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Imaginary Book Covers for Harry Potter’s Middle-Aged Life

Last week, Harry Potter fans worldwide had a collective geekgasm when J.K. Rowling published a short story — in the form of a Daily Prophet article — about the famous wizard and his friends as adults in their mid-thirties.

(Didn’t read the story? Take a look here — warning: registration required!)

In honor of this momentous occasion (okay, maybe not for most people…but for us Potterheads it is!), Happy Place has created a collection of 7 imaginary book covers revealing Harry’s life as a middle-aged man. Some are quite humorous (adding Cho Chang as a Facebook friend — ha!), while others are depressingly witty.

Enjoy!

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Motion Silhouette: Animated Shadow Book

Ed. note:
If you tried to access this blog earlier today, I apologize for the error. Someone had tried to hack my site, and my web host had suspended the account for suspicious activity. Normally I would have been able to take care of the issue almost immediately, but I was out all morning and did not have access to a computer. No worries now though, because everything’s back!


Motion Silhouette is a new type of pop-up book. Created by Japanese designers Megumi Kajiwara and Tatsuhiko Niijima, it features pop-up paper cutouts that are meant to be used in conjunction with a light source.

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As you can see from the animated GIFs below, the cutouts’ animated shadows whimsically interact with the printed content. The face profile, for instance, can be used to blow at a dandelion or — if used on the opposite page — blow out birthday candles.

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3 Flowcharts [Sleep, GoT, and World Cup Edition]

My head is a royal mess right now. Packing. Cleaning. Making sure the girls don't kill each other. Laundry. My 15th rendition of "Do-Re-Mi" (C&A's favorite song at the moment) today. More cleaning (because I can't leave for a trip without cleaning first). In case you have more free time than me today, here are three flowcharts you may enjoy...

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“Why Did They Have to Die?”, Game of Thrones Edition [Infographic]

Although the most popular complaint against A Song of Ice and Fire series is the callous and unexpected ways in which George R.R. Martin kills off beloved characters (have you seen this?), my biggest complaint is that there are just too. Many. Damn. Characters. And as someone who is horrible with names — especially names that are difficult to pronounce (you should hear how I butcher some Westerosi names in my head) — you can bet that I have trouble keeping track of everyone. At least now, I have this handy infographic to help me keep track of the deceased. Sat TV Depot has combed through the many deaths in the first four seasons of HBO's Game of Thrones to succinctly present the major deaths, and the reason(s) for their demise.  It should go...

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How Fast Can You Read?

And how do you compare to the national average? Office supplies retailer Staples has created an online test that measures how many words you read per minute and how you rank up to the masses. The directions are simple: after reading a selection of text, you answer 3 simple questions to verify that you did, in fact, read the passage, and voilà! I'm sure that the test is not without faults, but I was still pleasantly surprised — with a smidge of nerdy pride — to score 1,068 words per minute. :-)  I guess my love of reading and my desire to consume every last written word in my path, starting from a young age, has made me an efficient reader over the years? I...

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