(no subject)

A little non-spoilery HP geeking, tersa points to some fantastic costumes at a book release party here. Go take a look, they're adorable, and the Harry is almost scary good. The dueling with Draco picture makes me laugh and laugh.

( Ok just a little more HBP geeking. )

In other news, I failed my exercise roll (so close!) last night, but my efforts to cut back on my fat intake (I'm allowing myself 25% of my total calorie intake) seems to be starting to pay off. Slowly the weight is starting to move back towards my normal range and I'm feeling less lethargic. Dancing hard in class and keeping active outside it (housework is definitely aerobic), will also help a lot, and now that we're moving closer and closer to DDF I will definitely be doing more dancing. Will try to get to class tonight, here's hoping traffic won't be as insane as it was on Tuesday.

Excuse me while I break into the fangirl dance of joy

via churchoferik:

I wanted you to be among the first to know. Llumina Press has just signed an agreement with Susan Kay to reprint her brilliant, best-selling book, Phantom.

Llumina is a small publisher. We have done primarily print on demand and self published books up until now. However, as I am a Susan Kay fan and this is a phenomenal book, we are going to re-publish Phantom as a traditional publisher and will do a first run of three to four thousand trade paperback books. We will begin the setup on the book during the next month and will be taking pre-orders on the first print run within the next few weeks.

Thanks for your work in bringing this wonderful book back into print. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Deborah Greenspan
Llumina Press
www.llumina.com
954-726-0902
866-229-9244

I think I must buy several copies in addition to the two I already own...

Gosh I love the smell of freedom in the morning

The women of Iraq are free, free I tells ya...only except they aren't, so much:
via Pandagon's link to the NYTimes:

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 19 - A working draft of Iraq's new constitution would cede a strong role to Islamic law and could sharply curb women's rights, particularly in personal matters like divorce and family inheritance.

The document's writers are also debating whether to drop or phase out a measure enshrined in the interim constitution, co-written last year by the Americans, requiring that women make up at least a quarter of the parliament.

The draft of a chapter of the new constitution obtained by The New York Times on Tuesday guarantees equal rights for women as long as those rights do not "violate Shariah," or Koranic law....

One of the critical passages is in Article 14 of the chapter, a sweeping measure that would require court cases dealing with matters like marriage, divorce and inheritance to be judged according to the law practiced by the family's sect or religion.

So women are now free-er to have babies and obey men while men are free-er to do everything else. Right, got it. Somehow I didn't think this grand excursion into democratizing the world was meant to pull up short at a full blown theocracy, but as a damn evil liberal I haven't exactly been on the mailing list. I'm actually looking forward to hearing the GOP talking points spin this one. Should be entertaining.

Oh and if you're still following the Plame case you'll love this, page one, baby!

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said.

Veee-ry interesting. I can almost hear the calliope-like chimes of the spin machine tinkling to life as I type this...

Ok this is cool

For those who haven't bought HBP yet, consider purchasing it here.
via Boing Boing:

Kate Wing, an analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, just informed me that JK Rowling's Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, printed their edition of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. (Link to a 2003 post about Raincoast Books' eco-consciousness.) From National Geographic:

Consequently, the Vancouver-based (Raincoast Books) may save nearly 30,000 trees, according a study by Markets Initiative, a coalition of environmental groups, including Greenpeace Canada and the Sierra Club.

Raincoast isn't the only publisher seeking to put a green tint on the wildly popular Potter books. Publishers from Germany, Italy, Britain, and Israel also comitted to printing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on large percentages of recycled paper and/or "ancient forest friendly" paper.