Today famous author J.K. Rowling introduced the newest saga for the Harry Potter fan. Pottermore. The announcement was made via youtube and had been eagerly awaited for months by Potter fans. Details about the site come after months of guessing and social media hype.
The site goes live on July 31 when 1 million registered users will be chosen through an online competition to help flesh out the Pottermore world. Visitors can register now to enter that competition.
Rowling said she created the website to give back to Harry Potter's "muggle" followers. At Pottermore, users will be able to share comments, ideas and drawings about all things Harry Potter and even buy Harry Potter e-books. There is also a puzzle map called "Secret Street View," where users can enter secret map coordinates that spell out p-o-t-t-e-r-m-o-r-e.
The site lets fans delve into Harry Potter's beloved Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They can shop for wands in Diagon Alley, travel to Hogwarts from the imaginary Platform 9 3/4 at London's King's Cross train station and be sorted into Hogwarts school houses by the perceptive Sorting Hat.
The deal brings longtime e-book refusnik Rowling into the digital fold, but comes as a bitter potion to established booksellers, who will be shut out of the latest chapter of a vastly profitable saga.
"You can't hold back progress," Rowling told reporters in London. "E-books are here and they are here to stay."
Rowling reiterated that she will not write any more Harry Potter books and that she is done writing in the immensely popular series. There could be an encyclopedia compiled though. The seven Harry Potter novels have made Rowling one of the world's richest women, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $1 billion.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Michelle Obama wasting American taxpayer dollars on another vacation
Well it seems Michelle Obama is off on another one of her famous "vacations". Last fall it was Spain where US taxpayers picked up the tab for Air Force One and $100s of thousands of dollars for 70 secret service and security personnel. This time it is Africa and the taxpayer is footing the bill once again.
Just so Michelle Obama, her mom and kids can go on a vacation to Africa? There's our taxpayer dollars hard at work! Oh, my bad. It is an official visit according to the White House. Botswana? Seriously? A safari? Dinner at a game preserve? Sounds like an official visit to me.
Fresh off the "London Leisure Tour" that the American taxpayers funded and now off to Botswana with the entire family in tow. Isn't it wonderful that we give millions upon millions of our money to countries that hate us. Now we have to fund vacation after vacation for the President's family and friends.
A trip to Africa to inspire African youth....how about trying to inspire American youth. How about instead of wasting $10 million taxpayer dollars on a trip to Africa we put that money to work in towns in the USA that have a need?
Just so Michelle Obama, her mom and kids can go on a vacation to Africa? There's our taxpayer dollars hard at work! Oh, my bad. It is an official visit according to the White House. Botswana? Seriously? A safari? Dinner at a game preserve? Sounds like an official visit to me.
Fresh off the "London Leisure Tour" that the American taxpayers funded and now off to Botswana with the entire family in tow. Isn't it wonderful that we give millions upon millions of our money to countries that hate us. Now we have to fund vacation after vacation for the President's family and friends.
A trip to Africa to inspire African youth....how about trying to inspire American youth. How about instead of wasting $10 million taxpayer dollars on a trip to Africa we put that money to work in towns in the USA that have a need?
Friday, June 3, 2011
Some disheartening facts about the Barack Obama Presidency
Here are some facts about the Barack Obama Presidency thus far. Nothing short of disheartening to say the least.
1. Doubled the national debt in a single year
2. Proposed to double the debt again within 10 years
3. Joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration
4. Put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident
5. Used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87,000 American workers unemployed
6. Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take his First Lady to a play in NYC
7. Reduced your retirement plan holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM
8. Given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift
9. Given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches
10. Visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent "Austrian language"
11. Stated that there were 57 states in the United States
12. Flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in his home town
13. Been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again
14. Burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day
15. Ok'd Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic
16. Failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans
17. Created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate confirmation process
WAKE UP FOLKS. These are not "political assertions" designed to make BO "look bad" (he does a very fine job of that without any help) - they are simply just some of the facts of his actions.
Now, the question before the good people of America is: Can we really stand anymore of him in office?
1. Doubled the national debt in a single year
2. Proposed to double the debt again within 10 years
3. Joined the country of Mexico and sued a state in the United States to force that state to continue to allow illegal immigration
4. Put 87,000 workers out of work by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on offshore oil drilling on companies that have one of the best safety records of any industry because one foreign company had an accident
5. Used a forged document as the basis of the moratorium that would render 87,000 American workers unemployed
6. Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take his First Lady to a play in NYC
7. Reduced your retirement plan holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM
8. Given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift
9. Given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches
10. Visited Austria and made reference to the nonexistent "Austrian language"
11. Stated that there were 57 states in the United States
12. Flown all the way to Denmark to make a five minute speech about how the Olympics would benefit him walking out his front door in his home town
13. Been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again
14. Burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day
15. Ok'd Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic
16. Failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans
17. Created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate confirmation process
WAKE UP FOLKS. These are not "political assertions" designed to make BO "look bad" (he does a very fine job of that without any help) - they are simply just some of the facts of his actions.
Now, the question before the good people of America is: Can we really stand anymore of him in office?
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
President Obama completely out of touch with Texas border problems
Tuesday President Barack Obama visited El Paso, Texas and proved just how out of touch he was with the border issues facing Texas. Fighting political gridlock that has doomed immigration legislation for years, President Obama made his first visit to the border since taking office and told activists and immigrant rights supporters it’s up to them to force Congress to act.
Instead, he made the case that with more Border Patrol agents, a border fence and falling crime rates, he has checked border security off the to-do list. Obama proclaimed the border fence done and the Texas-Mexican border secure drawing jeers and boos from the crowd. Obviously he has not been keeping up with the press reports over the last few years giving evidence of out of control drug cartels and murder after murder.
Illegal immigration continues to be out of control with immigrants crossing the border and receiving free benefits from the American taxpayers. The border has been reported as 44% secure. Texans begged to differ with the Obama position.
“Mr. President, 44% is a failing grade,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “If 44% is the most secure the border has ever been, it’s time to get to work to improve the grade. The American people expect nothing less than an A+ on border security.”
The President was booed once again when he said his administration is just a few miles shy of completing hundreds of miles of border fencing - something he supported when he was in the Senate. In truth there are hundreds of miles of unsecured and completely open border.
Instead, he made the case that with more Border Patrol agents, a border fence and falling crime rates, he has checked border security off the to-do list. Obama proclaimed the border fence done and the Texas-Mexican border secure drawing jeers and boos from the crowd. Obviously he has not been keeping up with the press reports over the last few years giving evidence of out of control drug cartels and murder after murder.
Illegal immigration continues to be out of control with immigrants crossing the border and receiving free benefits from the American taxpayers. The border has been reported as 44% secure. Texans begged to differ with the Obama position.
“Mr. President, 44% is a failing grade,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, Texas Republican. “If 44% is the most secure the border has ever been, it’s time to get to work to improve the grade. The American people expect nothing less than an A+ on border security.”
The President was booed once again when he said his administration is just a few miles shy of completing hundreds of miles of border fencing - something he supported when he was in the Senate. In truth there are hundreds of miles of unsecured and completely open border.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
How does Fukushima differ from Chernobyl?
Japan has raised the severity level of its nuclear crisis to put it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world's worst nuclear power disaster. But for all their criticism of how Tokyo Electric Power and Japan's government are handling the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, experts agree with them on one point: Fukushima is not another Chernobyl.
"Fukushima has its own unique risks, but comparing it to Chernobyl is going too far. Fukushima is unlikely to have the kind of impact on the health of people in neighboring countries, the way Chernobyl did," said nuclear specialist Kenji Sumita at Osaka University.
Here are the main points of how the two accidents differ.
ARE THE TWO DESIGNS THE SAME?
Unit 4 at Chernobyl was a water-cooled and graphite-moderated reactor, a combination that can and did yield a runaway chain reaction. A series of gross errors and misjudgment by operators resulted in an explosion and fire that catapulted radioactivity into the upper atmosphere.
The resulting release of radiation has been compared to 10 times that released by the 1945 US nuclear bomb attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The boiling water reactors at Fukushima do not have a combustible graphite core. The nuclear fuel in reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 was allowed to melt at least partially, but operators have since succeeded in cooling both the reactors and the spent fuel pools and no chain reaction is happening now.
As long as cooling operations continue and Japan can prepare tanks fast enough to store the contamination overflow, Japan can still hope to buy time to figure out how to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown.
HOW DO THE CONTAINMENT STRUCTURES DIFFER?
Chernobyl had no containment structure and nothing stopped the trajectory of radioactive materials into the air. Fukushima's reactors are built on granite foundations and are surrounded by steel and concrete structures. The reactor vessels and containment structures, as well as some of the pipes leading from the reactors, are likely to have been damaged by the March 11 tsunami and recurring earthquakes. But with radiation levels now down to a sliver of what they were at the peak, experts say that the structures are still holding. Chernobyl contaminated an area as far as 300 miles from the plant, and an area spanning 18 miles around the plant is still an exclusion zone and uninhabited.
HAVE THERE BEEN FALLOUT-LINKED DEATHS IN JAPAN?
At Fukushima, there have been no deaths so far due to radiation. Eight people have been injured. More deadly have been the 9.0 magnitude quake that hit on March 11 and the aftershocks that have rocked the site while workers tried to bring the plant under control. Two have died and three have been critically injured.
At Chernobyl, the initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from acute radiation sickness and one died of cardiac arrest.
FLOW OF INFORMATION VERSUS COVER UP
Bungling, yes. Disorganized, incoherent and sometimes contradictory, yes. But it is difficult to accuse Japanese officials or TEPCO of intentionally covering up information, with round-the-clock updates and a steady stream of data.
Chernobyl was initially covered up by the secretive Soviet state, which remained silent for two days. But authorities, obliged by huge radiation releases throughout Europe, gradually disclosed details of the accident, showing unprecedented Soviet-era openness.
DOES FUKUSHIMA POSE A GREATER RISK IF IT ALL GOES WRONG?
It's not over yet. One month since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, workers still have to inject water into the reactors, creating more contaminated water that is hampering the restoration of power to pumps to cool the reactors and bring them to a cold shutdown.
The situation led a frustrated and demoralized TEPCO spokesman to say that the total fallout could exceed that of Chernobyl. Fukushima involves loss of control at four reactors and potentially more radioactive material, that could continue to seep, leak or burst into the environment. Officials have said that if power cannot be restored to the cooling pumps, there are other measures, such as air cooling, and that in a worst-case scenario, they could try water entombment in the reactors whose containment structures are sound.
"Fukushima has its own unique risks, but comparing it to Chernobyl is going too far. Fukushima is unlikely to have the kind of impact on the health of people in neighboring countries, the way Chernobyl did," said nuclear specialist Kenji Sumita at Osaka University.
Here are the main points of how the two accidents differ.
ARE THE TWO DESIGNS THE SAME?
Unit 4 at Chernobyl was a water-cooled and graphite-moderated reactor, a combination that can and did yield a runaway chain reaction. A series of gross errors and misjudgment by operators resulted in an explosion and fire that catapulted radioactivity into the upper atmosphere.
The resulting release of radiation has been compared to 10 times that released by the 1945 US nuclear bomb attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The boiling water reactors at Fukushima do not have a combustible graphite core. The nuclear fuel in reactors No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 was allowed to melt at least partially, but operators have since succeeded in cooling both the reactors and the spent fuel pools and no chain reaction is happening now.
As long as cooling operations continue and Japan can prepare tanks fast enough to store the contamination overflow, Japan can still hope to buy time to figure out how to bring the reactors to a cold shutdown.
HOW DO THE CONTAINMENT STRUCTURES DIFFER?
Chernobyl had no containment structure and nothing stopped the trajectory of radioactive materials into the air. Fukushima's reactors are built on granite foundations and are surrounded by steel and concrete structures. The reactor vessels and containment structures, as well as some of the pipes leading from the reactors, are likely to have been damaged by the March 11 tsunami and recurring earthquakes. But with radiation levels now down to a sliver of what they were at the peak, experts say that the structures are still holding. Chernobyl contaminated an area as far as 300 miles from the plant, and an area spanning 18 miles around the plant is still an exclusion zone and uninhabited.
HAVE THERE BEEN FALLOUT-LINKED DEATHS IN JAPAN?
At Fukushima, there have been no deaths so far due to radiation. Eight people have been injured. More deadly have been the 9.0 magnitude quake that hit on March 11 and the aftershocks that have rocked the site while workers tried to bring the plant under control. Two have died and three have been critically injured.
At Chernobyl, the initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from acute radiation sickness and one died of cardiac arrest.
FLOW OF INFORMATION VERSUS COVER UP
Bungling, yes. Disorganized, incoherent and sometimes contradictory, yes. But it is difficult to accuse Japanese officials or TEPCO of intentionally covering up information, with round-the-clock updates and a steady stream of data.
Chernobyl was initially covered up by the secretive Soviet state, which remained silent for two days. But authorities, obliged by huge radiation releases throughout Europe, gradually disclosed details of the accident, showing unprecedented Soviet-era openness.
DOES FUKUSHIMA POSE A GREATER RISK IF IT ALL GOES WRONG?
It's not over yet. One month since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, workers still have to inject water into the reactors, creating more contaminated water that is hampering the restoration of power to pumps to cool the reactors and bring them to a cold shutdown.
The situation led a frustrated and demoralized TEPCO spokesman to say that the total fallout could exceed that of Chernobyl. Fukushima involves loss of control at four reactors and potentially more radioactive material, that could continue to seep, leak or burst into the environment. Officials have said that if power cannot be restored to the cooling pumps, there are other measures, such as air cooling, and that in a worst-case scenario, they could try water entombment in the reactors whose containment structures are sound.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Obama flip-flops on raising debt limit
Talk about sounding hyporitical. Here is a speach by Obama from the Senate floor in 2006:
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. ... Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem."
Now the same man is asking Congress top raise the debt ceiling. The country will reach its debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16. Instead of actually trying to do something to bring the debt down Obama is asking Congress to just raise the limit. Basically, just allowing the government to spend more mony that we don't have. Eventually the ridiculous debt is going to have to be dealt with.
"The president has asked us to increase the debt limit, in other words to increase the limit on the credit card, without doing anything about the source of the problem. And we've got to deal with the source of the problem," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday on Fox News Channel.
"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. ... Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that 'the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem."
Now the same man is asking Congress top raise the debt ceiling. The country will reach its debt limit of $14.3 trillion by May 16. Instead of actually trying to do something to bring the debt down Obama is asking Congress to just raise the limit. Basically, just allowing the government to spend more mony that we don't have. Eventually the ridiculous debt is going to have to be dealt with.
"The president has asked us to increase the debt limit, in other words to increase the limit on the credit card, without doing anything about the source of the problem. And we've got to deal with the source of the problem," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Monday on Fox News Channel.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
France struggling to lead UN in Libya
France responded to rising criticism Wednesday from eastern Libyan rebels stating that NATO is not doing enough to protect them from Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, as the air campaign nears the three-week mark. The rebels posit that NATO is overly concerned with avoiding civilian casualties, and as a result, it is allowing the Libyan army to regain territory lost during its low point last week.
Indeed, the army’s most recent counteroffensive has taken it back through Brega, with Ajdabiya now within its sights once again, while the rebel enclave of Misrata in western Libya continues to get bombarded by loyalist forces on a daily basis. France, which was the biggest proponent of involvement in Libya from the start, would very much like to step up the intensity of the campaign against Gadhafi, but is handicapped by the rules of engagement that NATO is operating under and the inherent limitations of airpower.
Thus, French officials took time Wednesday to explain why it is not Paris’fault that NATO jets are not pursuing the enemy more aggressively and how France was trying to adjust the way the military operation is being conducted.
French Foreign Minister Alan Juppe and French Chief of Defense Staff Adm. Edouard Guillaud both said Wednesday that NATO’s aversion to killing civilians is the main problem facing the operation. While Juppe was slightly less direct in his criticism of NATO, Paris clearly sees the current situation as unlikely to lead to any real success on the battlefield. More than two weeks of daily airstrikes have taken out almost all of the easy targets, and Gadhafi has shifted his tactics to avoid drawing enemy fire, meaning that a stalemate is fast approaching.
Indeed, Juppe expressed fears that at the current pace, NATO forces risk getting “bogged down” in a situation that has the ability to linger on for months without producing a clear-cut winner.
NATO officials tried to defend its record in response to the rebel criticism and the French complaints, with one spokesman saying Wednesday that its planes have flown more than 1,000 sorties — with at least 400 of them strike sorties — in the last six days, and on April 5 alone it flew 155 sorties, with almost 200 planned for Wednesday. This is unlikely to mollify concerns from those who want more intense action, however, about the potential for the Libyan intervention to accomplish nothing but create an uneasy, de facto partition. As no one, not even Paris, wants to put boots on the ground, though, the best solution Jupee could proffer was to broach the topic of NATO’s timid approach with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a Wednesday meeting. There, he was expected to push the suggestion for NATO to create a safe sea lane connecting Misrata to Benghazi, so that supplies could be shipped in by unknown naval forces.
Indeed, the army’s most recent counteroffensive has taken it back through Brega, with Ajdabiya now within its sights once again, while the rebel enclave of Misrata in western Libya continues to get bombarded by loyalist forces on a daily basis. France, which was the biggest proponent of involvement in Libya from the start, would very much like to step up the intensity of the campaign against Gadhafi, but is handicapped by the rules of engagement that NATO is operating under and the inherent limitations of airpower.
Thus, French officials took time Wednesday to explain why it is not Paris’fault that NATO jets are not pursuing the enemy more aggressively and how France was trying to adjust the way the military operation is being conducted.
French Foreign Minister Alan Juppe and French Chief of Defense Staff Adm. Edouard Guillaud both said Wednesday that NATO’s aversion to killing civilians is the main problem facing the operation. While Juppe was slightly less direct in his criticism of NATO, Paris clearly sees the current situation as unlikely to lead to any real success on the battlefield. More than two weeks of daily airstrikes have taken out almost all of the easy targets, and Gadhafi has shifted his tactics to avoid drawing enemy fire, meaning that a stalemate is fast approaching.
Indeed, Juppe expressed fears that at the current pace, NATO forces risk getting “bogged down” in a situation that has the ability to linger on for months without producing a clear-cut winner.
NATO officials tried to defend its record in response to the rebel criticism and the French complaints, with one spokesman saying Wednesday that its planes have flown more than 1,000 sorties — with at least 400 of them strike sorties — in the last six days, and on April 5 alone it flew 155 sorties, with almost 200 planned for Wednesday. This is unlikely to mollify concerns from those who want more intense action, however, about the potential for the Libyan intervention to accomplish nothing but create an uneasy, de facto partition. As no one, not even Paris, wants to put boots on the ground, though, the best solution Jupee could proffer was to broach the topic of NATO’s timid approach with NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in a Wednesday meeting. There, he was expected to push the suggestion for NATO to create a safe sea lane connecting Misrata to Benghazi, so that supplies could be shipped in by unknown naval forces.
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