Harry Potter review and dolphins

I'm sorry it's been a few days since my last post. My DH's son and young teenage daughter were here for a week. It was fun but I was unable to get to my computer and devote the time nessassary for the blog. They are now gone and I have more time.

I finished the seventh and last Harry Potter book a couple of nights ago. Although I have to admit enjoying the whole series of books and the subsequent movies, I've been a little disappointed in the writing style of the author. There were a few inconsistencies and confusing behavior from the main characters. The treatment of some of the significant minor characters was frustrating and undeserved. I wanted to read more about them and less about Harry. I liked the book enough to cry at the end and be happy for the surviving characters and how they defeated evil to save the world.

Here's a bit of news that may have passed under the radar: The Yangtze River dolphin is extinct. Why is this important? This animal was a large vertebrate which is now extinct as a direct consequence of man's influence over his environment. Douglas Adams, a science fiction writer and atheist wrote this about the dolphin in a non-fiction book called Last Chance to See:

As I watched the wind ruffling over the bilious surface of the Yangtze, I realized with the vividness of shock that somewhere beneath or around me there were intelligent animals whose perceptive universe we could scarcely begin to imagine, living in a seething, poisoned, deafening world, and that their lives were probably passed in continual bewilderment, hunger, pain, and fear.

I was very moved by what those poor intelligent mammals must've felt as they died one by one from pollution and disease. We did this to them.

Anyway, try to have a great day.