New site allows Harry Potter fans to Enroll at Hogwarts

The wonder of the Internet has finally put right the slightly disappointing fact that Harry Potter's Hogwarts isn't real (sorry). Now, thanks to an unofficial website, Harry Potter fans can enroll online to study at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizadry. Really.

The site, Hogwarts Is Here, is a cross between a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC), and a sort of online role-playing game. It allows visitors to sign up and browse or to join one of the four Hogwarts houses, and take courses crucial to the acquisition of magical knowledge.

Studies include Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration and Defence Against The Dark Arts, and are apparently maintained and supported by attentive academic staff (volunteers).

The site seems an incredibly polished and engaging affair, especially for something not officially endorsed or linked to film licenses. With sections on student life, academic standards and a careers page, there's even  a considerable FAQ section on hand. Likely because even Hogwarts students want to see when their deadlines are.

Essentially Hogwarts Is Here is a site created and maintained by fans because they love the world of Harry Potter. And honestly we hope it's able to keep running on that basis.

If you're interested in having a look, why not head over now; you can even generate a Hogwarts acceptance letter. Oh, and one more thing: if you do sign up, perhaps consider joining House Hufflepuff.

They always seem to get the least amount of love, don't they...

A readable book on economics?

Economy-focused titles might generally be thought quite inaccessible.  But Professor. Thomas Picketty is apparently challenging the norm The French professor's new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century isn't a short one, but its pages are said hold the burden of an economic revelation.

That is, as Picketty has told The Guardian, "I have proved that under the present circumstances capitalism simply cannot work."

If that seems like a read which might not be up your street, you may yet be convinced. New Yorker contributor Branko Milanovic (formerly a senior economist at the World Bank) believes the title is "one of the watershed books in economic thinking".

Not the most persuasive perhaps, but that the title is currently causing a stir in academic and wider circles, hints at the strength of a book which The Guardian's Andrew Hussey calls "surprisingly readable".

And that's a relief. At 640 pages, and costing £30 in its hardback form, it's probably not a book to tempt everyone. But Prof. Picketty does hope it will reach more than the usual audience for economics-themed titles:

"I did deliberately aim the book at the general reader", Picketty has said. Adding, "although it is obviously a book which can be read by specialists too, I wanted the information here to be made clear to everyone who wants to read it."

Because here's  a man who knows inequality simply won't do.

London hosts UK's first edible book launch

We're all familiar with book launches, but add the word 'edible' and it might seem a tasteless way to undo the author's hard work. Never fear though, it's all part of debut novelist Sarah Holt's plan for the booklaunch of Love and Eskimo Snow, a novel published by Valley Press next month. The launch of the title - which is available now - no doubt took some planning, and is helped in large part by Edible Stories.

The company is charged with delivering a six-course meal to intrigue and excite the senses, as attendees consider the central question of Holt's title: the varied experience of love. A fascinating evening surely awaits, and those interested enough can quite possibly attend.

The book launch will be in the Shoreditch area of East London on the 25th May, and tickets are available for £57:50. If supporting a debut novelist needs any sweetening, such a unique experience - alongside the promises of a key insight into the plot - might be just the thing.

Amazon now backs up Kindle documents

Amazon has tweaked its Amazon Cloud Drive service to automatically back up all documents users send to their Kindles using the "send to Kindle feature". Available on desktop and mobile devices, send to Kindle allows users to send documents, texts and ebooks to their devices - useful for reading materials not part of your Amazon ebook library. The change has reinforced that functionality in a rather intuitive manner.

Now Amazon will backup any documents you send to Kindle devices to your personal Cloud Drive folder for safe-keeping. It also means there's some changes to the 'Manage Your Kindle' section of Amazon accounts, and an Amazon email details those:

"You can use Manage Your Kindle to see a list of your documents, re-deliver them to Kindle devices and free reading apps, delete them, or turn off auto-saving of documents to the cloud".

The feature to back up documents can be disabled in the Your Kindle Account section of Manage Your Kindle - under the Personal Document Settings heading. You might want to leave it on though; the 5GB of free storage for document is added to the existing 5GB all Amazon account holders are given.

10GB of free storage is rather handy, and even 5GB will take a while to use up with documents unless you're a particularly heavy or regular 'sender'!