In response to the Danish cartoons, the Iranian paper Hamshahri has created a competition to see who can create the best Holocaust cartoon.

Why I find this so insulting is that just a few weeks ago the Iranian president claimed that the Holocaust was a ‘myth’.

This has now just become an international belly bumping contest. Give it a couple of more weeks and hopefully this thing will just run its course, or we’ll see a giant outcry from Israel over these cartoons.

I use the third party Gmail Notifier for Firefox to check my Gmail account for new messages. Over the last few days I noticed the plugin not working, which resulted in me having to visit Gmail to see if I had new messages. Yes, it’s only a slight inconvenience, but it’s still one extra step I have to take.

Since I am almost always at home to check my e-mail I stay logged into Gmail and never see the main login screen. Today, while I had a short break on campus I checked my Gmail. To my surprise they had implemented a verification system into the login sequence. No wonder my plugin would not work.

Now the real question is whether or not Google did this to spite Firefox users who were not using their toolbar or if they had just had problems with attacks. I am going to have to go with my first theory. Don’t ask me why, I just think they want people to use their toolbar and their subsequent Gmail notifying script.

Kind of annoying if you ask me…

Update: The plugin looks like it has been updated and working. I was given a link to another Gmail notifier called Gmail Manager. It can handle multiple accounts! (I’m in love…)

And now, something completely different; Katie doing her best impression of me.

After reading about the way the families of the victims have decided to mourn the Egyptian ferry accident, I have decided that the entire Middle East confuses me.

What a way to remember your family members, by burning down the office that for all we know was not directly responsible for the accident. Yet, when a terrorist action is carried out against the same people they weep in the streets. I just don’t get it.

Today on the main thoroughfare that runs on the south side of campus there was an accident that involved a jaywalker. The jaywalker was not injured in the accident but contributed to it happening.

Across from campus there is a lot roadside parking available. Now, the students that park there do not usually walk to a crosswalk, instead they choose to cross the street where they get out of their cars and play “Frogger” with oncoming traffic. I have always thought this was dangerous and today my theory was proven. It is hard to see these jaywalkers when they come out from behind cars and when you are driving 40 mph it’s even harder to stop.

The jaywalkers try to judge the speed of oncoming traffic but sometimes there are cars that can’t be seen or a car suddenly speeds up. Don’t jaywalk, it’s not worth getting hit on your way to class and it is only a few hundred feet to the nearest crosswalk.

If you are a teacher or plan on being one, understand that students hate busy work. They detest it. Especially when, right before they turn it in, you announce that it is not for a grade. I want to see results from my hardwork and time consumption.

If I sit around for three hours working on something I should at least get some kind of grade for it. I mean, a completion grade would suit me fine! Just don’t make me feel like I wasted my time and learned nothing from an assignment. Make the assignment relative, useful, and worth my time.

I have to take a final management class called “Strategic Management”. The way it is described in the course packet is that it is meant to bring together all of our previous classes and make them work in unison. To me, that sounds somewhat interesting. Too bad I am dead wrong.

So far the class has been a complete snoozer. The professor, who is on track to be tenured, basically reads off some slides and throws in an interesting story every now and then but so far there has been no real “meat” to the class. Maybe next week we will actually get into applying what we learned for the last four years.

An aside, I may actually have to buy “Million Dollar Baby”.

Those who know me know how little reality television I watch. I detest it.

Last night I was flipping through the channels and came across Beauty and the Geek 2. Now, I had watched an episode of the first season and thought it was entertaining so I decided to sit through the first episode of the second season. Quite frankly, this show is hilarious. They match up these absolutely gorgeous women with a nerd. There are many different characters in the nerds, including a guy that can solve a Rubiks cube in 12 seconds (a world record), a guy who thinks he is “buff” after 6 months of working out though it doesn’t look like it, and a poor fella that has extreme anxiety.

I’m being drawn in by reality television… AHH!!

If the current situation in Iran does not improve over the next few weeks the world is looking at sanctions being put into place over Iran that could reduce the amount of available oil in the world by 5%. If the situation was to be resolved today, we would see the price of a barrel of oil drop somewhere in the vicinity of $6/barrel.

The Iran nuclear controversy along with the constant problems with attacks in Nigeria have put even more of a strain on the world’s supply of oil. Nigeria is the 11th largest oil producer in the world and relies on the export to drive its economy. If the rebels that are attacking the wells and refining operations succeed in getting what they want, the control and hording of oil, the price of a barrel of oil will probably break all previous records. Alternative fuels are sure looking good, aren’t they?

This man has no business being mayor of New Orleans, even if he did apologize for his recent remarks about making the city “chocolate” again and how God hates America.

Do people not think when they speak? And how are we letting this man off so easily? Is it because he apologized? Nagin was not put into office by the black population of New Orleans but instead, the white population came out in strong enough numbers and voted for him. I really do not see how he gets away with the things that he says. First he bombards the media with criticisms of President Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina, though recent inquiries have started pointing out Nagin as the center of the problem, then he has the nerve, the gall, to come out and say that New Orleans should be black again. Great way to unite the city there Mr. Mayor.

This is right up there with Hillary Clinton’s recent comment about how the Senate is a like a ‘plantation’. What? I know you are one day hoping to become President but comments like that just won’t get you there. I’ll put $10 down right now that that comment haunts you in 15 years. Senator Clinton, you claimed in the same speech that the Bush administration would go down as one of the worst in history, well, I hate to tell you this but you may just go down as a horrible chooser of words.

I have finally come around and updated my class list. It will be a busy semester with a lot of research and projects.

I need to talk to the university tomorrow because it looks like they may have screwed up my graduation information and now I am a little worried. The hours that I am taking completes everything needed for graduation, yet my online degree audit does not match. Yikes. Hopefully the advising center on campus will be available tomorrow when I need it and they can get this all sorted out.