Wow, congrats to MSU for the thrilling victory today!  It could not be a better day for the Big Ten.  (Unless Minnesota also had won).  But I think Big Ten fans would have taken 3 out of 4 before the day started.  Jim Harbaugh has not been on the job for 2 days and he is going to have nightmares already seeing how MSU and OSU came up with big victories.  It is going to be that much more difficult for Harbaugh to beat out those teams now.  The Big Ten east has actually outplayed the SEC west!  So instead of Big Ten east trying to be SEC north as Urban Meyer suggested, maybe SEC west should try to become Big Ten south!

With the 3 victories today, the Big Ten is guaranteed 5 wins with Iowa still to play Tennessee.  So I claim victory over the Las Vegas oddsmakers, the LA Times and LBOAYM since they all predicted smaller number of victories for the Big Ten.  So what if my predictions are not 100% accurate in terms of individual games.  It is the number of victories that count as in all sports.

Despite my allegiance to the Big Ten, I will take Oregon over OSU.  Their victory over FSU was amazing and I think they are the best team over the whole season.  Plus I don't want Harbaugh to have worse nightmares.

Despite complaints from older Cuban Americans and certain Republican politicians, I think Obama is correct in engaging Cuba.  It reminds me of Nixon opening up China.  I think very few people today think that was a mistake.  China is still communist today and Cuba may be communist in the foreseeable future.  But I think it is better for the U.S. and the world that China is prosperous today.  The same thing if Cuba's economical condition improves and Cubans and Americans have a lot more exchanges.  Let's put it this way, 50 plus years of sanctions and isolation have not worked.  It is time for a new approach.

The good thing about the Sony hacking scandal is that it wakes us up about how vulnerable we are in this age of the internet.  The smallest and weakest country can potentially hurt us with a cyber attack.  I don't think that Iran and North Korea will ever launch a nuclear attack against us, knowing that a retaliation by us will mean the end of them.  But cyber attacks are real.  Why spend money on training physicists, obtaining uranium and finding ways to launch a nuclear bomb when you can train bunch of hackers and cause great damage?

Here are my predictions for Big Ten bowl games:
Illinois, Rutgers, MSU, Minnesota, Iowa winners.  Maryland, Nebraska, OSU, Wisconsin losers.  So that makes 5-4.  LA Times have Big Ten at 2-5.  The odds makers have even less faith.  All nine teams are underdogs!  So I think I am really going out on the limb here.

Been on vacation then away for Labor Day weekend.  Finally caught up with all the work.  Have not been reading and watching the news carefully in these past couple of weeks.  But it is obvious the ISIS and Ukraine situations are getting worse.  There are no good solutions out there.  So I don't blame Obama for not coming up with any great plans.  But I think he has made a lot of mistake in at least public perceptions.  For example, going golfing after the conference about Foley's beheading.  Also having leaked that the administration have no plan yet against ISIS was politically inept.  When there are no good solutions, at least act and talk tough but offer no specifics that can come back to haunt you, such as Assad's use of chemical weapons as the red line.  Look, nobody wants to send troops to Iraq and Ukraine.  So none of the hawks have a legitimate idea either.  For now, continue air power and send weapons.

Nishikori vs Cilic?  Whoever made a bet on this daily double can plan for retirement.  Or he may be investigated for blackmailing Djokovic and Federer.

Can the Big Ten play any worse?

The LA Times editorial recently called out three Asian American California state senators for backing out of their support for repealing prop 209 which banned affirmative action.  Supposedly the three liberal Democrats withdrew their support because they received "thousands" of complaints from Asian Americans fearing that the repeal will decrease Asian American enrollments at Berkeley and UCLA.  The Times said that the debate should be about whether diversity in universities is a benefit and not whether a particular group gain or lose acceptance letters.

First, I would agree that we should argue whether diversity is important enough to justify racial and "gender" bias.  By the way, if prop 209 is repealed, then gender affirmative action can also be used.  In that case, it would benefit males as they represent less that 45% of the enrollments at Berkeley and UCLA.  I would like to see what liberal female groups think about that!  But by singling out selfish desires of Asian Americans, the Times is being dishonest.  I am sure that Latino and Black groups who want affirmative action are not doing so because of diversity but because they want increase in enrollment of their own group.  If these groups and liberal whites believe diversity is that important then they should have complained about black colleges and women colleges.  Would they come out and say the students in these colleges receive an inferior education due to lack of diversity?  Anyway, I would submit that Berkeley and UCLA is more diverse as it is compared to most elite colleges.  Its white enrollment is less than 40%  compare to some famous liberal art colleges that are 70% plus white.  Asian Americans ARE a diverse group.  There are big difference between East Asians, South Asians, South East Asians, Pacific Islanders etc.  They are also diverse in socio-economic status, immigration history and religious preferences.  They are also diverse in conservative and liberal ideology.  I would argue that a political science student at UCLA would have a more diverse experience than someone at Howard or Amherst.

I do believe that the playing field is not level.  Kids who go to private schools and have SAT tutoring have big advantage over poor kids.  So to me using affirmative action due to socio-economic status is fair.  A kid who came from a poor family and went to a bad school, regardless of race, should be given extra points against my kids when applying to college.  But Obama's kids should not have an advantage against my kids just because their parents are black.  I am sure the president would agree with that.

An aside, MSU and Michigan put up good fights.   The Big Ten could have easily gotten 3 of the final 4 spots.