HP 7 Cover Art Released!

Click for high-res...

Thank god for Jim Dale....

I've had something in the back of my mind that's been bothering me ever since a date was released for HP 7. WHAT ABOUT THE AUDIOBOOK? They announced the UK audiobook but not the US version.

My fear was that we'd get stuck with the Stephen Fry edition (no offense Stephen!) and there would be no Jim Dale version.

Earlier this week I even e-mailed the Random House Audio Publicity and Marketing Dept. for answers. Very surprisingly, they replied.. in less than an hour!

Hi Craig--

An announcement for the Harry Potter 7 audio book has not yet gone out.
Please stay tuned for more information to come soon.

Thanks,

Nicole Adamidis
Random House Audio
Publicity and Marketing

Didn't answer a single question I asked... but I was surprised I got the reply.

Those that know me, know I'm a huge, Huge, HUGE fan of the HP Audiobooks performed by one of the gods of audiobook narration... Jim Dale.

http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/features/harrypotter/

Press Release here.

Harry Potter audiobook coming out

By HILLEL ITALIE, AP National WriterMon Mar 26, 3:34 PM ET

The U.S. audiobook of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will be released July 21, the same time as the bound text, with the Grammy-winning Jim Dale again handling all the voices.

The British editions have been narrated by actor Stephen Fry.

The Listening Library, the children's imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group, announced Monday that the audio for the 784-page book will run 21 hours, and retail for $79.95.

No first printing was announced, but Amanda D'Acierno, director of marketing and publicity for Random House Audio, told The Associated Press that the number would "definitely" be higher than the 635,000 announced for Potter 6, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."

J.K. Rowling's fantasy series has sold more than 4 million audio copies in North America, and Dale has become a celebrity, winning a Grammy Award in 2000 for best spoken word album for children. The audio for "Half-Blood Prince" sold more than 165,000 copies the first weekend, more than most audiobooks sell all year.

Random House confirmed that the audio for "Deathly Hallows" will be available in cassette and CD, but did not announce a downloadable version. Only in 2005 did Rowling, known for her resistance to digital technology, allow the audiobooks to be downloaded, releasing them exclusively through Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

"We have digital rights for the new book, but there are so many scenarios in the digital world that we're not ready to discuss the downloadable version at this point," D'Acierno said.

None of the Potter stories are available as e-books, a status not expected to change with "Deathly Hallows."

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

As Jim Dale is completely responsible for pulling me into the world of Harry Potter, you have no idea how happy I am at this news.

Should Mark Wahlberg be arrested?

Interesting article by Tom Gresham...

http://www.guntalk.com/site.php?pageID=15&newsID=15

I didn't know Mark Wahlberg was a felon.... It looks like it's true... according to wikipedia (amongst many others)...

Wahlberg developed cocaine and freebase habits at around the ages of 13 or 14. As a teenager, Wahlberg participated in several acts of violence for which he was arrested, later claiming to have been arrested 20-25 times by the Boston Police Department as a youth. At 15 he harassed a group of African American school children on a field trip by throwing rocks (causing injuries) and shouting racist epithets. While under the influence of angel dust when he was 16 (and again using racist language) he knocked a middle aged Vietnamese man unconscious with a wooden stick and left another Vietnamese man permanently blind in one eye. For these crimes Wahlberg was arrested for attempted murder, pled guilty to assault, and spent 45 days in jail at Boston's Deer Island House of Correction. In yet another incident when he was 21 Wahlberg fractured the jaw of a neighbour in an unprovoked attack.

I wonder why the producers of the new movie "Shooter" would even cast an anti-gun asshole in such a role?

Harry Potter 7 Clocks in at 784 Pages!

Earlier today Scholastic announced that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will have 784 pages in the U.S.

For those keeping score...

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone had 309 pages and the audiobook was 8h 18m long
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets had 341 pages and the audiobook was 9h 2m long
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had 435 pages and the audiobook was 11h 48m long
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire had 734 pages and the audiobook was 20h 36m long
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had 870 pages and the audiobook was 26h 30m long
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had 652 pages and the audiobook was 18h 33m long
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will have 784 pages and the audiobook should be around 21h 30m long

That will bring the seven book series to a total of 4,125 pages and approx 116 hours and 36 minutes of Jim Dale audiobook fun!

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, proprietor: Handgun bans' logic got shot full of holes

The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, proprietor: Handgun bans' logic got shot full of holes

This guy is my new hero!

This...

I'd add this to what the court said: Arguing that you have only a "collective" right to bear arms as part of a militia is as ludicrous as saying that the Bill of Rights protects your free speech rights only as a part of a larger group, such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

... in the Chicago Tribune... wonderful! Speak the truth brother!

Cool Software Alert

Years ago I began searching for a good jigsaw program... One that would let me create my own custom puzzles. After checking out dozens of possibilities, I ended up with Jigs@w Puzzle by Tibo Software. It was a fine piece of software but it got hard to deal with if you had a couple hundred puzzles.

Anyway...

I visited their site a couple of days ago because I wanted to create some .exe versions of some puzzles for a website I'm working on and noticed that they released a second version. It's got some great new features and has the ability to store puzzles in Albums which eliminates the sole problem I had with the version 1.

Jigs@w Puzzle 2 is available for the incredibly low price of $9.95 and they also offer a free trial! If you like jigsaw puzzles (especially on the computer... no missing pieces, no clean up) be sure to give this software a test drive!

Unfortunately, it's for Windows only but even so, it's WELL worth the money.

New Product from Apple...

Viacom sues Google for $1 billion

Viacom must be sick of their people spending all day searching You Tube and Google Video for Viacom content because they've just sued them for a billion dollars.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Viacom sued Google and its online video subsidiary YouTube for $1 billion Tuesday, the first big lawsuit against the online video site and its parent for copyright infringement.

In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Viacom (Charts), owner of MTV and Comedy Central, said that "almost 160,000 unauthorized clips of Viacom's programming have been available on YouTube and that these clips had been viewed more than 1.5 billion times."

In addition to damages, Viacom said it wants an injunction prohibiting Google and YouTube from further copyright infringement.

A spokesman for Google said the company had yet to see the lawsuit but that Google feels "confident that YouTube has respected the legal rights of copyright holders and believe the courts will agree."

Viacom first demanded that YouTube take down videos from shows on Viacom-owned networks that were posted on the site without Viacom's consent. Google bought YouTube for nearly $1.7 billion last year.

Viacom is the first major media firm to sue Google and YouTube for copyright infringement. Other media companies, including GE (Charts)-owned NBC Universal, CBS (Charts), and Universal Music Group, have decided to partner with YouTube, the world's most popular online video site. But Viacom said that it decided to sue Google and YouTube "after a great deal of unproductive negotiation."

"Obviously, they couldn't come to an agreement. Viacom must have felt its back was against the wall and had to pull the trigger and file a lawsuit," said Barry Cohen, partner in the intellectual property practice with Thorp Reed & Armstrong LLP, a law firm based in Pittsburgh.

Full article here.

Should I take down the South Park clip I posted? Naaaa... I'll wait for the cease and desist letter.

Appeals court overturns D.C. gun ban

Appeals court overturns D.C. gun ban
BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court overturned the District of Columbia's long-standing handgun ban Friday, rejecting the city's argument that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applied only to militias.

In a 2-1 decision, the judges held that the activities protected by the Second Amendment "are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent" on enrollment in a militia.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the city cannot prevent people from keeping handguns in their homes. The ruling also struck down a requirement that owners of registered firearms must keep them unloaded and disassembled. The court did not address provisions that prohibit people from carrying unregistered guns outside the home.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said the city plans to appeal.

"I am personally, deeply disappointed and quite frankly outraged," Fenty said.

Washington and Chicago are the only two major U.S. cities with sweeping handgun bans. Washington's ban on owning handguns went into effect in 1976, and is considered to be the toughest in the nation, according to the National Rifle Association. While courts in other parts of the country have upheld bans on automatic weapons and sawed-off shotguns, the D.C. law is unusual because it involves a prohibition on all pistols.

In 2004, a lower-court judge told six city residents that they did not have a constitutional right to own handguns. The plaintiffs include residents of high-crime neighborhoods who wanted the guns for protection.

But on Friday, Judge Laurence Silberman, writing for the majority, said "The district's definition of the militia is just too narrow. There are too many instances of 'bear arms' indicating private use to conclude that the drafters intended only a military sense."

Judge Karen Henderson dissented, writing that the Second Amendment does not apply to the District of Columbia because it is not a state.

The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights, but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue. If the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the Second Amendment's scope.

"I think this is well positioned for review of the Supreme Court," said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University.

Even as the appeals court overturned the city's 1976 ban on most handgun ownership, Silberman wrote that the Second Amendment is still "subject to the same sort of reasonable restrictions that have been recognized as limiting, for instance, the First Amendment."

Such restrictions might include gun registration, firearms testing to promote public safety or restrictions on gun ownership for criminals or those deemed mentally ill.

Excellent news! The ban went into effect in 1977. It accomplished absolutely NOTHING!

1426 violent crimes per 100,000 in 1977
1459 violent crimes per 100,000 in 2005

South Park is Back Baby!!

EDIT AGAIN: Here's my local copy...
.mp4 file

EDIT: As expected, youtube removed the file (Viacom pissing and moaning). In fact they've removed over 20 of the same file. Don't worry though... I copied it before they removed it and I will post it here as soon as I recover my thumb drive... (I left it at work dammit!)

Odds are youtube will delete this file pretty soon...

The power of Photoshop!

Some dude with 3 hours of spare time, photoshop and a shitload of talent!!

So what did that guy do wrong?

That is a BAD grip for a semi-auto! NEVER CROSS YOUR NON-SHOOTING THUMB OVER LIKE THAT! He came very close to causing some serious damage to his left thumb with the slide.

What is this guy doing wrong?

Edit: The poster of this video decided to remove it from youtube after getting a little shit from the commenters so here's a still image...


Answer tomorrow...