Harry Potter - Antiglobalist? The success of the Harry Potter series has provoked a lively discussion among French literary theorists about the novels' underlying message and the structure of Harry's school, Poudlard (Hogwarts). This article, which appeared last month in the French daily Le Monde, got particular attention, including an essay published in response arguing that Harry is an antiglobalist crusader. [New York Times]

This article sadly, is what happens when people write treatises based on the book jacket copy, rather than actually reading the books.

Philosophical differences aside, he gets so many specific data from the books wrong, one shudders to think that the writer, Ilias Yocaris does anything related to scholastics. Rather, I hope that he got a bad French translation of the book and wrote this as a joke.

Steve Sachs tears the silly Harry Potter article a new one, saving me the trouble. :)

11:03:10 AM     Discuss: []


"Open Carry" perverse? I REALLY DON'T WANT TO START A DEBATE ON GUN CONTR...: "I REALLY DON'T WANT TO START A DEBATE ON GUN CONTROL, but isn't this a bit, um, perverse?

In Virginia, as in many states, carrying a concealed weapon requires a permit, issued by a local court. But no permit is required to simply wield a gun in the open ...

"

(Via OxBlog.)

Well I won't start a debate, as I can understand why folks might think it a bit odd to have a requirement to license to carry a gun concealed, but be able to carry one openly.

Basically, it's a philosophy decision. In Arizona, where I grew up, open carry is the law there as well. It doesn't really cause any problems because, well, everyone knows you have a gun. You are a known quantity, while it may make some people nervous, generally people forget about it after a while, since odds are you're not rampaging around with it.

Carrying concealed however, is a very different bag, in Arizona, you just assumed everyone was carrying to a degree and that squared things. I presume the law in Virginia is much the same, in that anyone can carry openly, but to conceal you have to pass the "I have a reason to conceal" tests.

That works fine in a state with a "Western" reputation/ideology, but this changes a bit when you go east. Massachusetts, the only form of carry there is (to my limited knowledge) is concealed. Basically, as I understand it, the idea is to avoid making people nervous, so we pretend that no one has a gun. Basically just the opposite of what we did in Arizona.

Summary: Concealed carry state - If you have it, we don't want anyone to see it. Open Carry State - If you have it, we want to know who you are and see it, unless you have a permit to hide it.

To be honest, I rather prefer open carry, but well, I grew up with it.

P.S. Oh, I should note, he says on OxBlog; "wield", which I feel is inaccurate, as in either style, you pull that mofo out, you're going to have some explaining to do. For example the actual AZ law is that you're cool as long as it's carried in a sheath, scabbard, etc. Once you pull it out, it no longer is, and you're immediately in "I better be in the right" land.

10:27:46 AM     Discuss: []


MacWorld Boston 2004

Wow.

It was a just a killer. What scares the hell outta me, is that I did almost none of the "after hours" stuff, and I didn't even manage to make a conference, despite having been given a Pro pass for our doing "Consultant's Corner".

Was it a good MacWorld? Hell, Yes.

We had a Booth! Win or Lose, either Tech Superpowers had a booth at the first of a new era of MacWorld, or we had a booth at the last real Macworld. Either way, we had a piece in it.

Was it a MacWorld of old? Nah, but I remember the last one in Boston, I couldn't even remember who was there, much less all the stuff, in many ways MacWorld Boston/NY was getting too big.

So have I no gripes?

Well, of course I do!

Big one: No Gaming. At all, dammit! And I don't mean to disrespect the nice guys over at MacKiev who were there with Kidpix. (I bought a copy for Lillian.

But no "real" games. No MacPlay, or anyone like that. Considering that the Mac market for games is in the better shape than...well, than it's ever been in, I would have thought there'd be more game companies.

Hopefully, this'll be fixed next year.

Otherwise, a fair number of people. People having fun. Good MacWorld. Even better next year, likely.

9:20:45 AM     Discuss: []