Iran lets British soldiers free

British soldiers who had been captured in Iranian waters 13 days ago were let go earlier today. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the release of the prisoners a gift to the UK. Many of the soldiers apologized for their actions and thanked the Iranian government for letting them go. They also said they had been treated well and no harm was inflicted on them.

This is very good news because it was taken care of politically and there was no need to use any military force. However, President Ahamdinejad's comment that the release was a gift was a little bit odd. I don't see it as a gift, I see it as good publicity for him so he doesn't look like the bad guy he has been portrayed as lately. In the end, it is a good thing that the soldiers were released so we can be thankful for that. Here's some more commentary on this situation: (Yankee Commentary)

-Jamie

Presidential Race goes high tech (again), Obama raises $25M

Myspace. Love it or hate it, it is one of the most influential websites of the last couple years. It has more users than the entire population of Mexico and if it could be a sovereign nation, it would be the 11th largest country in the world. Next January Myspace will hold an online primary for the presidential candidates. Users will be asked to select one of the candidates on January 1 & 2, 2008. Many candidates already have Myspace profiles (check them out here).The turnout will be very interesting but as TechCruch says in their article (Link) a Facebook primary would be more legitimate because users are verified and there is less of a chance for candidates to create face profiles and stuffing the ballot box.

In other news, Barack Obama has raised $25M in the last quarter signaling him as the chief rival of Hillary Clinton and possibly the front runner for the Democratic nomination. With plenty of time to fund raise until election time, the nomination is still up for grabs but it is seems that Obama and Clinton are pushing the hardest to obtain the nomination. This election's Democratic party nomination process is far more interesting than the Republican party nomination process. While the Democrats have a fierce battle of old and new, the Republicans are lacking with any wow factor. Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are fine candidates but don't have anything exciting between them. Will the GOP try to fire up this race to garner more attention for the party or will the Democrats run away with the excitement factor (if you can think of political races as exciting) in the political races? Let the race begin.


-Jamie

Daylight Savings Time didn't help

Today wasn't a very busy day, which was a good change of pace. Big accounting test tomorrow that I should've studied more for. Tennessee won the Women's NCAA Basketball Championship. That is not what I was hoping for but they certainly do deserve it. Congrats to them and hopefully OU can get there next year!

Everyone felt the affects of the Daylight Savings Time switch last month (if you didn't know, it was a three weeks earlier than usual) but the affects were not noticed by power companies. The purpose of the switch was to reduce power usage by Americans but there was not a noticeable difference. Most power consumption comes from appliances like washers, dryers, fridges, and TV's (especially plasma TV's). The DST switch did nothing to change habits of Americans using these appliances. The only affect the DST switch did have was on computer users scrambling to update their computer so the time would be correct and they wouldn't be late for any upcoming engagements. Lawmakers will make a final decision after a few years of the switch being in place, but ultimately it did nothing and should probably be switched back. Read more here (Link) from ars technica about the DST switch.

-Jamie

Un-DRM music from iTunes

Today, EMI group and iTunes announced a plan to allow customers to purchase un-DRM (Digital Rights Management) music from the iTunes music store. For those of you who don't know, DRM locks in a music file to a specific media player and mp3 player. In this case, Apple's DRM locks music files purchase from the iTunes store into the iTunes media player and the iPod. At The Herald's blog (Link) you can read more about this major announcement in the technology and music industry.

I think that this is fantastic because it may start the beginning of the end of DRM (Link) which will be fantastic. No longer will you be locked into buying music from the iTunes music store and only being able to use it on an iPod! For those of us (myself included) who don't own iPods for whatever reason, this is great because the music store at iTunes is by far the most comprehensive store and we can now purchase tracks and use them on portable media players that aren't iPods.

Will we see other online music stores un-DRM their music? Hopefully very soon.

BBC Story

-Jamie

OU Swim Complex

Today wasn't as bad as it could've been. My Spanish test was alright but I'll wait to see how the grade is in a couple of days. In Accounting today, there were two Jordanian men sitting in on our class. I have no reason why but they sat right behind me, was interesting. Our professor told us some facts about Jordan, from Wikipdedia of course, and then one of the Jordanians stood up and thanked us for having them and then addressed our professor by the wrong name! Only a few people noticed it and our professor had this look on his face like, "uh, okay..anyways," good times.

For those of you who don't attend the University of Oklahoma, there is a hotly contested issue on campus. The board of regents and the UOSA (University of Oklahoma Student Association, Link) have proposed a plan for a new swimming complex (Link) to replace an aging facility that will be demolished in a few years. On April 10th and 11th, the student body will vote to add $3 per credit hour to university fees beginning Fall 2010 to pay for some of the costs of the swimming complex. Some students are very against this because they believe the $38 million to build it is far too much and should be used on academic buildings throughout the campus. Students who are for this proposal believe the swimming complex is a great idea and would enhance the campus and provide more activities for students to do.

My stance on this issue: YES, the swim complex would be a great idea and will greatly benefit the campus. Although I may never use it, I believe it would be awesome for future students to get to use. $3 per credit hour over four years of education is about $360-$390, which is about the same as rent for an apartment in Norman.

If you go to OU, what is your stance on this issue? Do you think a swim complex would be good for the University or would it be a bad idea?

-Jamie

April Fools!

Welcome to April. Just five and a half weeks of school left for the college kids, two months for the high school kids. I didn't have any pranks pulled on me today and didn't hear about any good ones. Anybody have a good story?

So, I have two tests this week: Accounting and Spanish. My Spanish test is tomorrow and I'm probably 60% ready. Maybe I should focus a little bit more and actually study. Hmm. The Accounting test is going to be pretty difficult but I have decided one thing from this class: I will never be an accountant. I could not stand classifying accounts and figuring deferred revenues and accounts payable all day. Blah.

Nothing else really to note for today (er, yesterday). Baseball started today. The Mets beat the Cardinals. Was pulling for the Cards but oh well. In the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament, Tennessee and Rutgers will match up for the title. My pick: Rutgers. Just because I really don't like Tennessee or their terrible fans. On the Men's side tOSU and Florida will battle it out in Hotlanta tomorrow night at 8 PM on CBS. My Pick: Florida 87 - tOSU 83. Tell me your picks for the game. Okay, enough sports although more will come in the future.

That's all I have to write for now. Any comments are welcome and appreciated. Thanks for reading.

-Jamie

Starting back up

So, I have decided to start blogging again. I'm not sure how many people will actually read this or what kind of topic I should make the blog about. Any ideas?

It is almost April, wow. Florida and Ohio State will be playing for the Men's NCAA Basketball Championship on Monday. Same teams as the football Nat'l Championship. Who's gonna win it this time? I need Florida to win so I can win my pool.

If you haven't heard, I have been in three movies, two which have been released up until now. Here is the link to the second movie: Shotgun 2. Hope you enjoy it and if you haven't seen the first movie, search around that website and watch it before the second one!

In other news, I was inducted to the Alpha Lambda Delta National Freshman Honor Society. Yeah, I had to wake up at 6 AM on a Saturday morning for a diploma and a pin. Well, I shouldn't be complaining because it is quite an honor and I am very pleased that I was accepted to it. I'm not sure if I'll get involved with it yet but I will think about it.

This weekend was parents' weekend and my family came to visit me. We went to the OKC Nat'l Memorial downtown this morning. It has almost been 12 years since it happened, my brother and sister didn't even know what happened so everything had to be explained to them. I feel older and older everyday. My parents also wanted to visit Campus Lodge, the apartments I am staying at next year. They were very impressed by the rooms and all the amenities that were provided, which is good because they are paying for it. Thats about all I did with my family, there wasn't that much to do but thats okay, they were all tired and my brother was getting crabby.

Thats all for now, I will try to write in this everyday. We'll see how that goes. Leave suggestions if you have any. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I failed to mention that on Friday night after the tornado watch (or is it warning) was over, Sharon had dinner with my family at the caf (for free!) and shared a brownie with my mother. She also had a roll. That is all.

-Jamie