David > Recent Status Updates

Many things in motion. At the last, Dobby warned Harry that Umbridge had learned of DA and was coming to catch them. Harry got tripped up by Malfoy, and Umbridge escorted him to D's office, where D took the blame but refused to leave quietly. After disabling/stunning his attackers, he explained some and then disappeared with Fawkes. Fudge et al left in a huff to try to find Dumbledore.

It's xmas. Harry may be convinced now that he's not a danger to his friends and the order. While visiting Arthur at the hospital they run into Lockhart while going for some tea, and then happen to find Neville with his grandma visiting his parents. The story of their being tortured into madness by Bellatrix comes out, which Harry already knew but had promised Dumbledore to keep quiet.

Xmas break is coming up, DA has one last meeting and Cho hangs back afterward to catch Harry under the mistletoe. Harry has a nightmare that he's sure was real, where Mr. Weasley got bitten, and others are able to find and save him because they found out so quickly. H and the W kids overhear the adults talking about the possibility that H might be linked to Voldemort's snake, a worrisome thought.

Hagrid has returned! Def worse for wear, with swollen eye and cuts everywhere. This after Harry and the Weasley twins have been suspended from Quidditch for life by Umbridge for laying into Malfoy.

The DA (Dumbledore's Army) is getting organized in spite of the prohibition of clubs, which is also putting a brake on Quidditch resuming.

Back to school, where Harry is thought by some to be lying about Voldemort, the sorting hat has a new song of warning, Hagrid is missing, and Umbrage is the new Dark Arts teacher.

Harry & co have just arrived back at Hogwarts for the 5th year. We just saw Luna, and Harry's confused by the horse-like creatures pulling the carriages. At a larger scale, there's concern from The Order about you-know-who and whether it was too risky for Sirius to accompany Harry et al to the train station, even as a dog. Why is Hagrid not there to greet them as they arrive?

So maybe it wasn't hinting at time travel but at timeline corruption - the idea we are living in a simulation and events from different times are bleeding into others, similar to files being corrupted. And the existence of time travel (in the universe of this book) was just confirmed by Gaspery's sister, the physicist who works at the Time institute.

The story of Olive on the last book tour on earth in 2203. Missing her husband and child on the moon while loving the sights, sounds, and smells of earth. And reference at the end to Gaspery, who asks her questions (whose answers we don't hear) about the events that have been referenced in previous sections. We have clues, finally, that they're related to time travel.

Intro of Mirella, and her (former?) friend Vincent, whose husband was convicted of running a ponzi scheme that caused Mirella's husband to kill himself. She learns of V's death via a half brother, and now she wants to break up with her girlfriend. Who is the mysterious Gaspery, and did she really see him under an overpass in OH when she was 9?

Magnetoreception is a tough nut, at least partly because you need good (expensive) equipment to figure out if the fields are what you think, and then you have to see how animals react. It's just tougher than work on human touch or even electrical fields.

Electrical animals have surprising abilities, and more animals use electricity to sense their surroundings than I imagined (including honeybees! ).

Echolocation is a crazy sense for bats, dolphins & whales, and even for people! Especially loved the story of the whale that could sense that two metal tubes requisitioned to be identical were actually very slightly different (by 0.6 mm).

Just read about animals that detect waves through the ground or other medium, eg spiders using a web.

Arguing you are taken (chosen) and blessed

The sensitivity to touch possessed by many animals is astounding. Who knew a seal could track where a ball had been moved through the water without seeing it happen, using only the remnants of its currents for guidance?

Appreciate the view of a scientist who'd studied pain in crustaceans for 15 years who said the answer so far to whether they feel pain is "maybe." It's hard to say what animals experience in their brains when we have to judge by their reactions and behaviors.

Most important word of this message: Beloved.

Time to be fascinated by color vision.

Now reading the actual book rather than estimating progress based on the sample.

That felt like an odd and disjointed intro of some kind, trying to keep some things secret for...what reason?

Good info and examples about GDP and the GINI index of income inequality.