Bush, You're a Moron

The US intelligence released a report yesterday, stating that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon program four years ago and wouldn't be capable of getting a nuclear device in the foreseeable future. I thought this is good news, as now maybe the US won't start another war in the middle east. After all, it makes no logical sense for Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, all they'd get in return is sanctions from the rest of the world.

However, Bush had this to say this morning: "Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." Get over it! Iran is probably no more dangerous than Venezuela to US interests.

Here are some things that are more dangerous to the US and probably much more likely to occur:

1. Global warming destroying our agriculture and water supplies
2. Devaluation of the dollar destroying the US economy
3. Rudolf Giuliani being elected president (or Mitt Romney, or Mike Huckabee, etc)
4. Everyone in America dying from being fat
5. or cancer
6. Hurricanes
7. Volcanos
8. Tsunamis
9. Trans fat
10. Bears

IF I was a Republican...

I'd vote for Ron Paul. Check this video out:



I got to say, I really like him. He has some insane ideas (i.e. pulling out of the UN) but his justification for them is seems fairly reasonable and logical. You can read more on his positions here:

Ron Paul Positions via Wikipedia

Also, he makes such a great point about the principles of the Republican party. Aren't they supposed to stand for less government? Being fiscally responsible? That's clearly something that has been lacking in all the Republican presidents that have served in my lifetime. After all, the only president to ever balance the budget in the past few decades was Clinton! He's got about 0% chance of getting the nomination, that'll go to some polarizing asshole who believes the Earth is 3000 years old, but you got to start somewhere.

And if you've got $100 to blow, maybe spend it here:

Tea Party 2007

Beavers

This was by far the most stressful Civil War game I've seen in a long time, the highs and lows almost gave me a heart attack. Luckily, the Beavers managed to pull off the victory at Autzen, their first at Autzen since 1993.

There is a reasonable chance that OSU will get into the Holiday Bowl, which they've never played in. Most likely, the opponent would be Texas, which I think would make for a pretty interesting matchup, especially since Pippa is a Texas alumni. If we don't get the Holiday Bowl, we're headed to the Sun Bowl again to play South Florida. I don't like this match up nearly as much, as losing to South Florida would be embarrassing and winning doesn't gain you much.

We should know what bowl we're headed to once the BCS bowls are announced, hopefully ASU will get the Fiesta Bowl giving OSU the Holiday Bowl.

Nerd Post

I'll write this for the non-nerds out there as best I can.

So I spend a lot of my time solving Ax=b, where A is a huge matrix with thousands of entries. This is done with a computer, and it can take a significant amount of time to do. Amazingly, I just programmed a new method for solving this system, called multigrid, and its about an order of magnitude faster than the way I was doing it before. That means I can spend a way less time worrying about Ax=b and actually get some work done. I wish I had started using this a long time ago...

Shampoo and Conditioner

Currently, I use one bottle of shampoo and one bottle of conditioner to wash my hair. I find it irritating when one bottle runs out before the other, so I'm thinking about switching to a 2 in 1 formula. Since I buy the cheapest possible hair products, I think the effects this switch will make on the quality of my hair is negligible. Let the great experiment begin!

Time To Move To Europe

After traveling a few weeks ago and paying the price of the weak dollar, I began thinking that the US could be in some trouble. Then I read this article:

The Weakening Dollar

It pretty much freaked me out - I think the US is in for poorer times. Good thing about getting a PhD is its much easier to get citizenship in another country!

However, there is a benefit that Adam pointed out; all those student loans of mine are getting cheaper by the day.

Some Pictures

Being solo I took way too few pictures of the trip, but here are a few of them.

Belgium and The Netherlands