For purposes of this year's Rose Bowl to decide the national championship of college football, Cosmic Variance had an official rooting interest in the University of Southern California, for obvious reasons. Nevertheless, we recognize that it's good to let the plucky underdogs win one once in a while, and concede that it was quite the entertaining contest. Congratulations to our football-crazy colleagues from the University of Texas. Congratulations also to the Penn State Nittany Lions, whose Orange Bowl win the previous night extended coach Joe Paterno's record number of bowl wins to 21. It's a world in which magic is where we find it.