Harry Potter

Nice Salon article on Mr Potter and the changes in tone of the latest book. Pretty much sums up my feelings on the matter.

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The Brights Net is the new Richard Dawkins project. You can read his article on consciousness raising here.

My favourite consciousness-raising effort is one I have mentioned many times before (and I make no apology, for consciousness-raising is all about repetition). A phrase like "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should clang furious bells of protest in the mind, just as we flinch when we hear "one man one vote". Children are too young to know their religious opinions. Just as you can't vote until you are 18, you should be free to choose your own cosmology and ethics without society's impertinent presumption that you will automatically inherit your parents'. We'd be aghast to be told of a Leninist child or a neo-conservative child or a Hayekian monetarist child. So isn't it a kind of child abuse to speak of a Catholic child or a Protestant child? Especially in Northern Ireland and Glasgow where such labels, handed down over generations, have divided neighbourhoods for centuries and can even amount to a death warrant?

Those of us who subscribe to no religion; those of us whose view of the universe is natural rather than supernatural; those of us who rejoice in the real and scorn the false comfort of the unreal, we need a word of our own, a word like "gay". You can say "I am an atheist" but at best it sounds stuffy (like "I am a homosexual") and at worst it inflames prejudice (like "I am a homosexual").

Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell, of Sacramento, California, have set out to coin a new word, a new "gay". Like gay, it should be a noun hijacked from an adjective, with its original meaning changed but not too much. Like gay, it should be catchy: a potentially prolific meme. Like gay, it should be positive, warm, cheerful, bright.

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If you're using Wireless communication, do be aware that you need to make sure you're secure. Otherwise you can easily have your data stolen.
( amusing details )

So true

Ravenclaw! Some might see you as a bit haughty, but
that's just because they lack the intellectual
capacity to be worthy of your presence. You see
little difference between enlightenment and
entertainment; learning experiences are
tremendously enjoyable for you. And remember,
kids: just because you're brilliant doesn't
mean you're studious!


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Recommended

whichbook.net is amazing.

You give it your choice on a variety of criteria (sad, lots of sex, unpredictable, violent) and it tells you that you want to read Poppy Z Brite's Exquisit Corpse.

Alternatively, searching for a story about a gay male in Latin America who succeeds against the odds brings me The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin.

I'm quite astounded, even if it does need fleshing out (apparently there are no gay females succeeding against the odds in Latin America).

films

Chatting with Joe, he asked what films there are to look forward to. Here's my current "quite fancy that" list.

Terminator 3 (you never can tell)
Hulk (not until July 18th !!!)
LXG is 15th of August (Alan Moore was a tad scathing about what he'd seen, but that was apparently just trailers)
Tomb Raider 2 (will probably be awful)
Matrix Resurrected (Because I have to see how it all turns out)
Return of the King (Woohoo!!!)
Pirates of the Carribean (looks ace)
Sinbad (animated, very cool trailer)
Finding Nemo (Bloody Americans get this months ahead of us)
Buffalo Soldiers (saw this at the festival last year. Amazingly good)
Charlies Angels 2 (Oh yes)
American Wedding (meh)
Underworld (Vampires versus Werewolves)
Kill Bill (I must get around to Jackie Brown)
Gothika (name rings a bell, but that's about it)
Master and Commander (possibly good. It's got both swash and buckle after all)
The Cat in the Hat (I'll wait for reviews)
The Last Samurai (about which I know pretty much nothing)
Prozac Nation (possibly finally getting a release)

Anything else people are looking forward to?