Bicycle - tommorrow / Studies going well / How much does it cost to kill an Iraqi? /…

Bicycle - tommorrow

I will finally get a new bicycle tomorrow. It has taken only 5.5 months to get a replacement for the bike Air France destroyed. Partly it has been my own fault, since I have not replied to Air France promptly. But their reaction time is also more than a month, and they do not even themselves know how they should react. Anyway, I will get a new, better bicycle, and can start exploring greater Boston. I should be fun, especially when temperature is more than 90F. The hotter, the funnier it is to cycle. (the picture on the right: gay protesters at the Gay Pride, Boston, by S.)

Studies going well

We are getting back to our normal speed. Today, in less than 10 hours, we (me, Kumar, and Marat (for operation management)) were able to do/finish both system dynamics (total time 5 hours) and operation management (total time 13 hours). The latter one took longer than necessary, but next one should be easier, or at least we have decided to use less time on it. Both courses are really good and the assignment really challenged us; I assume we learned something, too. So, after starting aftet 1 pm, I came back home at midnnight. The normal MIT-life has started. (Fortunately, I was able to spend some time with S in the morning).

How much does it cost to kill an Iraqi?

So far, USA has been able to kill some 100000 Iraqis. According to Cost of war it has at the time of writing (00.03 am 12th of May, 2005) cost about 175 billion dollars. You do the math, but I would call this an expensive way of killing people. One could do something positive to much bigger group of people with the same amout of money. Fortunately, the US army has difficulties in recruiting. Believe me, they will reintroduce draft before Bush gets out. (Thanks to Lavonardo for the link.)

Six songs

A current meme (again, thanks to Lavonardo) the six most played songs lately

• Garbage: Why do you love me

• The sound track of our lives : Believe I've found

• Thurston Moore: Psychic hearths

• Patti Smith: Land

• THe Vines: Outthataway

• The Decemberists: The sporting life

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs from May to June 2005".