I am the fountain of affection

Harry ruffled a hand through his own hair. Maybe it was just that strange part of him which had already been convinced, but... "That's a bit of an anticlimax," Harry said. "You'd think there'd be some kind of more dramatic mental event associated with executing a Bayesian update on an observation of infinitesimal probability -" Harry stopped himself. Mum, McGonagall, and even his Dad were giving him that look again. "I mean, with finding out that everything I believe is false."

By Less Wrong, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Petunia married a proper Skeptic (or Sceptic, in British!) and Harry knows about Feynman and the scientific method and proposes a test of Professor McGonagall worthy of James Randi and... yeah.

It's not a complete fic, but it's an absolute treasure.

Okay, somehow my recent journal entries are all ads in one sense or another. I promise to work on that. My next post should be about fanfic instead. ;-) So you can look forward to that or run for cover, as appropriate.

Zo. Apologies for those who were genuinely concerned about yesterday's entry. It's a humorous ad for a podiobook author I love, whose excellent book is now seeing actual print partly on the basis of his self-promotion abilities. It's perfectly safe to click. J.C. Hutchins is a sweetie of a geek, and would never hack anyone's journal. Kilroy 2.0, on the other hand....

Oh, it's also an ad for the radio plays at the Somerville Theatre. Don't forget that part!

Today's ad is for Conceptis Puzzles, which is going to switch to being a paid site in the next 24 to 48 hours. Which means that now is your last chance to register as a free user and play the whole range of new logic puzzles that appeared this week, and really see whether it's a site worth paying for. (I think it is. But as I have warned before, this site is addictive.)

(There will still be sample puzzles available after it goes paid, but to see the whole weekly variety at once, this is easier.)

... okay, I don't think I ever make commercial posts, but I love this t-shirt, and so do so many geeks when they spot me in it.



Isn't that awesome? It's a Woot shirt, which means that it's on sale only until such time as it's not in the top 20 sellers on the site and then it gets axed.

I don't know how likely it is for it to get axed this time around because they didn't give us a Friday update on the rankings like they used to/usually do. It's had a good long run, 20 weeks. But I believe it's mathematically possible this will be its last weekend on sale. If it is, your last chance to buy is Monday before midnight Central time.

But buy now and maybe it'll have another week of life. :) Just click the awesome picture.

... is the theme of the sci-fi movie marathon I'm in right now. And we just watched Alien Raiders, a really excellent low-budget sci fi suspense/thriller. Perhaps because they shot it during the writer's strike, they got some really excellent cast involved, including Carlos Bernard, Mathew St. Patrick, Rockmond Dunbar, and an actress who I haven't noticed before but who I liked a lot--she reminded me pleasantly of Maggie Gyllenhaal--named Courtney Ford.

I've got a Donnie Darko vibe about this movie, in that I saw it in a theater before anybody knew about it and it enormously exceeded my expectations. It's just really well done suspense, that knows when to show gore and when merely to suggest it, and that is written, paced, edited really well. We had the director, Ben Rock, for Q&A afterwards, which was enjoyable, though he didn't reveal any deep dark secrets. He comes out of The Blair Witch Project and related projects, but I promise, the shaky-cam is minimal, used in a couple expository bits, that's it. It was shot entirely in a supermarket and surrounds, and it uses its resources really really well. Big thumbs up for the foley and editing. Big thumbs up in general, and rmd concurs.

It's direct to DVD, coming out this Tuesday, and I highly recommend.

[Thanks for birthday wishes, folks. The winter blues get me enough that maybe I should have a birthday-observed at a sunnier time of year!]

[[I have a movies tag and a films tag? Must fix.]]

[[[This is my one entry that garners spam. Screening comments from non-friends now.]]]

Oh yes, another one of these....

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
( cut for those who've had enough of this stuff... )

Added more lines for the songs that are still mysteries.

I'm still in veiledintention, a post-book-6 game where we can always use Death Eaters or characters of Marauder age or older or just more players in general.

But now I'm in a post-book-7 game too, aww_rpg. Is there anyone on my friends list who cares about Harry Potter spoilers but hasn't read Deathly Hallows yet? Heck, I'll cut the post ( anyway. )

and when she does, it's just a meme. I know, I suck.





Still, how cool is that?

Though really, the test ought to take the gender information it collects and differentiate between nerd kings and nerd queens.

... I have just illustrated my own nerdiness, not that it was in doubt.

There is one question I only knew the answer to because I looked it up after watching a friend take her test yesterday. But given that I did that out of geeky curiosity, I don't think it counts as cheating.

( cut for the vast majority of my friends who don't care about Harry Potter fanfic )
Edited to add "Just Another Soldier in the War", which my imperfect filing system led me to lose.

please see wrog's ideas about book 7, so far superior to my own.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

That's nicely evocative.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6200745.stm

I saw another article that said it was Deathly Hollows, but I know which one is likeliest to be a misreading of the other. Anyway, you can go to J.K. Rowling's site and see for yourself.

EDIT: Deathly, not Deadly. Purely a typo on my part. *facepalm*