My Turn

For the last few weeks some of my more politically minded friends have been getting excited by Obama's latest appointments. More often than not this sends me to wikipedia to figure out who the person is since I've never really heard of them. Now I think the tables are finally flipped. Steve Chu is reportedly going to be nominated to be Secretary of Energy. This is incredibly good news. He has a solid physics background and is devoted to using science (and scientists) to attack climate problems.

In more personal news, I'm flying to Copenhagen tomorrow for a brief holiday and a visit with friends. I'll try to update from Denmark.

Secret Santa

My Rhodes class had a Christmas party last night. Due to safety concerns, my generation was robbed of the excitement of chemistry sets, fortunately my secret santa managed to find a Violent Volcano kit (complete with enclosed safety glasses). It's pretty awesome!

Football (aka Rhodies Win)

I failed to post an update about the Rhodes v. Marshall football game, actually games as it turned out. There was such a great showing, that we played two 7 on 7 games simultaneously. The Rhodes Scholars were of course sportsmanlike (and quite talented I might add). I wish as much could be said for the Marshalls. Unfortunately, through some weasling, the Marshalls managed to win one game 6-4, but the Rhodies won the other game handily. Computing the point differential between the two games, it's pretty clear that the Rhodies came out as victors. Apparently this claim has made waves amongst the Marshalls, who have difficulties admitting that they're second best.

Mr Ben Carmichael (M) is stopped by Mr George Olive III (R)

Happy Thanksgiving (Two Days Late)

My mommy wasn't here to feed me this Thanksgiving, so I was lucky that she managed to teach me some basic cooking skills over the years. I was a little too lazy to make a turkey. Instead my friends and I celebrated with the second most American meal ever - pizza. Melis had the brilliant idea to make one of them Thanksgiving-inspired. It was a great meal with good friends, plus I now have leftovers.

Sweet Potato Pizza

Todd's Normal Pizza

Finished Products

Today the Marshall Scholars are meeting in Oxford to celebrate Thanksgiving. Part of their celebration includes their annual American football defeat at the hands of the more physically vigorous scholars. I'm looking forward to doing my part.

A Visitor From That Other Institute

A newly minted Marhsall Scholar from MIT, David Reshef, arrived yesterday for a visit. Even though he happens to date my friend Clara, I'm thoroughly convinced that he came to visit me, not her. We had a blast talking science and generally reveling in nerdiness. David was lucky to attend last year's TED conference. These conferences are supposed to be on "ideas worth spreading" by "the world's greatest thinkers and doers." One of the coolest aspects of the conferences (at least for a schmuck like me who doesn't get invited) is that many of the best presentations are posted online. David reminded me of one of my favorite presentations I'd watched. In it, a guy named Blaise Aguera y Arcas shows how millions of publicly shared photos online can be combined in order to reconstruct three dimensional models of major landmarks. He takes the example of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. By collecting what are essentially touristy photographs taken from different views, in different lighting conditions, and with different obstructing faces blocking out parts of the cathedral, Blaise constructs a single model of the building. It's a pretty impressive demonstration.

Annotated Panorama!

Panorama!