I know I promised updates about Student Research conference, but there’s just not a whole hell of a lot to say. Ian and I saw Courtney, whose presentation was on the intersection of Science and Politics, which in addition to being one of my major interests, was just a very well-done presentation.

We also so Keith Devlin, who was a consultant for the show NUMB3RS. His presentation was neat, but it was more of a plug for the show and his book that he wrote about the show than an actual presentation on math or research or whatever. But it’s cool because I got to take a nap.

I decided to blog yesterday because of all the ridiculous things I found online, but I couldn’t actually get the time. I’m using the hour between Math and Chem to do this instead of sleep. Was it the right decision? You be the judge.

First off, if you like music, you will [hate this band]. However, if you like Guitar Hero, you will LOVE the solo midway through the track “Either I Leave Now…” It’s excellent. Props to Ian Noble for keeping me hip on the Schaumburg Music Scene. In all it’s glory…

The other thing I have today is something I hold very dear to my heart. It combines two of my most favorite things about the United States: the U.S. Mint and Presidents.

Maybe you all saw the George Washington Dollar Coins come out earlier this year? I thought they were absurd because we already have a dollar coin with Sckagawehah (from the Latin, impossible to say (I’m not ignorant kids… it’s “[Scacagawea]”, Sack-uh-juh’-wee-uh.) In any case, they’re making more gold coins that no one seems to want, which I thought was funny.

Turns out ol’ Sununu (R-NH, filibustered PATRIOT’s renewal, called for Gonzales to resign, not bad for a GOPer) was a man with a plan though. He introduced the legislation that set the Gilded-Executive-Coin-Series into motion, and just like the state quarters, every year a batch of presidents are going to come out blingin’.

And boy, I must say, the Founding Fathers have never looked [frumpier]. This is cool though. I just hope they 1) finish the program, and 2) make it equitable. If there’s 1 million George Washington coins and like… 2 Zachary Taylor coins, what’s the point?

Even better than the President Dollar coins is the corresponding program that will run concurrently: The First Babe Program. “What?” you’re saying, “there’s no such thing!” Oh contraire. [Shaaaaaaaaaa-wing] They’ll be releasing a 10-Dollar First Babe coin to go with each of the 1-Dollar President Coins.

If I haven’t mentioned it previously, my top three hottest first ladies in order of ascending hot-ness:

• Hillary Rodham Clinton (First Presidential Babe of the 21st Century)
• Elizabeth Monroe (Hottest Founding Fathers Wife)
• Jaquelin Kennedy (Just… ’cause. You know why.)

So needless to say, I’m excited for 2008. If my year begins with me purchasing a ten-dollar coin of Elizabeth Monroe to display somewhere awkward, then the rest of the year can’t be half bad.

It’s also worth mentioning that in all my readings about currency, I figured out how dumb this country can be. They even made up a word for it; it’s called [Seigniorage]. Otherwise know as the process by which Americans horde currency and profit the federal government on the scale of billions of dollars.

I’m guilty of it, I’ll admit. Love the 50-State-Quarters, and I’m going to love the Golden-President-First-Babe-11-Dollar-Combo-Set when they start coming out. I just had no idea that everyone else in this country was as lame as me.