The local CBS affiliate, WVLT Ch. 8, already has a satellite truck at our local Borders to cover tonight's "Grand Hallows Ball" book release party. Apparently radio station Star 102.1 will be broadcasting live from here, too.

Less than 12 hours to go!!! WOOHOO!!!

(And I still don’t know how it ends! Yay!)

Yes, yes, I’m cheating on my no-Web pledge by posting this. So sue me. (It was a gratuitous promise anyway, and thus, lacking consideration, not enforceable. So, barring some quasi-contractual remedy… oh, nevermind.)

Besides, I made it through 60 straight hours without blogging or commenting. That’s pretty good, right? :)

Anyway, just an FYI - tonight, starting at midnight, the timestamp on “That Which Must Not Be Blogged” will begin refreshing once a minute, via a cron script. As a result, it will remain on top of the homepage all day Saturday, even as new stuff is posted below it.

That way, anyone who wants to comment on Deathly Hallows as they’re reading it will be able to easily do so.

To further facilitate commentary-while-reading, I’ve created a special “safe” comment form for those who might want to leave spoileriffic comments while reading the book without reading anyone else’s spoilers. That form will post comments to “That Which Must Not Be Blogged” without displaying them.

And of course, those who want to continue avoiding all discussion of spoilers altogether will be able to simply scroll past “That Which Must Not Be Blogged” and look at whatever’s below it.

Again, just a reminder, in case anyone is still unclear on the concept. :) Please do not post spoilers here, or on any cell-phone posts that I may blog from the book-release party tonight, or anyplace else except “That Which Must Not Be Blogged.” That post is the ONLY place for spoilers, and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Thank you!

And now, I return to my self-imposed exile. Happy reading, everyone!

So as everyone knows the new Harry Potter book has been leaked on multiple torrent sites.

Well I just couldn’t resist the temptation…

I downloaded the .rar of the PDF and I’m about 50 pages into it.

Why do I do things like this? I basically ruined the novelty of opening up my Amazon.com shipment and cracking the spine of the new book. Something that I have enjoyed thoroughly the past 3 books. Ugh.

P.S. - I spoke with an old co-worker of mine from Borders. He happened to pass the store we used to work at around 5:45 this morning on his way to work. He said the line was already about 20-30 people deep.

A man crashed into a building yesterday in Cincinnati, which isn’t so weird except that he was OD’d on drugs and the building was a drug treatment center. Fortunately no one else was injured in the crash.

Since the Bloy isn’t checking the web these days, and since I’ve got access to post, I’m going to take this opportunity to do so.

Might as well open up a free-for-all, pick on Brendan thread, right?

I’m lobbing a great big ole softball right over the heart of the plate. Swing away, batta-batta.

Barry Bonds, He Who Must Not Know What Cream He is Using, has hit two home runs today, in action between the San Fransisco Giants and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Chicago. This gets him to a career total of 753, two shy of tying the all-time career record.

Somewhere Hank Aaron is spinning in his grave. No, wait…

The report that was compiled by a team from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent to investigate the festering mistrust of Bill Proenza by many of the hurricane forecasters that work for him was released today:

“The current TPC director should be reassigned and not be allowed to return to his position at the center. This should be done due to his failure to demonstrate leadership within the TPC,” according to the report obtained by ABC News.

The report harshly criticizes Proenza and notes the rift between him and his staff compromised the work being done at the center — a potential public safety issue.

“The short term ability of the TPC to provide accurate and timely information was put at risk due to the TPC director’s disruptive conduct and the lack of trust between many staff and the director,” according to the report. “The negative work environment, exacerbated by the director, has had — and is likely to continue to have — a major deleterious impact on the center’s ability to fulfill its mission, if he is allowed to return to his position.”

Despite the reports findings Proenza told congress he wants his job back. (More after the jump.)

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Thanks to everyone who has donated money to help us ship packages to our troops serving in the Middle East! Any money we get through the end of this month is going into our “send the troops cool stuff” budget. If you’re interested in sending stuff to the troops yourself, check out the Books For Soldiers website.

Our latest care package is heading to a soldier stationed north of Baghdad. Aside from yummy snacks, he’s also getting a couple of magazines, season four DVDs of CSI, a couple of battery powered hand-held fans (w/ batteries of course) because it’s in the 110s over there during the day, and toys like a nerf football and an inflatable beach ball.

There are lots of good military blogs out there that reflect the sacrifices that our armed forces make when they are called to duty. One of my favorites is Chaplain Kline’s blog. He has some amazing pictures.

Anyway, here’s the PayPal link again:

Today, ousted National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza told his side of the story before two congressional subcommittees. From 10am until 12pm EDT, the House Committee on Science and Technology held a hearing called, “Tracking the Storm at the National Hurricane Center”. You can check out some of the press releases and listen to a webcast of the hearing at the Committee web site.

Dr. Jeff Masters lists all those who are testifying in todays hearings and points out that it appears to be a little one sided:

The list of people testifying include Bill Proenza; QuikSCAT expert Dr. Robert Atlas; emergency management officials who worked with Proenza; and the head of NOAA, Admiral Lautenbacher. With the exception of Lautenbacher, all these witnesses are likely to be allies of Proenza. Also testifying will be Dr. Jim Turner, deputy director of the federal agency NTIS (National Technical Information Service), who led the inspection team that showed up at NHC without notice on July 2. Dr. Turner’s report was scheduled to be completed this Friday, July 20, but is now scheduled to be released to the Congressional panel today. Notably absent from the list of people called to testify is anyone from the National Hurricane Center. Also absent is a QuikSCAT science expert besides Dr. Atlas, who has thus far not addressed in his public comments, that I have seen, the very high uncertainties surrounding the impact of QuikSCAT data on track forecasts of landfalling hurricanes. In fact, in comments published in the Orlando Sentinel, Dr. Atlas claimed that Proenza’s statement that loss of the loss of QuikSCAT could reduce the accuracy of hurricane-track forecasts by as much as 16 percent represents “the consensus of the scientific community.” Well, that is not the case, as myself and senior hurricane specialists at the National Hurricane Center will attest to.

In both an article published in the Houston Chronicle and in an Orlando Sentinel article from Wednesday, you can see just how unhappy the staff at the NHC was with Proenza. (More after the jump.)

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I certainly understand that there are tons of fanboys and fangirls for all kinds of pop culture things. The people that are the uber-hardcore devotees that wind up waiting in line for a week to see the show, for the new product release, or whatever.

Since when did it become the thing to do to permanently ink yourself up with logos and such from these things?

A grown man with a Harry Potter related tattoo? A Dark Mark, placed on the arm where Voldynuts would have done it? Yikes.

Is it just me being a stick in the mud, or is this just stupid?

Oooops!

Basically Scholastic can find this guy now.

Hope he has a lawyer!

“Pieces of Eight!” no more: Arrrr! ~

(CBS) SAN FRANCISCO, July 16, 2007 - As tourist attractions go, San Francisco’s wild parrots can be frustratingly unpredictable.

The 200 birds can often be seen swooping near Telegraph Hill, but there is only one place they show up like clockwork. At 5:30 every afternoon, they return to a small park surrounded by high rises, where outstretched hands await, offering sunflower seeds.

…There’s no doubt the parrots are loved. But is feeding them loving them too much — robbing them of the ability to survive on their own.

One bird lover who’s particularly disturbed is Mark Bittner. His book and documentary film, “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill,” made the birds famous in the first place.

…”My whole thing is to keep them wild, not to make them into like a circus act,” Bittner said.

Bittner’s worries reached City Hall. As of today, public parrot feeding in San Francisco will be banned. Down at the park, that has ruffled plenty of feathers.

“I think law enforcement has better things to do with their time than to be policing a bunch of people trying to feed some birds,” Lori Colburn said…

Squawk about the Whole thing. :>

If for some reason we had to close one branch of Congress, which would you choose and why?

Mundane SF dares to ask: What if not? No space travel, no aliens, no FTL, no time travel, no robots, no nanotechnology, no parallel universes, no immortality, no brain downloads. It’s science fiction, for all those people who don’t like science fiction. (Read it. It’s really, really condescending.)

Coming soon, Mundane Fantasy, which dares to ask: What if humans are the only intelligent race and magic doesn’t exist?