I stumbled across this link on Amazon, and it made me laugh. Apparently Neville Longbottom is an Amazon user… Pretty funny.

On another note, having read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince again recently, I am even more convinced that the Avadra Kedavra curse is blockable. And at the very least, that Harry has had the ability to beat Voldemort with Love and Compassion the entire time. I wrote about this before.

The only thing I would say that is different is that I no longer think that Neville kills Voldemort, or Snape or anyone else. The clues to how Harry defeats Voldemort are peppered throughout the series, from Quirrels destruction from skin contact in book 1, to Voldemort being unable to posses Harry at the end of Book 5, the answer is obvious. Snape also demonstrates in book 6 that to cast Avadra Kedavra in book 6 that one must be filled with all-consuming hate. Ergo, the counter curse, and the thing that Voldemort cannot stand, and the power that “he knows not” is Love.

Apparently the BBC is considering redistributing much of the audio and video that has been created with public funds over the years. There is currently a petition to support this.

As a citizen of the U.K. I think that this is wonderful. After all, living in Canada as I do it is rather difficult to access many BBC programs, and I find myself forced to download them via bittorrent. If you like the programs that the BBC produces, it is worth signing onto.

To download different things with bittorrent software, you need a few things. First, you need the software. I recommend azureus. [http://azureus.sourceforge.net/] Azureus will work with Windows, Mac and Linux, so it should really work for anyone.

Once you have Azureus installed, you need to find the things you are looking for, and while advanced users can use Google, I strongly suggest a dedicated bittorrent search engine. Once you have found a file that you want, just click on the link with your web browser, and Azureus will start, and the download will (usually) begin. You still need a website to find the torrents though, so here are a few of the best:

The Pirate Bay [http://thepiratebay.org/] The Pirate Bay is perhaps the best known torrent search engine, primarily because it is based in Sweden, and has resisted all legal threats against it.

Next up is Seedler [http://seedler.org/en/] Seedler has a slightly better selection than the Pirate Bay, but the website is not always working, so it is nice when it is, but expect it to be slow.

Torrentspy [http://www.torrentspy.com] is another good choice as well.

Finally, Demonoid [http://www.demonoid.com/] This website is my personal favorite, however, it is very difficult to get a membership. It took me a few months to get in.

There you have the bittorrent basics. There is more to know of course, but this should get most people started.

I updated to a newer version of Wordpress, about 35 days ago, and everything worked so much better, except traffic from Technorati vanished. Seemed strange really as overall web traffic has been increasing for my blog.

So, I checked my Technorati settings and saw that I was not pinging! So, during the update Wordpress just stopped pinging for some reason, even though the RSS feeds and everything else is working just fine. Fairly annoying, but life goes on.

UPDATE:

After extensive research, I found out that it was not the wordpress upgrade causing the problem with Technorati. It is Technorati itself. It is no longer crawling or indexing my blog, (pinging) and it has nothing to do with my version of wordpress, but rather Technorati itself seems to be broken. I emailed Technorati about this, and of course, I recieved no response, even though I was very detailed in the description of the problem, and the steps I had taken to attempt to get Technorati to Ping my blog, but it is all to no avail. Technorati seems to think that this blog does not exist.

Changing Political Views.

I personally detest being crammed into a political mold where I am called such things as a “Liberal” here in Canada, or a “Democrat” as in the US. While I would categorize myself as having been a “Liberal” once, I have through various readings become exposed to the “Conservative” ideal. Then again, I don’t agree with everything that that view substantiates either. I think that Chris Rock said it best in one of his comedy routines. If you make up your mind on an issue by a political party, before even hearing the issue, you are an idiot. Rock hits the punchline with: “On crime I am conservative, on prostitution I’m liberal.”

And that leaves me with probably no real affiliation at all. If there were one for me (and again, I refuse to support a party, only issues) it would be a Libertarian position. At least that is where I stand as of this post. Who knows, with more information I could change my position. Indeed, I would be a fool if I maintained my position when new information comes along that proves that my position is untenable.

And that brings me to Milton Friedman’s movie, Free To Choose. This is an excellent PBS series from the 1980’s on economics and freedom. The point that I think that Milton makes so well is that economics is about finding out what works - not what you may or may not like. Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner do the same in the currently popular book Freakonomics as well.

Economics, like science can produce conclusions based on data. Simple enough. But what bothers people is that sometimes those conclusions disagree with what they feel to be right, and there is a huge difference between knowing and feeling. Thus, Free to Choose challenges a good deal of assumptions that people have about how the world works, and they don’t want it to work the way that it does. This creates a problem, because despite how much they may want the world to work differently than it does, it keeps on working that way. So, you have a choice, either keep hoping that the world will change, or, you can change and realize how things really work, and work within those constraints. With science and economics, it is not about liking the answer, but understanding that the answer is just the way it is, and you have to interpret how you react to that.

Check out the PBS series Free to Choose, it is very good. Just put your feelings aside and listen to the facts. And if you enjoy it, check out Freakanomics too.

Alberni Outpost has kayak races every Thursday night at 6:30 PM. I started going last week. for a $7.00 rental fee you get a kayak and all the required gear for the race, which is 8KM next to Newcastle Island here in Nanaimo.

My first race out on the 19th, I decided to take out the Necky Chatham 18 as it is a very narrow sea kayak, and just about 18 feet long. Now, as a fairly skilled whitewater kayaker, I felt that I should be able to perform well in the Chatham 18. The boat felt nice, handled and edged well, but it felt strangely slow for the size. And indeed, I came in dead last.

The racers are a good group of people, and yesterday, I decided to take a Looksha IV out to race in as that is the same kayak I had used in the MOMAR. I could not, of course, compete with the people on the surf skis - but I hope to get a K1 sometime if I keep this up.

The Looksha IV turned out to be noticeably faster than the Chatham 18. This was a big surprise, as technically, the Chatham 18 should be a much faster boat. However, when talking with the other racers, it seems that the Chatham 18 plows too much water at the bow, and about 2 feet of the hull is not wet, thus making it closer to a 16 foot boat. I would like to use the Chatham 18 for something like kayak touring, I think it would be enjoyable in that function. But for racing, I cannot recommend the Chatham 18, as it is incredibly slow for its size. Now I just need to get my hands on a K1.

I completed the Ucluelet Momar on Saturday May 13th. I finished as a solo racer with a time of 6:24. It was one hell of a race. I would have finished much sooner 30-45 min sooner, had I not made some navigational errors, and had a near-flat rear tire. It was an exhausting but rewarding race, Sea Kayaking, Mountain Biking and Trekking of about 50 km. It was considerably harder than the Gutbuster runs, indeed, the upcoming Gutbuster on June 3rd will be a breeze compared to the last Momar.
I only got one picture of myself out of the whole event though:

You can see I am smiling… this is because I have not started the race yet!

Didn’t you get the Memo? So much has been going on in the press about the NSA phonetapping database and the blogworld is more concerned about the results for American Idol. Where is everyone? Where have the bloggers gone? What is going on here?

I wrote before about how the blogs were discussing to Impeach Bush after the Katrina disaster, but they are silent, oh so silent about the cover story on USA today. The press has “woken up” and is doing its job, and the blogs have gone to sleep. Regardless of your political position, what is going on here is a massive issue. You need to pay attention to the NSA wiretapping. This issue is huge. The irony is that this is the same thing as the Watergate Scandal, except on a much larger, and much more frightening scale.

Having said that, despite your political opinion, and despite your opinion of Bush, you must be willing to give the current administration the chance to defend itself fairly, however, you must also support the investigation of these charges. As was pointed out (but the bloggers seem not to have noticed…) in many news articles the United States Justice Department ABANDONED their attempt to investigate the warrentless spying of United States citizens because the NSA - the very people they were supposed to be investigating would not give them security clearance.

There is a storm coming, and all those people who were blogging to Impeach Bush, this is a larger story than Katrina was. This story is huge. It rocks the United States down to its very foundations, down to the fourth amendment.

The question is bloggers. What are you going to do?

Last week, there was an uproar in the blogsphere about the Stephen Colbert and his roasting of Bush not being aired in the media. Now, we have a story that is appearing in the media of the apparent authorization of the NSA to monitor and log the calls of millions of United States citizens without a court order…

And the top 10 searches on Technorati yield silence.

What gives? We were so good, we protested the lack of coverage on Colbert, now, a big story breaks in the press, and we seem more concerned with:

1) American Idol

2) Chris Daughtry

3) Lost

4) Myspace

5) Immigration

What gives? What happened to the outrage? Do bloggers in the U.S. not read their own constitution? Do they not know what is going on with the NSA spying? Do they not care!? Hell, I am Canadian and I care about what is going on with the bloggers (and everyone else) in the United States. Could the press have been right about Colbert not being a big story, and that irate bloggers just blew it out of proportion? What are people to think when the bloggers don’t even react to a story of this magnitude? Daily Kos has coverage of course, but then, it always does, (despite the unfortunate Ad Hominim attacks it often levies).

Are all the bloggers asleep? Do American Idol and a fictional T.V. show “lost” matter more to the people of the United States than the basic freedoms? Do bloggers even read the U.S. Constitution? I have read it, and I am Canadian! What gives? U.S. Bloggers, where are you? Where is the outrage when we need it? Stop voting for American Idol and wake up!

By now, everyone who as a Blog is familiar with the Press dinner where Colbert roasts Bush to a “Respectful Silence” as Colbert put it on his show. And sure, you can sigh a few things over at thankyoustephencolbert.org. But what have you done about the media? As you have no doubt noticed, the media is remaining fairly quiet about the Colbert sketch, other than to make passive mention of the chatter in the blogs. However, mainstream media outlets have hardly reported the story at all. You can change that.

However, before you try, there are a few things you need to understand about the lack of story, and Colbert’s performance. Why should you care about these things? Because understanding them will help you give the media a kick in the rear, and make the story a little more likely to get noticed. Thats why you should care.

First, take notice of these two links: CNN Colbert Search and this BBC story. These are big media outlets, and the BBC and CNN barely even touched on the performance, and are hardly touching the explosion in the blogs.
Now, if you understand a few things about the medias reporting this, you can help to elevate the notice of the story. First, you need to understand that the mainstream media is afraid of blogs due to the distributed power that they have. This is information that is being dissemated, and it is not under their control. These companies make money by displaying the news. Simple enough.

Now, understand that it was not some grand conspiracy by which the media did not publish the story about Colbert. No, the mainstream media did not pick up on the Colbert story because of human nature. Indeed, Colbert hit the nail on the head with his comment: “Let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know — fiction.”

This zinger is not too far from the mark. A reporter only wants to write as much as they have to, and no more. It is due to human nature, not some malicious conspiracy. Second, when you observe Colbert’s audience, and not his speech, from the perspective of an audience reaction alone, one might assume that Colbert was not funny. Of course, he was speaking to an audience that he probably knew would not laugh, and as many people have pointed out, the president was comfortable with the imitator, and he got big laughs with that - but Colbert was speaking to “truthiness”. Colbert was basially spouting facts, that were also jokes. Due to the proximity of the president, and his obvious discomfort, the audience did not find the sketch funny. The reason that this audience did not find it funny is the human nature.

So, for the press that was there, you notice, they did not laugh. They did not laugh because they felt uncomfortable. While everything Colbert said was true, in the scene of the dinner it was impolite and that made the reporters uncomfortable. You can feel uncomfortable just looking at Bush’s reaction. Now, before you lambaste me for that comment about the terrible things that the Bush administration has done, I want you to take very careful note of my point. The reporters are human, despite what the administration has done, the incredible speech by Colbert made them feel emotionally uncomfortable. For us, separated from the crowd, we are released from the impolite nature of the speech, we can laugh openly, and take jabs at the administration behind its back. Colbert was brave for doing that openly.

So, because the reporters felt uncomfortable, and no doubt some shame and chagrin at not having truly done their job of reporting, they felt far more comfortable reporting on the Bush imitator. From their perspective, it was an easier story to write about. However, once the video hit the blogs, it became a story, and a story that the Mainstream Media could not really hide from. The reason is that the media fears the bogging community because there are many of us doing this for free and challenging their position.

So, what can you do to improve this scenario? Contact the press. Complain. However, remember to do it in a constructive fashion. Take that emotional argument into account, remember the press felt uncomfortable with Colberts speech, and if your email to them makes them feel uncomfortable, or you send them a flame, you are just making matters worse. Send them a polite simply written email, asking them why they did not report the story, and why they are not challenging the administration.

Remember, the media wants you to watch, if enough constructive emails go out, they will change because they want to keep their customers. I wrote the BBC, and to my delight they replied to their lack of coverage on the Colbert story, and I think that their reply was appropriate:

Dear Mr Walford

Thank you for your e-mail.
We focused our light-hearted story on George W Bush's appearance at the
dinner because, from what could be seen from the reports coming out of
the event, it seemed more unusual than a comedian criticising the White
House and the news media. While the Colbert speech has since become the
focus of much attention on the internet, at the time we wrote our report
Mr Bush's double act appeared to be the prime event of the evening.
Thank you again for your e-mail and your interest in our coverage. With
best wishes BBC News website