Today, less than an hour ago, I watched history being made.   Barack Hussien Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States.   We have begun a new chapter in America’s story, one that urges each and every one of us to take responsibilty for our actions, to be held accountable for the choices we make.  A nation with renewed hope and a honest desire to make true and progressive changes in the way we live, learn, and lead.

I’m walking a little taller and a little prouder today, and I hope you are, too.

Today I’m going to do a quick write-up about several things I’ve been introduced to in the past few weeks, and I suggest you check each of them out, you may enjoy them a lot.

First off, there’s the very short list a daily email service that brings to your inbox a variety of interesting articles and topics.  The subscriptions are broken down into several categories, such as the general Very Short List, a tech-centric one, VSL:Science, and a third tipping you off to stuff going on on the ‘net, VSL:Web.  There are also several more on the way from VSL, including specific emails on food, books, and even one for children.  It’s through one of VSL’s emails that I was introduced to my next subject. . .

Seventy-three years ago a young German man named Ernst Gombrich, a recent college graduate with little prospects, was challenged by a friend to write a history book for younger audiences.  Within six weeks Gombrich ferverently plotted out “A Little History of The World.”   The book became an immediate success, and as time has passed it’s been translated into twenty-four languages.   “A Little History” has only just been translated into English.  I’ve only a little ways into the book, containing only forty short chapters covering prehistory up to the last days of WWII, his style is both whimsical and informative.  The book reads as an entertaining story, without beating the reader over the head with names and dates, perfect for young people.

Finally, I was introduced to the band Mother Mother by a good friend. I’ve given their first album, “Touch Up,” a few listens and it’s good.  A somewhat obscure band from Canada, Mother Mother has a fun attitude and some strangely harmonious vocals. Their tracks have a solid energy overall, with only a few ‘misses’ in my opinion.  Their second album, “O My Heart” was released earlier this year.  Give’em a listen.

It’s totally not insensitive or crass to create a quiz based upon the deaths of 3,000+ people.

What the hell. . .

Way to trivialize the worst terrorist attack to ever happen on US soil.

On the other hand, in another ten or twenty years all of this will probably be taught in history and social studies classrooms all over the country. We already teach our children about the atrocities of WWII, and they occurred only a few decades ago. Like it or not, the events of September 11th, 2001 have had a tremendous impact on everything that’s happened in the past seven years, and it’s influence on the world will continue to resonate for years to come. What matters is what knowledge we can gather from this tragedy. Already engineers have learned how to produce stronger, more resilient buildings.

I don’t know what else to say, but my heart goes out to all of those effected who lost someone in those senseless acts of violence.