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10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Harry Potter

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Harry Potter
With Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince coming out in the U.S. later this week, it's time to out myself as a Slytherin Supporter. Maybe you already knew that. Nothing against Gryffindors - I'm no Voldemort or anything - but I always tend to like the villains a little more than the do-gooders. To celebrate Harry and Co.'s sixth movie (and sixth book), here are a few facts that you may not have known about the gang in gold and red (and maybe a couple about the set in silver and green). 1. It has a sour tone to it, doesn't it? 3. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9. There's obviously a ridiculous amount of Harry Potter trivia out there, and since Harry Potter fever is about to sweep the world again, we might as well share it.

The HBO Recycling Program Actors who have appeared in three or more episodes of multiple scripted, live-action, original, HBO series since OZ (excluding miniseries). Click the dots to highlight connections. For example, try Deadwood and John from Cincinnatti. This page requires HTML5 canvas and JavaScript. This page is an interactive version of the diagram from The HBO Recycling Program. It shows you the actors who've worked in multiple HBO shows and makes it clear how often HBO works with the same actors. Try finding the one actor who's worked on Oz, The Sopranos, and The Wire. Finding out John Doman has been on Oz, The Sopranos, and The Wire or that Laila Robins was a trendy socialite in New York and Tony Soprano's mother in New Jersey is easy with intersections. This infographic is made with PaperJS, underscore.js, and a little JQuery. Fast Company Design featured the HBO Recycling Program as the Infographic of the Day. Research: Sam Schube and Danny Savitzky Based on a visualization by Craig Robinson

Absolute Shakespeare - plays, quotes, summaries, essays... & New York Times 50 Most Challenging Words (defined and used) -... The New York Times recently published a list of 50 fancy words that most frequently stump their readership. They are able to measure this data thanks to a nifty in-page lookup mechanism, which you can try here. Try double-clicking the word “epicenter”. Since the NYT didn’t include definitions of these words, I decided to post a job to MediaPiston to produce an article defining and using each word in the list. The New York Times 50 Fancy Words (defined and used) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.

40 Belief-Shaking Remarks From a Ruthless Nonconformist | Raptitude.com - StumbleUpon If there’s one thing Friedrich Nietzsche did well, it’s obliterate feel-good beliefs people have about themselves. He has been criticized for being a misanthrope, a subvert, a cynic and a pessimist, but I think these assessments are off the mark. I believe he only wanted human beings to be more honest with themselves. He did have a remarkable gift for aphorism — he once declared, “It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.” Even today his words remain controversial. Here are 40 unsympathetic statements from the man himself. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. More of Nietzsche’s genius here. Have a lot on your mind? Everyday mindfulness has transformed my life, and the lives of many others.

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Dreams Facts This afternoon I had a (very rare) nap. During that nap I had a lucid dream (most of which I no longer remember). 10. People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. 9. Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. [...] Curiously, Robert Louis Stevenson came up with the story of Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. 8. Every human being dreams (except in cases of extreme psychological disorder) but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. 7. In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. 6. 5. A full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. 4. 3. 2. 1. Bonus: Extra Facts 1.

For Better for Verse | Sonnet 73 accent: emphasis given a syllable in ordinary usage, as provided by a pronouncing dictionary. See also stress. accentual-syllabic: the prosodic mode that dominated English-language poetry 1400-1900, and that this tutorial exclusively addresses. acephalous line: a “headless” line in iambic or anapestic meter, which omits (a) slack syllable(s) from the first foot. alexandrine: iambic hexameter line, usually with a strong midpoint caesura; most familiar in Romance-language poetry but not rare in English. alliteration: repetition of the same initial sound in nearby words. anapest: metrical foot consisting of two slacks and a stress: υ υ / anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase in initial position. assonance: harmonious repetition of the same vowel sound in nearby words. ballad meter: quatrain in alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter lines rhyming abxb, traditionally used in folk narrative and during modern times adapted to lyric poetry. blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter. caesura: consonance:

Ten games that make you think about life At the start of this year, we decided to come up with a list of Flash casual games with a philosophical bent. To be honest, we struggled. After days of research, we could only find a handful of games that had the thought-provoking depth we were looking for. Our list (which you can view by clicking here) was therefore only five games long. Fast forward to now, and it is remarkable how much difference a few months can make. Thanks to the work of pioneers like Daniel Benmergui, Gregory Weir and PixelAnte, there is now an abundance of clever arty Flash games to pique our intellects, and as a result creating this follow-up list of games that make you think has been a doddle. In a wonderful twist, it seems it is the Flash gaming space - until now known more for the throwaway nature of its games rather than depth - that is leading the way in this exciting new area of gaming, as we hope the following games prove. 1Immortall The game starts with you crash landing on a planet. 2Loved 5Coma 6Loondon

50 Life Secrets and Tips | High Existence - StumbleUpon Memorize something everyday.Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.Constantly try to reduce your attachment to possessions.Those who are heavy-set with material desires will have a lot of trouble when their things are taken away from them or lost. Possessions do end up owning you, not the other way around. Become a person of minimal needs and you will be much more content.Develop an endless curiosity about this world.Become an explorer and view the world as your jungle. Read “Zen and the Art of Happiness” by Chris Prentiss.This book will give you the knowledge and instruction to be happy at all times regardless of the circumstances.

One Day on Earth: A film shot in every country in the world on a single day This trailer is the first glimpse of One Day on Earth, an ambitious motion picture shot by thousands of filmmakers in every country in the world on a single day: October 10, 2010. The trailer alone includes footage from 90 individuals and organizations. The producer/director Kyle Ruddick is currently editing down 3,000 hours of film and is asking for help via Kickstarter to complete the project. I don’t know about you but it gave me chills. 50 Most Influential Books of the Last 50 (or so) Years In compiling the books on this list, the editors at SuperScholar have tried to provide a window into the culture of the last 50 years. Ideally, if you read every book on this list, you will know how we got to where we are today. Not all the books on this list are “great.” The books we chose required some hard choices. We also tried to keep a balance between books that everyone buys and hardly anyone reads versus books that, though not widely bought and read, are deeply transformative. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 45.

Lateral Thinking Brain Teasers - Fact Lateral thinking problems that are based on fact. 1. A man walks into a bar and asks for a drink of water. The bartender gives the man a drink of water, but the man says the water is no good. Hint: Please do not try this at home. Solution: The man has hiccups; the bartender scares them away by pulling a gun. A Colombian man accidentally shot his nephew to death while trying to cure his hiccups by pointing a revolver at him to scare him, police in the Caribbean port city of Barranquilla said on Tuesday, the 24th of January 2006. After shooting 21-year-old university student David Galvan in the neck, his uncle, Rafael Vargas, 35, was so distraught he turned the gun on himself and committed suicide, police said. The incident took place on Sunday night while the two were having drinks with neighbors. Galvan started to hiccup and Vargas, who works as a security guard, said he would use the home remedy for hiccups of scaring him. 2. Hint: This may have occurred anywhere between 1862 and 1990. 3.

Free Classic AudioBooks. Digital narration for the 21st Century - StumbleUpon Natural Pools or Swimming Ponds Natural Pools or Natural Swimming Ponds (NSPs) Let nature clean the water... Chemical-free water garden and swimming pool. The plant portion, or regeneration zone, is separated from the swimming area by the wall seen a few inches below the water’s surface. www.naturalswimmingpools.com The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and back into the swimming area. The aquatic plants filter out contaminants and use nutrients from the water as food which helps prevent algae. There are many options as to design. A gradual slope contains the plants, gravel and loamy sand, a wall keeps them separate from the swimming area. Vacuum but twice a year and tend to the plants as needed. The regeneration zone can be along the perimeter of a natural pool or a pond unto itself but connected to the swimming area. www.gartenart.co.uk Plants steel the nutrients away from algae. www.gartenart.co.uk Half regeneration area, half swimming pool. www.living-pool.eu Builders:

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