This year's Dragon*Con will be over Labor Day weekend, as usual, in Atlanta, Georgia.

I don't have my full schedule, but here is what I know so far:

PodSci Panel Sat 11:30 am (Podcasting Track)
The TANK - LIVE Sun 11:30 am (Skeptic Track)
Brain Science Podcast - LIVE! Sun 02:30 pm (Podcasting Track)

I am also doing my own session in the Science Track called "The New Brain Science: Separating the Truth from the Hype." This is currently scheduled for Monday at 2:30 PM, but it may be swapped with another panel that I am doing about medicine, which is currently scheduled for Friday at 5:30 PM.

Finally, to unleash my inner Josh Whedon fan I have bit parts in the Live Buffy Between the Lines Podcast on Saturday at 2:30 and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog at 11:30 PM Sunday night.

The Brain Science Podcast has been nominated for a Podcast Peer Award. The winners will be announced Sunday evening from 10-11 PM.

About 2 months ago I started a new website for science podcasters called SCIENCEPODCASTERS.ORG. It is a group blog where science podcasters can post announcements, show notes, and links back to there sites.

It is a good place to find science podcasts, and I hope it will be the beginning of a community.

If you have a favorite science podcast, I hope you will encourage them to visit the site and send me email at docartemis at gmail.com is they want to join.

Here is the link: http://sciencepodcasters.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0eoUaEVjsU

I made this with Animoto. You can find the podcast and an explanation of the graphics at http://brainsciencepodcast.com/. Look for Episode 32. Please let me know what you think.

I just posted a new episode of Books and Ideas at
http://booksandideas.wordpress.com/2008/03/28/books-and-ideas-18-interview-with-tabitha-grace-smith-from-buffy-between-the-lines/

I had great fun playing Anya's mother in the Valentine's episode of Buffy Between the Lines.

I have never done any acting, so it was both fun and challenging.

I hope you will check it out at: http://buffybetweenthelines.com/?p=246.

Even if you haven't finished reading Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling you can enjoy this podcast, which features guest co-host Patrick Pricken, from Germany. Patrick's blog, which features movie and book reviews can be found at http://www.p-pricken.de/. (The blog is in German, but translation to English is available from Google.)

We talked about what why JK Rowling's work has international appeal, even among adult readers. We explore our favorite characters and talk about whether Book 7 lived up to our expectations.

The episode is spoiler-free up to the 17 minute mark. The last 15 minutes does contain specific material from the last book, so if you haven't read it yet you will want to stop listening at 17:00, until you finish the book.

If you would like to talk about the podcast or share your favorite Harry Potter memories, please join us in the the special section with in the Brain Science Podcast Discussion Forum.

Books and Ideas is available on iTunes or you can go to http://booksandideas.com

While I won't be standing in line tonight at midnight to buy the last Volume of the Harry Potter series, but I will be watching my mailbox eagerly tomorrow morning waiting for the UPS truck to bring the copy I pre-ordered back in February. When it arrives I will probably start a marathon reading session, because I don't want to hear how the story ends from someone else. Fortunately, since I am a fast reader, it will probably take me only 8-10 hours. I must say that I regret that all the hype will preclude a slower reading.

I am planning to do a Books and Ideas Podcast after I finish, but I wanted to get this post up, because I wanted to get my personal predictions on record before the release (yes I know there are spoilers out on the internet, but I assume if you read this blog regularly you know I have avoided these).

The big debate seems to be over who is going to die in Book 7. I am not going to hazard a guess, but I don't think it will be Harry. First of all this would violate the basic principle of telling an heroic tale. I am comfortable that JK Rowling has good enough instincts as a storyteller not to kill off her main character. Thus, it is not even necessary to offer the more comercial reason that killing off Harry would also kill off future sales because it won't take long for the word to get out.

Another debate seems to center on what really happened to Dumbledore. Most readers agree that his appearance in the portrait in the headmaster's office at the end of book 6 removes any doubt that he is actually dead. However, I predict he will still be an important character in Book 7. I think he knew that he was likely to die (which is why he froze Harry to keep him from sacrificing himself), and that he has left something behind for Harry to help him. Plus, we don't really know much about what the characters in the portraits are really able to do.

I am just listening to the end of Book 6 and I was surprised how sad I feel about Dumbledore's death-two years later! I think when I read the book the first time I saw it coming and I did not have a full emotional reaction.

Reflections on Harry Potter: the first six books

I am proud to say that I have been a Harry Potter fan since before the media frenzy hit, which I think was around the release of Book 4 in July of 2000. I started reading in 1998, when book 2 was still in hardback. At the time I was following the Publishers' Weekly Best Seller list fairly closely and I noticed that books 1 and 2 were topping the adult best seller list. I bought book one because I was curious about how a children's book had become an adult best seller. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is still a magical book that I recommend to everyone.

After that I was hooked. I have been pre-ordering from Amazon since Book 4. In fact, looking back at my records I discovered that when I pre-ordered that book in March of 2000, its pre-release title was Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament. (The final title was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.)

Some literary snobs are critical of JK Rowling's writing, but I think there are several things that set this series apart. First, it has great characters. My first rule when I read fiction is that I have to care about the characters. This is never a problem when reading Harry Potter, even when he is going through the awkward changes of adolescence and one would occasionally want to throttle him. Which brings me to what I think is perhaps Rowlling's most outstanding achievement: the way she allows the characters to grow and change feels totally real.

Lots of series, for both adults and children suffer from becoming repetitive and predictable. (A Series of an Unfortunate Events is like the old Shirley Temple movies, once you've read one you know what will happen). Every Harry Potter book has been unique. The story has become darker and more complex, but I think Rowling is also showing a tremendous amount of respect for her younger readers. The changes her characters face mirror the changes adolescents face in real life. There are many examples of this, but of course, the most obvious is Harry's relationship with Dumbledore. Fortunately, most of us don't face the literal loss of our adult mentors so soon, but everyone experiences the painful lesson of realizing a parent or similar figure is not perfect and can not rescue us.

In book 6 we clearly saw Harry growing into a mature, responsible young man. This development is all the more satisfying since we have followed him through his tempestuous early teenage years. Rowling certainly has a more positive attitude toward teenagers than most of the people who write television shows. Besides helping millions of young people discover the joy of reading, she has also provided a story with a solid message about the value of love and friendship. That is why these books are great to read whatever your age.

I have finally got my entry up for the Public Radio Talent Quest, which is a contest for finding the next public radio host.

I hope you will go there and vote for me. For the first round, one is only allowed a 2 minute entry and the website wouldn't take mine until I cut it down to 1:50. Regular Brain Science Podcastlisteners will recognize the opening, which is followed by a brief explanation of why I think I would make a good host. The page is located at http://www.publicradioquest.com/node/794. Please share the link with everyone you can think of! The Deadline for the first round is May 14th, so please go vote NOW!

Quantum mechanics can't explain consciousness and I am going to explore why.

The reason I bring this up is that many people seem to be worried that the mounting evidence that the brain generates the mind implies that free will can not exist. Of course, most of us feel strongly that we do have free will. Various arguments are put forth to "save" free will. (I am not going to tackle the claim that it needs saving in this post.) One recent approach has been to use the uncertainty inherent in quantum mechanics as a potential location for free will. John Searle has observed that this only gives us randomness, not free will, but that doesn't seem to reduce the appeal of such an approach.

Today I wish to argue against using quantum mechanics to explain any aspect of consciousness by considering and entirely different point of view. My argument is simple: I think trying to use quantum mechanics is taking the argument in the wrong direction.

Consciousness is clearly an emergent property. The latest evidence is that there is no master site of consciousness or control in the brain. If that is the case, then looking to the subatomic level is clearly a move in the wrong direction. It makes as much sense as trying to understand the properties of water by studying hydrogen and oxygen. Because water emerges from the combination of the two, studying its components tells us little about water.

Just a brief thought to keep in mind the next time someone tells you how much they enjoyed "what the Bleep to we know?" Personally, I turned it off with disgust but we have to realize how vulnerable non-scientists are to pseudo-science masquerading as science.

This item has been cross-posted at Scientific Blogging and at The Brain Science Podcast site.

I am sitting in the Raleigh-Durham Airpoort waiting to go home from Podcast Academy 5. The focus of the meeting was academic podcasting, which is not what I do, but there were some good speakers and it was interesting to see all the cool things the students at Duke are doing with podcasting.

While I was there I posted #7 of my Books and Ideas Podcast. It is an interview of writer Matthew Cobb. It was pretty cool talking to someone in the UK over Skype™.