Just got done with my graduate seminar oral exam/paper defense. Luckily it was pass/fail 10% of the grade, and while nothing was marked as "superior" on my exam I did manage to get marked as exceptional on most other things. That means I got another letter grade in the class, now if I can get a 70/80 on my paper I get an A for the semester... got my fingers crossed.

In other news, the president of the Iraqi Governing Council was killed today in a car-bomb. He is the second member of the council to be assassinated, and his loss is sure to make Bush think even harder about who the hell sovereignty is going to be handed over to next month (June 30). Also, an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) which lightly bruised a convoy a few days ago has now been determined by a preliminary examination (which have been disproved several times in Iraq so far) to have contained sarin nerve agent. The couple soldiers effected claimed to have felt a bit ill in the days following the explosion. Sarin, by the way, is lethal by the drop; therefore, there is a great deal of speculation now that this artillery shell which contained the agent was a forgotten remnant from the Cold War. This would explain the deterioration of the agent to such an insignificant threat. A similar incident involving what appears to be mustard gas occurred about a week ago, but again preliminary studies have been disproved on this exact matter before so we are not sure about anything yet.

Finally, Tony Blair has announced his desire for Turkey to be admitted in to the EU with the final stages of planning to be done later this year. Will Germany try to block it? Who knows, but with EU/UK relations at this point I would not put it out of the question. More to come as that develops.