George

NASA Wants to Lasso an Asteroid, Tow it Home

This news last week, as reported in, among other publications, Florida Today:
Plans are in the works for astronauts to capture an asteroid, tow it into orbit around the Moon, and then visit it for an asteroid-walk.

Here’s an artist’s rendition of the lassoing procedure:

lassoing an asteroid

Which of course puts one (or at least me) in mind of this, from the movie It’s a Wonderful Life:

George Lassos the Moon

The Next Big Thing No. 2

Craig Renfroe is another old classmate from the UNC-Wilmington’s MFA program who’s doing some interesting stuff.

You might know Craig as the man who looks likes something like this:

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(That’s a terrible joke; he actually looks a lot better than that.)

But check out some of his writing. He’s the author of the short story collection YOU SHOULD GET THAT LOOKED AT (Main Street Rag Publishing Company). He was a finalist for the Novello Literary Award and the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Pank, Hobart, and 3:AM Magazine, among others.

Just now he’s working on a collection of linked stories, set in the fictional town of Sumerville, NC. You can read one of the stories in the pulp issue of Pank:

http://www.pankmagazine.com/parricide/

For more on Craig, here’s the link to his blog: http://craigrenfroe.blogspot.com/

He Twitters, too! @SCraigRenfroeJr

Preview of The Night of the Comet in Wilmington Star News

A very nice sneak preview of THE NIGHT OF THE COMET from Ben Steelman, arts critic for the Wilmington Star News (NC):

“Just received an advance proof on “Night of the Comet,” the new novel from former Wilmingtonian George Bishop. It comes out Aug. 6 from Ballantine.

Talk about publicity: The novel arrives between Comet Pan-STARRS (which should be popping up nicely in the southwestern sky this weekend, near the planet Jupiter) and Comet Ison . . .”

http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/17340/night-of-the-comet/

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The Next Big Thing

A few weeks ago I was asked to participate in this blog-chain project called The Next Big Thing. I kind of dropped the ball on my end, but I intend to pick it up again this week, starting with a shout-out to my old friend and MFA classmate, Dana Sachs.

Dana has a new novel out with William Morrow, THE SECRET OF THE NIGHTINGALE PALACE. Here’s the cover:

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Nice, isn’t it? I got to read this in manuscript, and it’s a lovely story. I especially liked the flashback bits to San Francisco in the 1940s and the details about Japanese culture.  You can find out more about Dana and her new book at her website, danasachs.com.

 

Comet Pan-STARRS

By now you’ve probably heard about Comet Pan-STARRS:

comet-panstarrs-lovejoy-australia

 

Comet Pan-STARRS is a long-period comet discovered last year by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. It’s visible this month, March, in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Since it’s a long-period comet, it won’t be visible again for another 100 million years.

I haven’t spotted it yet from here in New Orleans, but here’s a photo of it as it appears over LSU in Baton Rouge:

pan-starrs-comet-clock-baton-rouge

 

Yuri Gagarin in Space

To launch my fab new WordPress blog, here’s something from Stars and Constellations, a commemoration of the birthday of Yuri Gagarin, first man in outer space.

On looking out the window of his Vostok 1 spacecraft, Yuri had this to say:

“The Earth is blue. How wonderful. It is amazing.”

Bud’te zdorovy, Yuri!

Yuri Gagarin