I can't believe I forgot to share this part of the defense story: So that whole flash of brilliance thing was related to a paper I had seen several months before, and it was critical to the explanation I gave and connecting all the theories. It was published by like the Indian Air Force or something back in the 40's. My Rosetta stone, if you will. So in the Q and A session, one of my advisors told me that I'd need to include the main figures from that paper.

I really didn't want to do that, because there are all sorts of copyright problems, like getting a written letter of permission from a government division in another country. So I balked. "Well, it was published by like the Indian Airforce about fifty years ago, so getting permission might be a problem."

Several of them raised their eyebrows.

"Indian Airforce? Are you sure?" one of them asked.

I started digging for the paper. "Yeah, I have it right here." I pulled it out and layed it on the table for all of us to see. Everyone gathered around.

"This is from the journal of aircraft." I wondered for a second. "Indian Airforce, how in the...." I looked at the jumbles of consonants of the names that wrote it. "OH. The authors are both Indian. Indian Airforce. Woops." I looked up sheepishly and smiled a little, and they were all just staing at me, waiting for me to say something. "Sorry." I felt like such a racist. "I am a horrible, horrible person."