6 Questions The Last Harry Potter Book Had Better F#@king Answer

As the release date of J.K. Rowling's latest Harry Potter book draws near you can imagine that every fan of the series has contemplated how she will tie up the loose ends in her saga. Here's a hilariously irreverent look at how 6 unanswered questions will play out.

"Occam's razor suggests that the simplest explanation—Snape is evil— is likely the correct one. But for Snape to be truly evil, that means that Dumbledore would have been wrong about something. And until we see proof of that, we're going to stick with our needlessly convoluted conspiracy theory. In other words, fuck you, Occam's razor. You're one smug principle we can live without."

Bonus points for you if you can find the 'Die Hard' reference in the article.

Jump

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I'm not what I would call a Harry Potter fanatic. I've read some of the books but not all of them. I've been critical of a few of the earlier movies. I find J.K. Rawlings writing and story telling style formulaic and childish. In the beginning I didn't have a problem with that because I thought the books were meant for children. But as the story goes on it takes a darker tone that is more adult and even frightening for younger readers/viewers.

All that aside. My wife and I went to Springdale last night to see the midnight showing on the IMAX 3D. And I must say that this movie tops the rest. I didn't care for this book all that much but this movie was pulled off without a hitch. Kudos to the children/young adults who have grown up in these movies. You can see how much they've grown as actors and actresses.

Now because I'm not a fanatic I can get by the fact that they tinkered with some of the story lines from the book. There will be HP fans out there who decry this movie like they did the rest because they don't understand that movies are NOT books and what works in literature can't always work on the silver screen. I can say without hesitation that the IMAX ticket price was worth every nickel. Only about 15 minutes of the film (the climatic battle near the end) is in 3D. I don't remember the last time I went to a 3D movie but I know it was nothing like this. It will be tough to watch the movie in a regular format once it comes out on DVD. If you are within driving distance of an IMAX 3D version of "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" I recommend it for all viewers.

Visit to the Creation Museum

Chucker recently convinced me to go to the Creation Museum with him to see the insanity up close and personal. Disturbing as the trip was there were a few glimmers of hope.

There's not much I can say about this place that hasn't already been said on numerous other blogs and articles. As Chucker put it, "They're diabolical." That really sums it up. The Answers in Genesis (AIG) people do a very good job of providing very simple answers to people who don't want to hear the truth or possess any critical thinking skills. They start off the tour at a reconstructed dinosaur dig site. A couple of 'paleontologists' are talking about what they like to call, 'Starting Points.' This becomes the Creation Museum mantra. "Same facts, different starting points." The idea is that if you can start with the belief that the bible is absolutely 100% literally true, then you can bend and twist the existing facts to fit your starting point. And they make it appear as though one starting point can be as valid as any other. The problem with this approach is that this isn't how science works. You don't come up with the answer first and then bend the observable facts to fit your views.

The people at AIG already believe they know the answer so real science goes out the window as they try to make sense of observable evidence that runs contrary to their 'truth.' So they create new guesses or stories about how these events could have happened. Note that I don't say they create theories. This would imply that they actually took facts, observed them, hypothesized, tested, measured, and then either proved or failed to disprove their hypothesis.

The day we went there was a church group there with lots of small children. Ah, to be young and lied to. The only silver lining in all of this was that while in line we over heard a few different people poking holes in the creationist pseudo-logic. It made me feel better to know that we weren't the only people there not swallowing this fiction.

iPhone Review

Well after much debate I broke down and bought the iPhone. Maybe I'm nuts or maybe I just couldn't think of anything better to do with $600. It just so happened that I was in Paducah, KY visiting my parents when the iPhone went on sale last Friday. I figured that in a smaller rural town the interest in the phone would be limited and the wait would not be so bad. I was right. I drove about 35 minutes south to a small-small town called Mayfield aka "The Pearl of the Purchase". At least that's what the sign said when we drove into this sleepy town. They had an AT&T next to their Super Walmart. (What small town would be complete without one?) When we arrived at the store it was about 5:35 pm CT. We were 10th in line. Everyone in line seemed to know everyone else and even pointed out that they knew people in the Walmart parking lot across the road. When the doors opened at 6:00 we inched forward. It was about 6:25 when I got my hands on the glorious new gadget.

The Good:
The cool factor of this phone is off the chart. It is well made, solid, sleek, and the video clarity is very impressive. The calls are clear and the reception I get is much better than I used to get on my Motorola RAZR. The phone also paired nicely with my current Bluetooth headset so luckily I won't need to pony up $125 for the Apple headset. The iPod also works just as nicely as advertised. No complaints there. Photos taken on the camera look surprisingly good and are easy to resize (using the pinch) and assign to Contacts. In fact I could go on and on about the things I like about this phone. Maybe I should skip to the bad.

The Bad:
The list isn't that long. Safari has some troubles. I've crashed it a couple of times and usually with no more than 2 or 3 windows open. Once it even froze the whole phone requiring a hardboot. Not having iChat is a common complaint. I concur. The web application idea is troublesome. So far the applications I've seen were poorly coded and did not work as advertised. This is largely because you're dependent on the network. If you're not wifi then you could have problems. SMS works pretty well. It looks like iChat but there is a problem. The phone requires a connection. It will not queue a sent message until the connection is established.

Network:
I've heard everyone complain about the EDGE network being slow. They're right...if you're trying to surf the web. It reminds me of a fast dial-up connection. However, when it comes to using some of the other features on the phone the EDGE network works very well. Weather updates, email, and Google Maps work great.

The Unboxing








As always everything is neatly and elegantly packed without messy packing material or difficulty removing the contents.






Entire contents of the box.


Powered on prior to activation.


Phone is only capable of making emergency calls at this point.