Win a Copy of The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks

New nonfiction from The Atavist:

Joseph Gutheinz is on a mission to save the moon. Decades ago, astronauts brought back 850 pounds of rocks from their lunar journeys; the U.S. gave some away as “goodwill” gifts to the world’s nations. Over time, many of them disappeared, stolen or lost in the aftermath of political turmoil, and offered for millions on the black market. Gutheinz, first as a NASA investigator and then the leader of a ragtag group of students, has dedicated his life to getting them back. Author Joe Kloc tells a wild story of geopolitics, crime, science, and one man’s obsession to keep the moon out of the wrong hands.

The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks is available from The Atavist for Kindle, iPad/iPhone, Nook, and iBooks.

I have one digital copy to give away. For a chance to win, simply comment on this post and include your email so I can contact you if you win. One comment per person, and this contest is open worldwide. I'll pick a winner next week.

Link roundup

1. How China bought its first aircraft carrier. (Hint, they lied about it.)

2. MIT students receive their acceptance letters in cardboard tubes and are encouraged to modify them. One student sent hers into space. (Have you noticed that all of the interesting stories about space have nothing to do with NASA?)

3. Mysterious new Google device being tested. Via.

Poor Pluto

The solar system by Mathias Pedersen available as a print. Via.

Watches for astronomy lovers

Christiaan van der Klaauw astronomical watches. Via these sites.

Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co.

Greenwood Space Travel Supply Co. (the 826 in Seattle) has a newly revamped website full of awesome goods including globes of other planets, and bottles of certainty:









(One of the best purchases you can make is Essentially Odd: A Catalog of Products Created For and Sold at the 826 Stores, which is only $12 at Amazon.)

Link roundup

Timm Schneider adds eyeballs to things. Via.




Comic strip by Box Brown, who has art on sale here. imdb says:

During the filming of some scenes for The Princess Bride, the weather became markedly cold for Robin Wright Penn. Andre the Giant helped her by placing one of his hands over her head; his hands were so large that one would entirely cover the top of her head, keeping her warm.

Via.







Cheshire Cat, Batman, and Wonder Woman snuggies. Via.




Your Are A Cat Pick-A-Plot available at Amazon.




The new Mars rover will land in a very cool way (the video gets interesting about two minutes in).

*Previously: Choose Your Own Adventure book by Carl Sagan.

Aurora Australis from Space

From 2005, courtesy of NASA's IMAGE satellite, the Aurora Australis from Space.

Aurora

NASA:

Many aurora appear green, but sometimes — as in this image from the International Space Station — other colors such as red can appear. The colors depend on which atoms are causing the splash of light seen in the aurora. In most cases, the light comes when a charged particle sweeps in from the solar wind and collides with an oxygen atom in Earth’s atmosphere. This produces a green photon, so most aurora appear green. However, lower-energy oxygen collisions as well as collisions with nitrogen atoms can produce red photons -- so sometimes aurora also show a red band as seen here.

Sunset on Mars

Sunset on Mars. Via.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Trailer

Warhammer is a universe that used to only be in the real time strategy genre, however the game is now transforming into a completely 3rd person shooter type of game. It looks a lot like Gears of War. Go ahead and watch the videos. Unfortunately, it doesn't look anywhere nearly as fun as Gears of War... I haven't played GoW, but it definitely looks a lot funner than this... I think they should have stuck with making RTS games... But who knows, maybe it'll turn out to be awesome! That would be great.

Prey 2, Trailer - E3 (2011)

Here is an awesome looking trailer for Prey 2; it's from E3 2011!

More Prey 2 Videos

Crysis 2: Retaliation, Trailer

Crysis 2 came out not too long ago, and now they are starting to roll out the dlc (downloadable content) for the game. Crysis 2 is the sequel to the awesome and infamous game Crysis; this game challenged most computers and put them to their highest heights in the sense of their amazing graphics.

Crysis 2 looks even more amazing, yet the game makers were able to get it to run really well - this is something that is going on all over the game market these days. Most main AAA titles are getting to be made really well and work well, even with amazing graphics... except for Rockstar, who really need to get some people to optimize things better for games (like GTAIV on PC and... apparently L.A. Noire on the PS3 and 360).

Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One, comes out October 18! Screenshots, Trailer, Info

A new Ratchet and Clank game is set to come out October 18! I haven't played one of these games in a long time; the last time I played one, I played on the PS2... I really need to upgrade to the newer series! I can't wait to see this new game come out - if it gets great reviews, I'll get it - if not... well... I'll pretend it doesn't exist.

I really don't know about the Coop thing... Coop ruins a lot of games... except for Portal 2. Resident Evil 5 sucks... mostly because it isn't scary in the least, because of the other person that's with you at all times... It's not survival horror... it's just a multiplayer shooter... and a bad one, at that.

If they ruin Ratchet and Clank, I'll be sad... but it isn't the biggest series in my mind that was ruined... Spyro is... I loved that little guy and they turned him into an abomination in a game that is coming up... they're making some terrible new series and throwing the name Spyro in just to sell the game... Hopefully that's not the case for Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One (Even though the name is based around the 4 player Coop, even...)

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6314752/ratchet-and-clank-all-4-one-arrives-oct-18

Portal 2, Final Boss, Ending, Credits, Song

Portal 2 was an awesome game to play, just like Portal; the new game has awesome scenes of destruction and a cool final boss. Here is a video showing that final boss, the ending, the new song by GlaDos (Ellen McLain), and the credits - and the epilogue.

Gears of War 3 Beta maps: part 2

Here is the second part of the beta maps for Gears of War; these will tell you two more of the maps that will be coming in the beta soon:

Trashball:

There is a humongous scoreboard here that you can shoot and knock down; it will damage any nearby enemies or friendlies!








Trenches:

This is a wide open map which is good for sniping; players standing still for too long may find themselves easy prey for the people on higher ground.





http://www.gears3beta.com/gears-of-war-3-beta-maps/

Forget the Man on the Moon; NASA's Stardust shows comet Tempel-1 is comet Sad-Bunny. And a girl. Beat that.

I made this in MS Paint for you. Magnet. Fridge. Now.

Here she is, comet Tempel-1, or comet Sad-Bunny as I like to call her.  Stardust is a fancy little satellite with a sordid history.  By sordid, I mean of course that for a satellite it has sampled a lot of interstellar medium.  A LOT.  Last time it swung by earth it deposited a canister of interstellar medium southwest of Salt Lake City.  Rude little devil.  First time that's ever happened in the history of satellites.

Anyway, Stardust got close to Bunny late last night, and some people are calling her "second-hand" now, but I prefer to reserve judgement.  No wonder she sheds a single tear.

And now for a video of comet Sad-Bunny doing the dreaded Space Wobble of Shame:

Another theory is that she saw this giant pink bunny in Italy:

Made to look like a skydiving accident.  Neat?

That would make anyone sad.

...

And it's visible from space.

Avert your axis, Sad-Bunny!

Not that way!

That's better.  What do those look like though? Snarky Dragon and Bull-Snake?