Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Charlie The Spider Cat
Can a cat usually climb a wall?
But this uncanny cat regularly climbs 13ft up the wall of a block of flats to his owner's home on the first floor. Apparently,seven-year-old Charlie the cat spider hit on the idea after growing tired of having to wait outside the shared front door to the block for someone to let him back in after he has been allowed out for some air. Instead, he heads for the rear of the building where only a roughcast wall stands between him and the balcony of his owner's flat.
Using his front claws to grip and his hind legs for leverage, Charlie climbs up to the balcony then walks to the door of the flat and miaows until it is opened. The feat has earned him the nickname Spider-cat.
See the video here of charlie's daredevil climb.
But this uncanny cat regularly climbs 13ft up the wall of a block of flats to his owner's home on the first floor. Apparently,seven-year-old Charlie the cat spider hit on the idea after growing tired of having to wait outside the shared front door to the block for someone to let him back in after he has been allowed out for some air. Instead, he heads for the rear of the building where only a roughcast wall stands between him and the balcony of his owner's flat.
Using his front claws to grip and his hind legs for leverage, Charlie climbs up to the balcony then walks to the door of the flat and miaows until it is opened. The feat has earned him the nickname Spider-cat.
Charlie belongs to Hannah Smith, of Denny, Falkirk, who is pictured with him. Although she has two other cats, neither shares Charlie's sense of adventure and are content to peer down at him as he scales the wall. 'I got Charlie as a wee kitten and out of the litter he was the one that looked most mischievous and I liked that about him,' she said. 'He's certainly lived up to his reputation. I think it is totally incredible how Charlie is able to climb up a roughcast wall.' Beth Skillings, clinical veterinary officer for the charity Cats Protection, said: 'Charlie seems to have an impressive ability to climb. Whilst most cats are able to shimmy up trees, to escape danger or find a safe resting place, it's unusual to see a cat scaling such a high wall. He must have very strong claws.'
See the video here of charlie's daredevil climb.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Harry Potters
As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past.Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Muggle (human) and wizarding worlds and Hogwarts is no longer the safe haven it once was. Harry suspects that dangers may even lie within the castle, but Dumbledore is more intent upon preparing him for the final battle that he knows is fast approaching. Together they work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses and, to this end, Dumbledore recruits his old friend and colleague, the well-connected and unsuspecting bon vivant Professor Horace Slughorn, whom he believes holds crucial information.
Meanwhile, the students are under attack from a very different adversary as teenage hormones rage across the ramparts. Harry finds himself more and more drawn to Ginny, but so is Dean Thomas. And Lavender Brown has decided that Ron is the one for her, only she hadn't counted on Romilda Vane's chocolates! And then there's Hermione, simmering with jealousy but determined not to show her feelings. As romance blossoms, one student remains aloof. He is determined to make his mark, albeit a dark one. Love is in the air, but tragedy lies ahead and Hogwarts may never be the same again.
Synopsis of the story from the video clips trailer of Harry potter and the half blood prince:
The origins of Harry Potter, quite literally while being stuck on a delayed train between London and Manchester, Rowling says that Harry Potter's character strode, "fully-formed" into her head way back in 1990. She began conceiving of the entire basis for the Harry Potter books while on this train journey, committing it largely to memory as she was without paper or a pen. She later said that she spent the next five years largely researching and making notes for the entire series and Harry's world (and, of course, writing Philosopher's Stone, which was completed by sometime in 1995). She has said that numerous details from her notes about Harry's world will never make it into the novels. Having decided that "one of the unifying characteristics of any given society is sport," she invented Quidditch in about 1991 after an argument with her then-boyfriend. Rowling says that she created the names for the four houses of Hogwarts on the back of an airplane sickbag.
Rowling professes that she experienced a brief bout with depression in 1994, during the time she was struggling to make ends meet for herself and her infant daughter. Her experience with depression made a lasting impact on her and inspired the Dementors that first appear in Prisoner of Azkaban. On depression, Rowling said, "It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad." It was after settling in Edinburgh at the end of 1993 that Rowling began to write the first Harry Potter novel. She wrote in longhand on notepads in several Edinburgh cafes, most notably Nicolson's café near Edinburgh University, where she was an unemployed mother living on benefits.
After being rejected by a series of publishers, Barry Cunningham, then of Bloomsbury publishers, signed up Rowling and the author and company never looked back. Rowling is known as the world's first billion-dollar author.
She has sold 400 million copies of her Harry Potter series about young wizard Potter, his adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and his battles with the evil Voldemort.
Profile/Biodata "Harry Potter" casts:
Daniel Jacob Radcliffe as Harry Potter.The story of Harry Potter covers seven years in the life of the lonely orphan who, on his 11th birthday, learns he is a wizard. He attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn magic. Under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Harry discovers that he is already famous in the wizarding world, and that his fate is tied to Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed his mother and father, and who was believed to have died when he tried to fatally curse baby Harry.
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson as Hermione Granger, one of Harry Potter's two best friends
Rupert Alexander Lloyd Grint as Ron Weasley, one of Harry Potter's two best friends
Looking back at the turn of the millennium, they were just a bunch of kids — some with a bit of professional acting experience, most completely raw — that were fortunate and talented enough to be cast in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." The film conjured up almost $1 billion at the worldwide box office, and as "Potter" movie after "Potter" movie went into production over the years, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and the rest of the core cast essentially grew up together. Almost a decade after their first witch-and-wizard adventure, the child actors have morphed into young adults and become like family — and the story lines have matured along with them.
The trio posed together in August 2000, shortly after being selected to star as the Harry Potter characters in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone as announced at a news conference in London.
Growing up: The trio pose together to promote the second film Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets in 2002.
The trio pose together again in 2004 at the launch of Harry Potter And The Prisoner
of Azkaban.
Developing their style: The three show their own taste in 2005 as they promote Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire.
And then in 2007 as they launch Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix.
Nine years on: Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe at a photoshoot for Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince in London.With their hair more expensively styled and their outfits more flamboyant but their beaming smiles are pretty much the same.
With the last filming on the last installment almost completed, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is being split in two after it is impossible to cram the 608-page novel into one film. the trio are now preparing for life after Hogwarts.
Drenched: Daniel Radcliffe, who stars as Harry Potter, got drenched as he stepped out onto the red carpet at premiere in London.
Rupert Grint didn't let the bad weather dampen his spirits as he dances in the downpour.
Grint, Watson and Radcliffe pose together after managing to take shelter from the rain.
The 19-year-old is busy preparing for the end of the Harry Potter franchise and her start at U.S. university Columbia in September. And, despite her worldwide fame, she has revealed she hopes to be just another 'anonymous' student and has registered under her middle name Charlotte.
Emma says with the end of filming on the series of eight films, she will be saying goodbye to her 'second family' on the Watford set.
But, despite her change in direction, Emma is fast becoming the highest profile of the trio, eclipsing even Harry himself. She is making strides in putting her role as Hermione behind her
as she is now in advertisements in Vogue for fashion house Burberry, seen in the front row at Chanel catwalk shows and on the cover of various glossy magazines in model poses.
Daniel Radcliffe, who turns 20 this month, has chosen to focus on establishing a name for himself as a serious actor, finding acclaim on the stage in high-profile Broadway and West End shows.The actor, who stars in the films as Harry Potter, even stripped off for his demanding role in the disturbing Equus. But he has admitted to having doubts about his future in the acting world.'Hopefully just keep acting is the plan,' he said today. 'I just want to keep going for as long as I can and I've had a fantastic time with Potter. I will be very sad to leave it.'In an interview with this month's Esquire he revealed that despite his success he has fears about the future: 'The thing is, in a few years I'll be 21, 22, and that's when all the guys who've been at drama school will come out.'They've been learning dance or singing and all that stuff, and I'm going to need to compete with them because I won't have Harry Potter as my safety net any more.
'The final member of the trio, Rupert Grint, the 20-year-old, who plays Harry's best friend Ron Weasley, was equally modest about his prospects. 'It's always at the back of my mind that acting might come to an end for me when Harry Potter finishes. I don't know if I'm good enough to have a long career,' he said. 'I've got a bit of an inferiority complex about my acting. My self-esteem is quite low in that sense.'Despite Rupert's worries he has just completed filming on Wild Target, in which he stars alongside Bill Nighy as an apprentice hitman. He also starred in the gritty thriller Cherrybomb, in which he played a troubled youth dabbling in sex, drugs and violence.But, whatever happens to the Harry Potter stars in their future careers, they are financially set up for life - with personal fortunes worth tens of millions of pounds.
A 3,000-strong crowd turned out to the premiere in London, braving the torrential rain.
Commenting on the crowd Emma Watson said: 'It's just so fantastic that people have been so dedicated to come down and see us all. My message to the fans is thank you so much I love you all.'
Watson said she'll be sad when the series finally comes to an end in 2011.
'We'll all miss it,' she said, 'but I think you underestimate the longevity of the books and the series. I don't think it's going anywhere fast, I think new generations of children will keep reading the books and hopefully watching the films.'
Rupert, Emma, and Daniel pose at the world premiere of Harry Potter and the half blood prince in New York.
The Young Potters Back In Year 2000.
JK Rowling with the grown up potters , who have almost filming the last installment of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows and the beginning of a long farewell.
Emma Watson arriving in America for a chatshow on the Late Show with Letterman.
The actress, who plays Hermione Granger in the Potter films, appeared on the show to promote Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which is released in cinemas on July 15. It is the sixth film in the hugely successful series.
The 19-year-old was grilled about the embarrassing episode by chatshow host David Letterman on the Late Show with Letterman.
She had to brave heavy rains at the movie’s world premiere of the latest Harry Potter in London and then her wardrobe malfunction while walking the red carpet.When Emma reached down to pick up the long, flowing skirt of her vintage gown to keep from stepping on it, the waist-high slit on the skirt opened, exposing Emma’s knickers to crowd of thousands.
Tell us what's going on here,' said a deadpan Letterman as he put a copy of the picture on his desk.
'I don't actually remember it happening.' She replied and she laughed off the incident on U.S. television, saying: 'At least I was wearing underwear.'
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