Ken Murphy / 12:56 am February 5th, 2009

Aston, Diana Hutts. Illus. by Jerry Pinkney
“The Moon over Star”
Dial Books for Young Readers/Penguin Young Readers Group
2008
ISBN: 978-0-803-73107-3
Publisher’s Web Site
CNN Story
NASAWatch Post

Librarian’s Note: This is the story that President Obama read to some lucky schoolkids at Capital City Public Charter School on the 3rd of February, 2009. [Uh, shouldn’t that be Capitol?]

Ken Murphy / 3:19 am February 4th, 2009

As always, we’re working hard here at Out of the Cradle to bring readers the best space value around. Here are some updates:

1)

Recently I mentioned that I’ve invited a new guest blogger on board, and we’ll soon start offering new interviews. We continue to work away behind the scenes and EVA Interviews: The Business of the new Space Age will be officially launched shortly. Until then, we thought we’d answer a few questions you might have about these interviews.

Why are you calling them this?

These interviews will be conducted by Eva-Jane Lark who, for as long as she can remember, has signed her name EVA, except on legal documents or when writing to her mother. EVA is also an acronym for the financial term Economic Value Added and we aim to add value by discussing the economic, business, investment, entrepreneurial and legal aspects of our exodus Out of the Cradle, with interesting and knowledgeable people* who are active in these areas. In the space industry EVA usually stands for Extra Vehicular Activity and we like to think of these conversations as ones we might have floating in Space after we have said “WOW!!!!” and “How cool is this!!” several hundred times.

* While the main focus will be economic, we reserve the right to present the occasional fictitious, frivolous or marginally related interview.

2) I was recently contacted by M. Olivier de Goursac about his new book ‘Lune‘, which was just published in France. He enjoys wandering in the different sections of the Lunar Library, and wanted to be sure that other visitors to the LL would be able to find his book. He even went so far as to create some Apollo desktop wallpapers for everyone, which can be found at the link.

3) Lunar Library update: Because of the conflict between the way Google does things and the way I used to do things, I’ve had to adjust my strategy for new additions. I used to publish interesting finds when found, and then when they rolled off the front page I’d file them by date. The problem is that this breaks all kinds of links, and the more broken links a site has the less often Google will return it in searches. So now everything is posted by publication date. It just means you’ll regularly have to wander deeper into the different sections to find new references.

I’ve found a way to hook everyone up with all the old space comics in the Lunar Library, so now you can enjoy those as well.

4) Speaking of kid’s stuff, I just watched “Space Buddies” and golly, I liked it. It’s completely 100% Disney formulaic, but I think the formula actually worked in this Moon-related tale. It’s rapidly climbing the charts at Amazon, and it’s just the kind of space movie we need right now. Wholesome, adventurous, and targeted at the generation that may actually get to go in any significant number if we can actually get our act together in putting a space-faring architecture in place instead of a space-visiting one.

5) For some fun, NASAWatch points us to a tire commercial which appears to have been filmed on Jupiter’s moon Io.

If you’re intrigued at the idea of extreme sports in space, you might want to also check out ‘95 Worlds and Counting‘, which pays some extreme visits to some of the extremest moons in the Solar system.

Ken Murphy / 2:01 am February 4th, 2009

de Goursac, Olivier
“Lune”
Tallandier
2009
ISBN13: 978-2-847-34213-0
Publisher’s Web Site
Sample Images

Librarian’s Note: M. de Goursac has enjoyed wandering through the different sections of the Lunar Library, and has crafted a number of desktop wallpapers to share with fellow visitors. Get yourself in the mood for this year’s 40th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Enjoy!

Ken Murphy / 8:31 pm February 3rd, 2009

Keystone Entertainment
“Space Buddies”
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
02/03/2009
Publisher’s Web Site
Grasping for the Wind Review
The Critical Critics Review
About.com Review
Mom’s Marbles Review (w/ coloring sheets)
BlogCritics Review

Librarian’s Note: The Moon! And Puppies! Has there ever been a cuter combination? It is 100% Disney formulaic, character archetype caricatures, enough violations of physics to send purists into conniptions, and C-level acting. But…it’s Fun! I mean - puppies! Scrabbling around in a space ship and walking on the Moon! Kiddie level thrills and suspense. This one is G-rated Full Moon family fun!

READ MORE…

Ken Murphy / 2:46 am February 1st, 2009

Image Source

gives a hearty ‘Welcome to the Big Top‘ at The Spacewriter’s Ramblings. This week’s host gives us six rounds of performances in the Big Ring, from ‘Humanity’s Future in Space and a Nod to Our Past Efforts’ to ‘Woo Woo “Science”’. Be prepared to be dazzled and delighted by the myriad performances on display at this week’s ‘Carnival of Space‘.