Blizzards and heavy snow are predicted in the coming hours in Scotland and Northern Ireland, along with parts of Western England and Wales. And, for the second year running, Northeast Ohio.

“The people never make or want a war—it’s sprung on them by the statesmen with the business interests behind them… and millions of poor fools go out and die like heroes without ever being quite sure what it’s all about. It’s happened before. Why shouldn’t it happen again?”
—Simon Templar, from The Last Hero by Leslie Charteris, 1930

EMI has claimed in a statement that “Apple is nearly finished with the technical work necessary to enable consumers to transfer music from (Macrovision-enabled) content-protected EMI discs to their iPods”, which has provoked a unambiguous response from Apple Computer: “The information EMI provided regarding iTunes and iPod compatibility with Macrovision’s technology is not true and we have no idea why EMI made this statement.” (More here.)

I noticed that, per the credits, the Jarvis Cocker/Jonny Greenwood/Phil Selway group in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were not given a collective name, contrary to earlier reports. The motion by a Canadian group using the Wyrd Sisters name (itself borrowed from Wm. Shakespeare) was denied, apparently too late for the revisions to be changed back.

The contributions of Mssrs. Cocker, Greenwood and Selway to the soundtrack LP are not available singularly on iTunes.

We got in past 3AM this morning after the 12:01 showing of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire—a considerable improvement over the last one. I think I enjoyed myself more; it’s possibly the strongest of the four films. The running time is nearly three hours but the time breezes by. Alan Rickman was brilliant, as were James and Oliver Phelps, and the songs by Cocker/Greenwood/Selway et al were close to superb.