NEW YORK (AP) - As the Harry Potter series wraps up this summer, we can look back at two remarkable narratives: Potter the boy wizard and Potter the cultural phenomenon. Potter the wizard's fate will be known July 21 with the release of "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows," Book 7 of J.K. Rowling's fantasy epic. Worldwide sales of the first six books already top 325 million copies and the first printing for "Deathly Hallows" is 12 million in the United States alone.
Everyone Shows ID for Beer in Tenn.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Comer Wilson hasn't had to show his ID to buy beer in a while. Maybe it's the 66-year-old man's long white beard. Starting Sunday, gray hair won't be good enough. Wilson and everyone else will be required to show identification before buying beer in Tennessee stores - no matter how old the buyer appears.
Sharapova Beats Rain and Sugiyama
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - Maria Sharapova beat the rain and Ai Sugiyama. With showers moving in at Wimbledon, Sharapova hurried to close out a victory Saturday over Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-3. The match was one of only two completed in singles before play was suspended until Monday.
 |  | Two men have been arrested after a blazing car was driven at the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport. |
Putin Comes to Maine Sunday to See Bush
KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) - The personal touch is sometimes a pivotal item in the diplomatic toolbox. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, time and again, have reached for just the thing to improve one of the world's most crucial partnerships. A grinning Putin once put Bush behind the wheel of his prized 1956 Volga at his dacha outside Moscow. Bush has brought Putin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. He made Putin the first head of state to visit his Texas ranch, entertaining the Russian leader with square dancing.
U.S. Tightens Security at Some Airports KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (AP) - Some U.S. airports will tighten security in response to possible terrorist incidents in Britain, the White House said Saturday. The United States, however, is not raising its terror alert status, President Bush's spokesman said. "There is no indication of any specific or credible threat to the United States - no change in the overall security level," Tony Snow told reporters in Maine.
In Sunday’s Times
A memoir recalls life in rural Iowa during the Depression.
US Forces Bomb Taliban In Afghanistan; 95 KilledAHN - Kandahar, Afghanistan (AHN) - Taliban militants who had attacked NATO forces in Southern Afghanistan were the targets of US-led air strikes that have left both insurgents and civilians dead.
addenda
On Being Human
For Presentation to the Georgia Mountain Writers Club
Over the years, serious thinkers have proposed what it is to be human or how one can judge whether some set contains only humans.
One of the first was the simple statement that human beings were not animals and not angels but something in the middle. Things are more complicated now.
Proposed set characteristics include:
- living entities (2-sex reproduction with mistakes)
- herd instinct
- use of jewelry (and other forms of decoration/art)
- knowledge that death comes
- rites for the dead (and other rituals)
- use of tools (physical/mental)
- laughter/humor
- use of language
- reason/future planning (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reason)
- eventual development of civilization (characterized by taxes and communication tools)
- introspection/consciousness/controlled regression (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness and Gelernter’s recent essay - http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18867/)
Serious thinkers generally try to pare the list to one key characteristic - so far without success. It has occurred to one serious thinker (me) that it may not be possible to do so, and instead one should seek to produce a minimum list with the assumption that it may be as long, or longer, than the above.
The second mistake that most serious thinkers today share is that “human” and “intelligent” are homomorphic. They are wrong – as the above list indicates. Howard Gardner’s theory of “multiple intelligences” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_multiple_intelligences) is most likely a move in the right direction – but to my knowledge, as yet no serious thinker in the field of “artificial intelligence” has tried to define a set of intelligences – or noted that some kinds of intelligence require a herd. The above list is a possible starting point.
I hope this helps.
lagniappe
Love Is Not All
Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
pinned down by need and moaning for release
or nagged by want past resolutions power,
I might be driven to sell you love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It may well be. I do not think I would.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Video: The Winning Hand
10 things 
Messy divorce? 
TV coverage 
Eyewitness 'hit driver' 
Difficult menu 
Personal touch 
Bitter aftertaste 
Space juggernaut 
Forensic race 
Handset heaven 
Media moves 
The Tech Lab 
Audio Slide Show
Interactive Graphic: Case Profile With Audio Arguments
