who I had found on Facebook and when I quoted what the person said on my wall, she got it with one guess after hearing only the first nine words of the quote. She has met the man exactly once and that was at our wedding over 14 years ago. Here is the quote:

I have a poverty level existence and 2 girlfriends. They both know about each other and it's all poly friendly. I'm a big fan of Burning Man.

Priceless. I miss Boulder and wish he lived here in VA instead of out in CO. Knowing him made life so much more interesting.

The Beginning of the End of Large Lecture Halls?

New York Times article: At M.I.T., Large Lectures Are Going the Way of the Blackboard. Wow.

Looking back at it, I think that if I had that sort of environment for learning in college, it would have helped tremendously. I didn't need that sort of environment for basic math, but having it for science and engineering as well as more advanced math classes would have really helped.

At the time, I might have denied that it would help or that I needed that sort of non-traditional environment. I would have been wrong. As I look back, I can see that really engaging with the content more actively would have helped me process it all. Because I was reasonably good at math, I didn't need that sort of help. I was able to process most of the concepts on my own with minimal help or socialization, but even in math, I have my holes. I was able to get by on tests, but I don't get everything the same way I'd like to.

Anyway, I hope this is a trend that keeps developing.

Music Monday: Highlights from Concert for Obama

It seems that not everybody realized they were getting HBO for the two-hour concert for Obama. They gave it to everyone who has cable. Pretty cool. It wasn't all my cup of tea, but some performances were noteworthy.

Shakira, Usher, and Stevie Wonder: Higher Ground

Beyonce: America the Beautiful

Josh Groban, Heather Headley, and a choir that includes a co-worker (my very excellent former boss): America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee) (Tom is in the right side of the front row. Third from the middle)

Web Stuff Friday: Horrible Spider Rope

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is my favorite Neil Patrick Harris work. It's actually a close contest with his role in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.

Play with Spider is so simple, but still fun. The best part is playing around with the way the spider moves and feeding it insects.

You Have to Burn the Rope. Wow. Simply insane. Snake Game is more my speed.

Tracking Obama's Progress

The St. Petersburg Times has a site called PolitiFact. It has two things I think are very interesting.

The Truth-O-Meter helps sort out fact from fiction. I love this sort of thing. Whenever a politician speaks, I start thinking about how truthful they are being. Now I have a place to go that will help me sort it all out.

Obameter tracks how Obama is doing on his campaign promises. Note that this is not about his positions. It's about his actionable promises. I'm not looking for 100% conformance, but will be interested to see how the picture evolves.

On a side note: One of my favorite quotes from Obama's inauguration speech:

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and Non-Believers.

Being inclusive is quite laudible. I wish he hadn't chosen Rick Warren to provide the invocation, but this quote is still a nice one.

Bush: A Literate Anti-intellectual

While at a diner with some friends on Thanksgiving morning, a friend asked me "what exactly will be different on January 20th?" He had asked the same question of his Obama-supporting father, who had no response. I, on the other hand, am rarely at a loss for an opinion. My response was that I looked forward to the end of the anti-intellectualism that has seen its ascendancy during Bush's tenure and saw its zenith when McCain selected Palin as his running mate.

Bush didn't start the GOP's war on intellectualism, but he certainly became its poster child. He always seems to be speaking to working class men and women in a way that implies he is on their side in a battle of good old-fashioned values against high-falutin' intellectuals.

In an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, Bush Is a Book Lover, Karl Rove sheds an interesting light on Bush's intellectual side.

Bush's impressive reading list doesn't change my opinion of him. I never bought the idea that he was plain-old stupid (these bushi-isms not withstanding). I knew he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I thought he was smart enough to recognize his limitations. In contrast, I always had the feeling that Al Gore thought he was the smartest man in any room he walked into. George W. Bush knew that he wasn't the smartest sibling at his parents' Thanksgiving table (his mom has said publicly that Jeb is the smart one).

I always hoped that some humility would help W lead well. Instead, it seems that W reacted to his place in his family by fashioning a public persona that is completely folksy and rejects any hint that he ever uses his ivy league education.

I'm not saying that Obama's brain trust is going to be perfect. Notably, I am wary about super-smart people coming up with overly-intricate solutions to our problems. Still, I am optimistic that having people who aren't trying to seem "folksy" in charge of the government will have some advantages.