At Last... A Fellow TED Addict!

Phew. I am not alone. It turns out Virginia Heffernan is also addicted to the inspirational website hosting talks given at TED (the annual Technology, Education and Design conference).

Once you start watching TED talks, ordinary life falls away. The corridor from Silicon Alley to Valley seems to crackle, and a new in-crowd emerges: the one that loves Linux, organic produce, behavioral economics, transhistorical theories and “An Inconvenient Truth.” Even though there are certain TED poses that I don’t warm to — the dour atheist, the environmental scold — the crowd as a whole glows with charisma. I love their greed for hope, their confidence in ingenuity, their organized but goofy ways of talking and thinking.

Thanks again to Richard.

Belated Photo of the Day

Yesterday's photos were a disappointment, so I'm offering you something by someone much more talented. Check out this extraordinary 100 meter long photograph by Simon Hoegsberg. Truly inspired. (Thanks Richard!)

Inauguration Aftermath

Two diverting bits of aftermath (all the more diverting when you're supposed to be marking!):

The Big Picture's typically high-quality round-up of photos from the big day.

The NYT's analysis of two little (huge) things Obama mentioned in his speech. I too am particularly curious about why Obama didn't mention Iraq or Afghanistan in that refrain.

Photo of the Day

I apologise for the prevalence of self-portraits, but since Laura is away and I'm in marking seclusion for a week or so, it's just the easiest subject. I swear I'll choose something else tomorrow!

Photo of the Day

Since all I do right now is mark (and occasionally take breaks to post here!), this seemed only fitting. I'm quite pleased with this though - it was a first take!

Photo(s) of the Day

I recently upgraded my camera (when the old one snuffed it), and for this and other reasons I've decided to try producing at least one half-decent photograph every day. I may post these from time to time. Here are the daily photos from the past four days...

I'm spending all of my time (when I'm not taking breaks to post on my blog!) marking exam papers this week. I'm about 20 down and 280 to go at this moment. I can't see it being done by Friday, but hey, there might be some kind of productivity miracle.

The Economy

Like most people, I understand relatively little about the current economic climate, and have become rather bored of hearing about it. Nevertheless, this struck me as an informative, original and compelling point of view (as well as a very scary one). No doubt it will be largely ignored - his point about 'austerity' seems bang on. Neverthless, I sympathise to this extent: isn't there something pretty counter-intuitive, when faced with a situation where everyone (companies and individuals) suddenly have considerably less money, to decide to spend a lot more of it?