Harry Potter fans (and miscellaneous book collectors) out there might want to smash open the piggy bank, with today's announcement of the December 4 publication of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a companion volume to J.K. Rowling's blockbuster series about a boy wizard. The mass market paperback (Amazon US and UK) is already #1 on Amazon.com, four months before release.

Much more pretty and desirable though is the limited edition hardcover (Amazon US and UK). At $100.00/£50.00 (respectively) it doesn't come cheap, especially for a small page count book, but the packaging looks first class - and you can just see the kid's faces lighting up on Xmas day when they open this up...

Tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library, the Collector's Edition includes an exclusive reproduction of J.K. Rowling's handwritten introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition or the original. Opening the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon.

Offering the trademark wit and imagination familiar to Rowling's legions of readers--as well as Aesop's wisdom and the occasional darkness of the Brothers Grimm--each of these five tales reveals a lesson befitting children and parents alike: the strength gained with a trusted friendship, the redemptive power of love, and the true magic that exists in the hearts of all of us. Rowling's new introduction also comments on the personal lessons she has taken from the Tales, noting that the characters in Beedle's collection "take their fates into their own hands, rather than taking a prolonged nap or waiting for someone to return a lost shoe," and "that magic causes as much trouble as it cures."

With 100,000 copies available, it's hardly what most people would call "limited edition", though relative to the sales of the Potter series I guess it is. And the price looks cheap compared to what Amazon paid for just one of the hand-written copies: £1,950,000.

AP

(Some Guy)

AP - A suspected thief trying to steal $10 worth of copper got himself into a stinky situation when he was trapped under a trash bin at a county landfill for 12 hours, sheriff's deputies said.

Philly.com

Reason Magazine

Nu-skeptic Phil 'Bad Astronomy' Plait has been provoking plenty of comment this week on his insanely popular blog with a couple of 'challenges' on two separate topics: astrology and UFOs. The fun started with the post "Shakin' Up Astrological Nonsense":

You know that astrology is equal to the solid waste matter that is extruded from a male bovine mammal, right? Want proof? Watch this video... Yes, you got it. An astrologer is startled — nay, shocked — by an earthquake while filming a YouTube video with her daily horoscope predictions.

Yet somehow, while doing that voodoo hooey she do so badly — she missed the fact that she was about to experience an earthquake! I love irony.

Now, I'm no expert on astrology (so have no valid opinion either way), but I'm pretty sure that most astrologists don't claim to predict earthquakes. I did find a quite delicious irony though in the fact that (a) the immediately preceding post was about the third attempt at launching a rocket, after a previous launch had exploded (I mean, come on - how can we trust these scientist guys and their voodoo hooey!) and (b) even 'orthodox' science can't predict earthquakes.

Mr Bad Astronomy twisted the knife later in the week with a follow-up post on his entry about the Edgar Mitchell 'revelations', in which he requested evidence for the existence of UFOs:

OK then, show it to me. This is up to you to show me this, to verify it, and to show me why you have eliminated every single possible terrestrial mundane explanation, including hardware glitches, mistaken conclusions by the people involved, and advanced military craft — things we know exist and are common. Then and only then can you begin to postulate something more exotic.

I don’t think I can be more clear than this. I want good, solid, examinable evidence. What I get are insults, bad logic, and vaporware. That’s not helping your case, folks.

I certainly don’t have the time to sift through every single case, of course, and I’m pretty busy in general. But I’m always interested in what some might consider to be more solidly based cases.

Plait is pretty much dead-on in asking for evidence of alien visitation before believing it - the reason some people find it provocative is because it challenges their belief system, and because the challenge is one they have difficulty in meeting (in providing evidence). On this count, skeptics are right - Edgar Mitchell's revelations, the Drones etc, all amount to nothing. They are not proof of anything. I would say that perhaps Phil Plait (and other 'skeptics') maybe need to just realise that there are a lot of 'nutters' and uninformed people out there, who tend to make the most noise - and just get over it.

On the other hand I do take issue with Phil Plait's approach to arguing against ufology in general (in previous posts). Genuine ufology is investigation of strange cases which point at some anomaly. Furthermore, it is easy to dismiss ufology when concentrating on the 'sightings from a distance' - it becomes more difficult once you start involving the higher degrees of 'Close Encounter' experiences. These (and some of the better 'standard' UFO cases) point at some anomaly worth investigating - which may involve anything from geomagnetism to actual extraterrestrial visitation. True ufology is science of the best kind, as it's trying to expand the boundaries of knowledge. So it would be good to see Bad Astronomy approaching the subject with a bit more intelligence, rather than provoking the uninformed.

AP

(Some Guy)

Time

(The Business Sheet)

AP - A 44-pound cat found lumbering around New Jersey was abandoned by a woman who said her home was foreclosed, an animal shelter official said Thursday.

AP - Some RV owner is apparently dumping his sewage in the parking lot of the Cowlitz County Hall of Justice parking lot in Kelso. It happened first last summer, but when it happened again this month the county thought there might be a leak in sewer lines.

AP - The residents of this border town are facing a stinky and growing problem these days: skunks. Eddie Ortega, the director of Del Rio's Community Health Service Center, said there's an unusually high number of the malodorous creatures running around these days.

Fox News