Graduation Forms - Adult Pokemon

Signatures - gotta get them all! Getting down to the wire, as all everything is due tomorrow by 5 p.m. Exciting!

Turkey tourney was a lot of fun.  The ultimate was cold and windy, but the people were amazing.  I like savage tournaments for that reason, you really get to know your teammates.

Turkey Tourney!

This weekend I am attending my first Turkey Tourney - this should be right in my wheelhouse!

Regulatory Oversight / Culture

During the ANS Plenary sessions the head commissioner of the NRC, Allison Macfarlane, gave some remarks about the relationship between the regulator and the utility. One of the more interesting items mentioned was the conclusion (from the Japan Diet's report) that Fukushima was 'manmade'. To quote from the reports executive summary "The TEPCO Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and TEPCO, and the lack of governance by said parties. They effectively betrayed the nation’s right to be safe from nuclear accidents. Therefore, we conclude that the accident was clearly “manmade.” We believe that the root causes were the organizational and regulatory systems that supported faulty rationales for decisions and actions, rather than issues relating to the competency of any specific individual." 

The report was very interesting, but I don't know what to think about this. From what I know about the accident and power plants (and, of course, hindsight),  I can agree that accident was not mitigated properly - an argument could be made that the severity of the accident was 'manmade'. I think, however, that ignoring the randomness / magnitude of natural disasters by calling this accident 'manmade' commits the same mistake by implying that more technology could avoid these events.  Every technology has its risk, whether in global warming or rad safety.

I'm a Doctor

I'm a doctor!

The defense went very well, with only minor revisions. One more form to sign and get filled out, and then onwards!

Friday Finals

Firstly, I know y'all have been wondering if my IM championship streak ended.  After being broken / scored on in the first point of all of our games, the men's and co-ed got their act together to prevent being scored on again until the second half of all of the games (the second halves were lefty and inverts). I am stilled tied with Fong for the best record at UT, 31-0 (probably because Fong and I are always on the same team). I think I will stay another semester so I can create another team to beat his during the finals.

Secondly, DC is still one of my favorite cities.  Perhaps it is because I have never been there where it is icky outside.  ANS is always a weird conference, it seems to be less science oriented than IEEE TNS, but it always provides for some good moments. People are very passionate about their energy choices.  In the morning session a Senator (I forget who) told us that the US would be energy sustainable in 10 years - all by the wonders of natural gas.  One of the panelist did make a good point; that is that natural gas has the US reduce the carbon dioxide by (I think 8%) by removing coal.

Thirdly, I defend on Friday - you are gonna want to attend. There will be animal crackers and juice; with the benefit the audience gets to try and trip me up! What could be a better usage of your time?

IM Ultimate Championship Run

Attempting to complete the elusive double peak in ultimate!  After a terrible end to the club season, I will be playing on a co-ed and mens intramural ultimate league.  Going straight into the pre-quarters tonight for co-ed, and pool play games tomorrow for mens. The pressure is on to maintain our perfect record, 20-0-0. Men's team is mostly Voodoo with a smattering of Tanisi, and co-ed is looking pretty good as well.