Lots of stuff happened while I was reading Harry Potter

I didn’t read my news subscriptions much while I was immersed in the wizarding world, and as such I had something like 500 items to read. Here is a sampling.

These first few came from BoingBoing.

Crazy-ass clouds

Mulvaney on Bomb Disposal, Supplement to Intelligence Bulletin No. 85, 15 September 1945

A novel without a word telling a love story?

Competition: The death of Dumbledore

The rest are from CNN and/or Drudge.

Coroner: Toddler killed by LAPD bullet

Waterfalls dazzle in Michigan’s far north

Companies confused over gay rights

Suspected leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq captured

“We now believe [Hasib Hussain] was responsible for this attack [on the number 30 bus in London] which claimed the lives of 13 people.”

Five hurt in New York building collapse

Claim: New Potter sold in Indianapolis

Scientists find planet with 3 suns

Who’s the next great film superhero?

“The whole trick is taking a story that has a fantasy angle of some sort, but doing it as realistically as possible,” says the 82-year-old Lee. “Saying, what if a fellow really could shoot a web and crawl on the walls? What would his day-to-day existence be?”

Damn straight.

New “SiteKey” system for banker security launched (I wrote that “headline”, CNN’s sucks)

Tokyo fault could produce ‘intense shaking’

The fault that has twice caused major earthquakes in the Tokyo area may be shallower and more hazardous than previously thought.

Prisoners escape US Afghan base

BBC edits out the word terrorist

CIA-backed tech can instantly spot terrorists in a crowd

A Los Altos, Calif. company, Pixlogic, has been developing technology meant to search for fugitives and insurgency suspects in a crowd.

Pixlogic has employed new software based on visual pattern recognition and search technologies to match archived still or video images with those gathered from security cameras or other sources, Middle East Newsline reported.

[…]

Executives said the company’s software could also detect and alert investigators to anomalies in video footage provided by closed-circuit television systems. Such anomalies could include an individual carrying a large box, or a truck that returns to the same spot. They said such technology has not yet been employed in either Britain or the United States.

Laura [Bush]: Name woman to high court

A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian has learned.

[London] Terrorist gang ‘used military explosives’

Unborn babies carry pollutants, study finds

Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released on Thursday.

Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.

Corpse Falls Into Traffic in Texas

Bill Clinton contends Democrats are held to a double standard (I made that title up too, I mean, that’s what the article’s about…yeesh, AP)

Mystery ‘sex change’ has curious flocking to Myanmar monk-to-be

Support for bin Laden falls in Muslim countries

…WHEW.

Okay, that’s most of the news I actually clicked on and read :>