High Impact

Sure, the endless fields of craters are a clue, but it’s impressive nevertheless to read what a regular pounding the Moon is taking up there. It’s more impressive still to read that if you’ve got the right telescope, the pounding can actually be seen from Earth: in the past two and a half years, NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office (I hope that office has the cool letterhead that it deserves) has visually observed over one hundred meteoroid impact explosions on the lunar surface. Article, map, and a cool little sci-fi-ish video loop are here.

A big part of the dream

The Web 2.0 book promotion blues, distilled:



EDIT: Lest there be any confusion, I am not this clever, at least not often enough to put this thing together. This video is by author Dennis Cass. I haven’t read his book yet but the new cover does look great.

Proof, Part 2

Recently arrived here are the second proofs of Moonshot. Looking them over, I’m like a reformed drinker who just got a whiff of strong whiskey; I want back in. The feeling reminds me of lines which must resonate with anyone who has struggled with a labor of love, specifically with the mixed blessing of finishing it: “God keep me from ever completing anything,” Melville wrote in Moby-Dick. “This whole book is but a draught—nay, but the draught of a draught. Oh, Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!”

This is why both bars and publishers have such a thing as last call.

Prêt-à-Porter

Over the years I’ve done much schooling and living in (as Paul Simon sings it) New England, sweet New England. Not until last summer, though, did I make it to Martha’s Vineyard. Once there, one conversation led to another, and I’ve just now finished a small drawing for the Aquinnah Public Library’s summer reading program t-shirts. A cleaner, inked version of this pencil sketch will be used on the shirts, but I still like the pencil and so here it is. The library will be selling the shirts soon, so the only question now is how big of a bite they’ll take out of the island’s omnipresent Black Dog merchandising empire. If the shirts are a hit and the library branches out into tote bags, footwear, housewares, biscotti, and hot sauce, don’t blame me.