Britain is to get its own space agency more than 40 years after the Apollo project landed the first astronauts on the moon. The agency will come into being next year and replaces the existing British National Space Centre as a single co-ordinating organisation for the nation’s space exploration activities.

The announcement coincides with the publication of a government review of space exploration that warns the nation is "at a critical point" in deciding its future in the space business.

Britain has a long-standing policy of not contributing to human spaceflight programmes and instead supports robotic and satellite-based missions. The review urges ministers to consider backing a space programme that involves both robotic and human explorers…

Oh, and I got this last week., but I want to mention it: Julianna Barwick’s sublime FLORINE, previously only available as an mp3 EP from eMusic, is now available as a CD. This was one of my very favourite discoveries of 2009, and I’m so glad to now have a physical copy to hand. Julianna’s mailing these out herself, and mine arrived with a nice little note on the back of the envelope.

Fifteen women.
Three portraits each.

They Be We provides an intimate look at the lives of fifteen different women. From mothers, to Voodoo doctors, to those in the limelight, each woman has a story to tell.

Go to this link here for a set of discount codes to use.

I came across this book a few months back, and was reminded of it yesterday. CYCLONOPEDIA: Complicity with Anonymous Materials, by Reza Negarestani. So I did a little look, and found the website. And, if the author will forgive me, here’s the entire, mental description of the book:

The Middle East is a sentient entity – it is alive!’ concludes renegade Iranian archeologist Dr. Hamid Parsani, before disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The disordered notes he leaves behind testify to an increasingly deranged preoccupation with oil as the ’lubricant’ of historical and political narratives.

An American woman arrives in Istanbul to meet a pseudonymous online acquaintance who never arrives. Discovering a strange manuscript in her hotel room, she follows up its cryptic clues only to discover more plot-holes, and begins to wonder whether her friend was a fictional quantity all along. Meanwhile, as the War on Terror escalates, the US is dragged into an asymmetrical engagement with occultures whose principles are ancient, obscure, and saturated in oil. It is as if war itself is feeding upon the warmachines, leveling cities into the desert, seducing the aggressors into the dark heart of oil …

At once a horror fiction, a work of speculative theology, an atlas of demonology, a political samizdat and a philosophic grimoire, Cyclonopedia is work of theory-fiction on the Middle East, where horror is restlessly heaped upon horror. Reza Negarestani bridges the appalling vistas of contemporary world politics and the War on Terror with the archeologies of the Middle East and the natural history of the Earth itself. Cyclonopedia is a middle-eastern Odyssey, populated by archeologists, jihadis, oil smugglers, Delta Force officers, heresiarchs, corpses of ancient gods and other puppets. The journey to the Underworld begins with petroleum basins and the rotting Sun, continuing along the tentacled pipelines of oil, and at last unfolding in the desert, where monotheism meets the Earth’s tarry dreams of insurrection against the Sun.

After reading that, I decided that I needed a copy — I mean, christ, wouldn’t you? — and it arrived today. I intend to get into this over Xmas, with a bottle of wine and Xela playing through noise-cancelling earbuds while my family spend a day trying to kill each other over possession of the tv remote.

–

First off: RED, the book, is 66 pages long. If you were to film 66 pages of comics, you might, might just about get 40 minutes of film out of it. If you added a musical number. The comics-page to film-minute ratio is pretty bad. A straight adaptation of a 150-page graphic novel might, if you squint at it, get you a 100-minute film. But it’s unlikely, because comics and films use time so differently. One page with four lines of dialogue on it can be slowed to a crawl to the point where you have to spend several minutes digesting the information on it. In film, however, four lines of dialogue is four lines of dialogue, and you can’t just pronounce it very slowly for the same time consumption. Beyond filmic/dramatic effects like the pause or montage or whatever, film is timelocked.

So, yes, RED the film is very different. Not least because it needed to generate more material than the book itself actually constituted.

It is in fact best to consider RED as a short story being adapted into film.

Next, and related: RED-the-book is also something of a chamber piece. There are essentially only four characters. (And a lot of people who get killed.) Now, while you can perfectly well make a film with only four characters in — or even just one character — those films tend not to be massive commercial propositions. And Summit is in the business of making commercial films. Also, they needed to expand RED from a half-hour to an hour-and-a-half. So, yes, there are a lot of new characters.

The new characters are all in theme, all in the same line of work as (Paul in the book, Frank in the film) Moses. The theme being, in part (and also poked at in my other books GLOBAL FREQUENCY and RELOAD) the unexploded bombs of the 20th Century.

(This actually gave the Hoebers the excuse to have fun with old spy tropes like CIA Nutter Guy — there’s a lovely piece of business with him in the first half-hour that amused me no end.)

I don’t think any of them are bad. Also, did you see the goddamn cast list that’s signed on for those characters? Bruce Willis as Moses, yes. But also: Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John C Reilly, Helen Mirren, Julian McMahon, Brian Cox, Ernest Borgnine and Richard Dreyfus. It reminds me a bit of those 70s films like THE TOWERING INFERNO, that had in them everyone you wanted to see in a film, all at once. RED is a bit like that, only with more automatic weapons.

Bruce Willis: when you look back over his filmography, that man’s actually had an incredibly weird career. DIE HARD and all that, sure… but also FIFTH ELEMENT, TWELVE MONKEYS, PULP FICTION, an adaptation of a Harlan Ellison short story for TV and getting a film adaptation of a Kurt Vonnegut book made by sheer force of will. Not bad.

The tone: no, the film isn’t as grim as the book. The book is pretty grim. But it’s also pretty small. When I sell the rights to a book, they buy the right to adapt it in whatever way they see fit. I can accept that they wanted a lighter film, and, as I’ve said before, the script is very enjoyable and tight as a drum. They haven’t adapted it badly, by any means. People who’ve enjoyed the graphic novel will have to accept that it’s an adaptation and that by definition means that it’s going to be a different beast from the book. The film has the same DNA. It retains bits that are very clearly from the book, as well as, of course, the overall plotline. But it is, yes, lighter, and funnier. And if anyone has a real problem with that, I say to you once again:

Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle.

I mean, if you don’t want to see a film with Helen Mirren with a sniper rifle, I’m not sure I want to know you.

–

I…(was) asked to provide some images that would work in a sketchbook style artbook… The clever bit is that you get to browse the full range of images available and then pick and choose a customised art book!

Some of the images I chose are illustrations you’ll have seen prints of before, some are reproduced with special permission from publishers and would certainly not be available any other way (including in progress shots of Much Ado and my Phonogram back-up story) and some are brand new, never before seen! (if you go for a customisable option, there may also be one of my – erm – naughtier pictures in there, hahaha).

Emma’s Signature page is here.

(more legible larger size)

And, before anyone asks: no, my piece isn’t online. FILAMENT are in business to sell copies of magazines. But I will give you a brief preview:

"At what age is it best to crush a child’s dreams so that they have an easier time stepping in to the status quo?"

You fool. You do not do such things to children. A child is like a poison missile you aim at the Future. You encourage, fund and resource their dreams to the fullest extent of your capability, knowing that your reward will be the pain and misery of generations yet unborn.

(Also in issue three: Gala Darling and Zoe Margolis. Not bad company to be keeping.)

Alan Moore once told me that, in conversation with Julie Schwartz, it has come up that Schwartz, who started out as a literary agent during the pulp years, had met HP Lovecraft. As Alan retells it, he couldn’t help but ask Schwartz what Lovecraft was like. And Schwartz said, “y’know, when I met him, I said to myself, I gotta remember what this guy’s like because in fifty fuckin’ years Alan Moore’s gonna ask me…”

1. League of Extraordinary Steampunks, 2. Crane, 3. All Good Mermaids Have Jazz Hands, 4. super suit.jpg, 5. About to fly home., 6. Private pod

The Kieron Gillen Week, and The R Stevens Diesel Sweeties UFO Shack.

Go and say hello to them.

I pre-ordered this, and am looking forward to digging into it tonight:

Publisher Creation Books (so glad to see them still around!) have a nice little page on the book:

Starting with the guerrilla media tactics of Industrial music in the late 1970s, the author charts an ongoing trend in electronic music: an increasing amount of sonic quality, recorded output and international contact, accomplished with a decreasing amount of tools, personnel, and capital investment. From the use of laptop computers to create massive avalanches of noise, to the establishment of micro-nations populated largely by sound artists, 21st century sound culture is expanding in its scope and popularity even as it shrinks in other respects. The text of MICRO-BIONIC is built up from exhaustive research into the world of audio extremity, including physical travel to the various ‘hot spots’ where these new sounds are made…

–

The author keeps a blog on the book, MICROBIONIC. He seems to be having a bit of a rough time at the moment, in fact.

I’ve always loved electronic music. I have a theory that anyone who lived in Britain through the same period as me has it kind of embedded in them, as it seemed like all children’s tv was scored by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or their peers.

Through this website and this Cafe Press store, we’re going to release one t-shirt a week. It’ll go live on Monday… and it’ll die Sunday night — midnight UK time, more often than not. Each one lives for a week, and then it’s replaced by the next week’s shirt. Until I either run out of dumb ideas or Ariana’s brain explodes.

So, every Monday, I’ll post the new shirt here, and you can peer at it more at http://www.cafepress.com/electrophonic.

Anyway. I present to you T-Shirt Of The Week #007: I ATE THE BABY:

(apologies to the spinning ghost of William Carlos Williams, yes)

We also offer a couple of perennial items. Mostly because I wanted one of these for myself:

(And also a MAN COOK MEAT WITH FIRE "splatter-shield", because Ariana’s crazy)

Thank you for your kind attention.

* THE MANY SUICIDES OF AQUAMAN: The Loneliness Of The Underwater Crimefighter When There’s No Fucking Crime Underwater

* BATMAN’S FATAL HEADSHOT: His Parents Died Twenty Years Ago, But Only Today Did He Find Their Hidden Rape Shed

* My daughter, hanging off the edge of the sofa she’s converted into a sick bed: "I need baconceuticals, old man."

* pitching new tv series SHIT MY DAD SAYS FROM INSIDE HIS CREMATION URN

* constantly disappointed at how few people habitually refer to me as "Love Swami"

(in re: Thanksgiving, and Yanks wishing me a good one:)

* Here in Britain, of course, it’s Thank Fuck We Got Those Weird Jesus Bastards On The Boat Day

* don’t listen to Wil Wheaton. Chloroform is not a flavour.

* LIE TO ME is all I want from evening television: a bloke from London shouting at people and then slapping them around a bit

* If you love something, set it free. With one of those tracker anklets. With a bomb on it.

* Huddled under a grey blanket in an abandoned hospital listening to Leyland Kirby’s doomladen SADLY THE FUTURE IS NO LONGER WHAT IT WAS

* The word that sums up 2009: "moonwater" or "shitbeetles"?

* the term "beard" shall henceforth be replaced by "crackling virility hedge"

* pitching my new tv show BACHELOR ROULETTE: ONE OF THESE WOMEN IS OFF HER ANTI-PSYCHOTICS AND WE GAVE HER A GUN

* I don’t care what anyone says, I’m changing my job description on my passport to "Space Bastard"

* hammer pneumatic fucking drills into that editor’s face until he has arseholes for eyes oh shit twtter’s on hello there

* when i find out who lost every wine opener in this house, i’m going to fucking flay them and sell their skin as cumrags for crackwhores

* @BRIANMBENDIS why don’t you call people back after you sleep with them YOU VENAL SLUT

* #followfriday: the terrifying pill-and-whisky hallucination I had in 1988 @PinocchioWithScreamingCocksForEyes

* #followfriday multi-lobed "human rat king" with intertwined brain stems living under MI5 HQ in London @MisterSexCortex

* Good morning, sinners. One more day of this bullshit to go, and then we can all kill ourselves at the weekend. So SMILE!

* phoning Hollywood to pitch THE MUMMY IV: I SHIT DUST

* Related: also trying to beat out Joss Whedon’s TERMINATOR pitch with TERMINATOR: I SHIT ROBOTS

* But, coming soon, Sandra Bullock romantic comedy I SHIT NEW BOYFRIENDS

* I have 149,935 followers. The 150,000th must kill someone of my choosing or I will murder their family.

* Even when the darkest clouds are in the sky/ You mustn’t sigh and you mustn’t cry/ Spread a little stabbiness as you go by

* i wish to ride into battle upon a school of Mongolian Terror Trout

* and by "ride into battle" i mean "go to the pub"

"Y’know, for kids."

Here’s Lulu’s shipping guide,which helpfully points out the dates you need to order by in order to receive a copy before that hated day.

There is still time.

And once you’ve done that, here’s the storefront for the book.

CATALYST:

THE EDGE:

DOUSEE:

EATSLEEPDRAW:

NO:

LIVING URBANISM:

OUT YONDER:

("an exploration into the free health clinics of Appalachia")

JUSTINA VILLANUEVA:

("For two years, Justina Villanueva has been confined to the dark, moldy basements of New York City’s metal scene. She lives for the stench of tour buses and the aural warfare of death metal festivals. No gig is too small and no band is too loud."

I have a MagCloud RSS feed of new releases going straight to FeedDemon. The above is a topslice of the more interesting-looking stuff I’ve seen pop up there. I will get round to buying most of these before Xmas, with a bit of luck, once I’ve used the Preview function (which is still flaking out in IE8 for me, but working like a dream in Chrome) to flick through them.

It won’t be hard, soon, to regularly curate a list of stuff worth visiting MagCloud for.

1. The Stilton Terrahawks, 2. buttons’ packaging, 3. Pill Lights, 4. , 5. P1010487, 6. The Seine at 4am