books – Page 36 – The Unwanted Blog

Nuclear Pulse Propulsion update

blather, books, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, science, science fiction, spacecraft 2 Responses »

Jan 082012

Still plugging away at it. It got back-burnered while I finished up APR V3N2, but now it’s been front-burnered… at least for a little while. The thing I’m finding is that working on a book, especially one you’re illustrating yourself, is time consuming. And it doesn’t pay. So I can only work on it for a little while till I have to switch gears back to something to bring in some funds. So, unless anyone wants to throw a nice fat grant at me…

Anyway, I’m currently chugging away on the “Post-Orion” chapter… which is currently sitting at about 60 pages… and may make it to close to 100 pages. Oy.

Buy It Now: Early Space History Books

books, rockets, sales & specials, science, spacecraft 2 Responses »

Jan 072012

I have four books I’m selling… two copies of “Across the Space Frontier” and two copies of “The Conquest of Space.”

“Across the Space Frontier” was published in 1952 and written by Werner von Braun and Willy Ley and illustrated b y the likes of Rolf Klep, Fred Freeman and Chesley Bonestell. It was edited together from articles in Collier’s magazine and is arguably the source of the American publics 1950’s fascination with the conquest of space. The art within is spectacular.

There are two copies, neither with dust jackets:

“Across A:” Blue cover, has the word “DAMAGED” stamped into the front cover, but seems to be intact except for some minor banging around on the cover and spine. $35.00 plus postage.

“Across B:” Gray cover, some tearing on the spine but appears otherwise pretty much intact. Look as good when 60 years old you reach, you will not… $35.00 plus postage.

Also available, two copies of “The Conquest of Space,” written by Willy Ley and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell, published 1949. Broader in scope than “Across,” it is packed with some amazing space art and a lot of interesting designs and ideas. Also undoubtedly played a major role in the 1950’s space-race popularization.

The two copies:

“Conquest A”: First edition, fifth printing. No dust jacket, but otherwise in pretty good shape. $25.00 plus postage.

“Conquest B:” First edition, Seventh printing. No dust jacket, missing the last page, cover fairly worn. $15.00 plus postage.

If you want one or more of these books, please comment and state which one(s) you want. First come, first served. Postage in the US will be via media mail (unless something else is requested); airmail elsewhere.

UPDATE: All have been spoken for.

Public Domain: Not Yours

blather, books, politics No Responses »

Jan 012012

Copyright law is one of those screwy things that keeps changing and basically just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (see HERE to read my yammerings about the British copyright on the King James version of the Bible). Until 1978, the copyright laws of the United States held a work under copyright for 28 years, with the option to extend for a second 28 years, for a maximum of 56 years. But then it changed, and now copyright is for 70 years after the date of the author’s death (which would mean that APR issue V1N1, which was published in 1999 or so, won’t enter the public domain until *at* *least* 2082, since I ain’t dead yet, and assuming Obamacare spends unlimited taxpayer dollars to stretch my life out for another, oh, sixty years, it won’t become public domain until 2142, meaning V1N1 will have been under copyright for 143 years).

Duke U has published a list of works that, had the law not changed in 1978, would be entering the public domain in 2012. Included here is the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp,” James Dean’s movie “Rebel Without a Cause,” and Isaac Asimov’s “The End of Eternity” (which, due to the change in the law, now won’t enter the public domain until 2051, since works pubisihed between 1950 and 1963 were, in 1973, retconned to have copyright for 95 years).

Under the pre-1978 copyright law, Duke estimates that 85% of the works published in 1983 would be entering the public domain this year.

Buy It Now: Sci-Fi Special

books, eBay, science fiction 2 Responses »

Dec 222011

Some more stuff that will either get sold to all y’all, or put on eBay. If you want one or more of these, please say so in the comments. The books will ship in the US via USPS Media Mail. Other shipping options (including foreign) available.

1) “Science Fiction of the 30’s” by Damon Knight. Hardback with dust jacket: $6 plus postage.

2) “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Heinlein. Hardback with dust jacket… FIRST EDITION, 1961. The dust jacket has some tears, but the book itself is in pretty good condition. $80.00plus postage.

3) Lot of six “New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures” books: “Tom Swift and the Asteroid Pirates,” “Tom Swift and His Repelatrom Skyway,” “Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X,” “Tom Swift and His Megascope Space Prober,” “Tom Swift and His Giant Robot” and “Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere.” All are first edition hardbacks in pretty good shape. $35 for the lot plus postage.

4) Lot of two John Varley first editions: “Millenium” and “The Ophiuchi Hotline.” Both are hardbacks with their dustjackets; “Hotline” has some edge wear on the dust jacket; “Millenium” is in really good shape. $9 for the pair plus postage.

Buy It Now

blather, books, eBay, rockets 8 Responses »

Dec 102011

Some more stuff that will either get sold to all y’all, or put on eBay. If you want one or more of these, please say so in the comments. The books will ship in the US via USPS Media Mail for $3 each, or $5 for 2 or more. Other shipping options (including foreign) available.

1) First edition hardback of Robert Heinlein’s “Rocketship Galileo.” Illustrated, in fairly good condition, but no dust jacket. $25 + postage. Purchased.

2) First edition of Hank Searls’ novel “The Pilgrim Project.” In good shape with dust jacket. Based on a Bell Aerospace concept for a one-way mission to the moon, and served as the basis for the movie “Countdown.” $5 + postage.Purchased.

3) First edition of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” by Steven Spielberg. In good shape with dust jacket. $5 + postage
4) “German Secret Weapons Blueprint for Mars” by Brian Ford. One of the first books that helped spur off the craze for “Luftwaffe 1946” and similar popular interest in advanced and wacky WWII German weapons. $4 + postage

5) “Rocket Fighter” by William Green. Paperback about the development of the Messerschmit Me 163. $4 + postage.

6) Rocket dirt. Sure, why not. This is a 2 ounce glass vial filled with some of the dirt that fell from the sky following the ATK test of a five-segment modified Shuttle solid rocket booster for the now-cancelled Ares rockets, back in August of 2010. I collected a handful of the stuff on the day it fell, and another handful on the next day. They were put in separate ziplock bags. The second-day-collected dirt was and is substantially lighter in color than the first-day-collected dirt, which I’m guessing is due to outgassing or evaporation of… something. In any event, it’s kinda strange stuff, and it’s not like they’re making more of it… $10 plus postage.

Buy It Now

blather, books 10 Responses »

Dec 042011

It’s time to start selling off my stuff, so I’m planning on putting a bunch of things on eBay. But I figured before I do that I’d offer things for sale here first. Rather than auctioning, these will be fixed price items, with first-come, first-served. Specifically, the first person to comment and say “I want Item X” gets it. I figured readers of this blog would be more interested in these books than the average eBayer…

So, what I’ve got here are four books:

1: “An Illustrated Guide to Future Fighters,” by Bill Gunston, 1984: $4 plus shipping

2: “Halfway to Anywhere” by G. Harry Stine, 1996: $5 plus shipping

3: “U.S. Bombers” by Lloyd Jones, 1962 edition (when the B-70 was The Next Big Thing): $25 plus shipping

4: “Handbook of Astronautical Engineering” by H.H. Koelle, 1961: $80 plus shipping

The last three books there have dust jackets. All four books are in really good shape. The dust jacket for “Astronautical Engineering” has a few tears that were long ago taped up. I’ll ship however you want… media mail for cheap, Priority mail, airmail, whatever.

I’ll give 5% off if you buy two; 10% off for three; 15% off if you buy all four.

And now for something completely different

books, drawings, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, science fiction, spacecraft 3 Responses »

Oct 272011

One of the reasons why my “Nuclear Pulse propulsion” book is taking so long is because there are a boatload of drawings needing doing, and some of them are seriously troublesome. Take, for example, the “Messiah” from the movie Deep Impact. Below shows the current status of the 2-D layout drawings I’ve been tinkering with. As well as the book, these will probably serve as the basis of of a scale model.

Guess who owns the Bible

blather, books, Crazy, I'm from the government, religion 10 Responses »

Oct 272011

When many (most??) people think of “the Bible,” I bet they think of the King James version. Depending on how you look at it, it was written either between 3500 (or so) and 1900 (or so) years ago, or 400 years ago (when King James I of England ordered it put together). In any event, that’s a long, long time ago… long enough that it’s obvious that it’s in the public domain.

Ooops.

The Bible lives forever, even if the KJV is copyrighted

In honor of the KJV’s 400th anniversary, London’s newly reconstituted Globe Theater—Shakespeare’s old home stage—scheduled a series of actors to recite the entire King James Bible from the stage between Palm Sunday and Easter of 2011. But a few days before the presentation, the director received a bill for payment of a substantial royalty fee for the privilege of reading it publicly. The British Crown actually owns the copyright to the King James Bible, which has been renewed upon the accession of each succeeding monarch since King James himself. So the queen, through the auspices of Cambridge University Press, was sending him a bill, according to BBC Music Magazine.

Huh.

In other words, in a few years the Bible as it’s known to a whole lot of millions of people will belong to this feller:

The question is… how enforceable is this copyright? Apparently if you’re in Britain, they can come and get you for quoting the Bible. But I’d be interested to see what would happen if some American or – better – Chinese publisher put out their own copy of the KJV Bible without paying fees to the British crown.

Copyright is a wonderful and vital thing. But maintaining copyright for four hundred years seems massively inappropriate.

DM-3 Rocket Motor Test Photo Book

books, new products, news, photography, rockets, Utah 1 Response »

Sep 162011

On September 8, 2011, ATK fired the last of the Shuttle-scale solid rocket boosters at their Promontory, Utah, test site. The Development Motor-3 test fired a five-segment booster generating 3.6 million pounds of thrust. I was in the public viewing area at the time with three cameras going. I have put together a photo book with the best of my photos of that test, and am making it available in two forms:
1) Printed by Magcloud, for only $7.99
2) Printed by Magcloud AND with a digital (PDF) copy, for only $9.49

They can be previewed and purchased here:
http://scottlowther.magcloud.com/

“Nuclear Pulse Propulsion” book looking for illustrator

books, drawings, history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, science 4 Responses »

Sep 042011

My book “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion,” to be published by ARA Press, will be heavily illustrated. The bulk of the illustrations (contemporary art and diagrams, along with all-new technical illustrations) are done or in progress. However, it will also need a number of explanatory illustrations.

The book is half history, half physics textbook. The physics half will need illustrations showing general processes and concepts… the implosion of an atomic bomb, the operation of shock absorbers, that sort of thing. Illustrations roughly akin to this:

Either color or black & white would work for this book (not sure if it will all be printed in color, though). Simple, clear and to the point is prefered over complex fully rendered computer graphics. Drawn on a computer or pen and ink. What matters is quality, clarity and, in the end, probably a bit of quantity.

I am uncertain if there is much of a budget to hire an illustrator… or any budget at all. But if you are interested in illustrating this book and having your skills shown to the world, contact Jack Hagerty, publisher at ARA Press. His email can be found under the “about us” tab: http://www.arapress.com/

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