Warren Ellis can be contacted, on general matters, via WarrenE@aol.com.

Mail can be sent to Warren Ellis via DC Vertigo at 1700 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, USA.

Do not send your stories, scripts, synopses, pitches or homework. I can’t legally look at them, and I’m not doing your bloody theses. All will be destroyed unread. I cannot autograph and return your comics.

Please don’t send me bombs.

– W

That rat bastard Jeffrey Rowland has, as expected, abused me in an episode of OVERCOMPENSATING:

Hurricane Wilma, which has swelled into a dangerous Category Five storm, is the strongest hurricane ever recorded, the US National Hurricane Center says. At least 11 people have been killed in Haiti by floods and landslides associated with Wilma.

(Look. It’s this and bird flu, or it’s my friends’ bums. Make your call.)

Molly’s store: including t-shirts, badges, mirrors, mugs, bottleopeners, mouse mats, stickers, and these –

(Yes, it seems to be turning into “buy stuff from people I know” week. Look, it’s this or more bird flu stories.)

Kodansha has pulled 25 works by cartoonist Yuki Suetsugu out of print and is withdrawing the remaining copies, over allegations that she stole images from the popular “Slam Dunk” comic books by Takehiko Inoue.

Kodansha officials said Suetsugu had used images from “Slam Dunk” in her 12-part comic-book series “Eden no Hana.”

In addition to taking all 25 of her works out of print, it has decided to halt publication of the series “Silver” appearing in monthly publication “Bessatsu Friend.”

Officials said the stolen images were used in a basketball scene, and bore a close resemblance to those in “Slam Dunk.” Suetsugu has admitted having copied the images.

“I caused great trouble through my low morals and my naivety,” she said in an apology posted on Kodansha’s Web site.

The Department for Health is to buy enough vaccine to cover the whole UK population in the event of a bird flu pandemic.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said 120 million doses would be needed. But he said it could not be developed until the exact strain of the flu virus causing the pandemic was known.

The ability of EU nations to coordinate their efforts to tackle a pandemic is to be tested in simulation exercise. Updated guidance on how to prepare for a possible pandemic was published by the Chief Medical Officer on Wednesday…

On Wednesday an outbreak of the virus was reported in poultry in the Russian province of Tula, to the south of Moscow.

China also announced a fresh outbreak in the country – revealing that 2,600 birds have died from the disease in Inner Mongolia…

Hurricane Wilma, the 12th hurricane of the season to threaten the Caribbean and Florida coastline, has strengthened into a dangerous Category Five storm.

Its maximum winds of near 175mph (280km/h) are threatening Cuba, Mexico and the Cayman Islands, which have issued warnings in coastal areas. Forecasters say Wilma presents a “significant threat” to Florida, which it is expected to hit this weekend. The Central American states of Honduras and Nicaragua have also issued alerts.

…a key reading of its pressure was the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic basin: 882 millibars.

It’s “the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, stronger than Gilbert” in 1988, National Hurricane Center forecaster Jennifer Pralgo told CBS Radio News…

A new species of marine worm that lives off whale bones on the sea floor has been described by scientists.

The creature was found on a minke carcass in relatively shallow water close to Tjarno Marine Laboratory on the Swedish coast. Such “zombie worms”, as they are often called, are known from the deep waters of the Pacific but their presence in the North Sea is a major surprise.

Adrian Glover and Thomas Dahlgren tell the journal the new species has been named Osedax mucofloris, which literally means “bone-eating snot-flower”.

“They look like flowers poking out of the whale bone. The analogy goes a bit further because they have a root system that goes into the bone,” Dr Glover, a researcher at London’s Natural History Museum, told the BBC News website. “The part of the animal that is exposed to the seawater is covered in a ball of mucus, so they are quite snotty. That is probably a defence mechanism…”

SNAKES ON A PLANE. Except it has nothing to do with that film, which doesn’t come out until next year. But you still want this.

Ask a Russian where television, fashion shows, hip-hop or hieroglyphs were invented and you will no doubt hear — in Russia. Believing in the Russian genius is an essential feature of the Russian mentality. That is why no Russian was surprised when we found out with the help of Lenta.ru the Internet in general, and blogging in particular, was, if not invented, at least predicted by a Russian back in 1837.

Prince Vladimir Odoevsky, 1803-1869, was a gifted man. Apart from writing philosophical books, stories for children and composing pieces of music, he also wrote science fiction, trying to imagine what his country would look like in 2,500 years, in 4338.

Odoevsky suggested in future there would be a kind of connection between houses that would allow people to communicate quickly and easily, the way they do now via the Internet. “Houses are connected by means of magnetic telegraphs that allow people who live far from each other to communicate,” Odoevsky wrote.

Even more interestingly, Odoevsky suggested every household would publish a kind of daily journal or newsletter and distribute it among selected acquaintances, a habit which Russian bloggers immediately recognized as blogging…

Conspiracy Planet – Killer Spooks – Opus Dei Conspiracy: Spy Teams-Hit Squads in USAThis is a cilice, or spiked chain, worn around the upper thigh for two hours each day by Opus Dei members.

Matt Jones:

Katie West:

CNN – Tropical Storm Wilma now Category 1 hurricane in western Caribbean, with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph.

Greece has become the latest country to report a case of bird flu as the virus appears to spread across Europe.

Twelve swans have also tested positive for bird flu in a second cluster in Romania.

And the European Commission has ordered urgent tests on dead birds found in Croatia.

Meanwhile in Asia, the deadly H5N1 strain has been detected in sparrows in Thailand.

A surgeon who left three patients permanently damaged and one dead is still working at an Auckland hospital, even though a damning report says he should have been suspended years ago.

…the tribunal censured the doctor and fined him $20,000 after complaints from three patients about operations he performed at a South Island hospital between October 2001 and March 2003. They said he:

Stapled a woman’s vaginal wall to her bowel during colostomy surgery, and did not tell her about the complications after surgery. She discovered the problem after excreting through her vagina…

(Found by Jarrett Filmer, thanks)

WEST NEW YORK, N.J., Oct. 11 – About a year ago, a girl was born in this working-class town and was promptly flung out of a third-floor window. She tumbled down a thin air shaft, naked, her umbilical cord still attached. Her head smashed into the concrete 31 feet below. She died instantly. And there she lay, unnamed, buried in a grave of garbage and cigarette packs.

On the morning of Sept. 13, another baby was born and he, too, was shoved through the same window, splattering blood through neighbors’ window panes as he fell, landing with a thud near the decaying body of his sister. His screams cut through the walls, and neighbors called the police. His skull cracked, and his eye was blackened, but he lived.

The authorities soon learned that the mother of the two children was Lucila Ventura, an 18-year-old immigrant from El Salvador. Their father was a 44-year-old named Jose Julio Ventura. But he is not just the father of Lucila’s children, the police say. He is also their grandfather…

…as the police responded to reports of a crying infant, they found only David, with no clue to how he got to the bottom of the 3.5-by-5-foot shaft. But as they looked up, they saw blood on the windowsill of the Venturas’ bathroom window. Once inside the apartment, the police said, investigators found blood everywhere.

A day later, as maintenance workers cleared the garbage that had broken the newborn’s fall, they found what they thought was a doll. It turned out to be the mummified remains of his sister…

Following this, I am getting pelted with questions about my involvement in a possible CASTLEVANIA TV series, apparently because my name is linked with it here.

I had nothing to do with the linking of my name with CASTLEVANIA, have never played the game and have never clapped eyes on James Jean, whom I believe is a popular illustrator with the young people of today. I have no further comment to make at this time.

Obviously, I am to be trusted in all things.

– W

The Apparat Programme broadcast at ninety-six kilobits per second in broadband 1: here we go again

(34.20mins) (23.5MB) (direct download)

Pick up The Apparat Programme automatically via podcasty thing or fucking iTunes using this address: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Apparat

All music donated to the Programme by the artists. The running order for Programme 1 is:

“Zurishaddai” – P.13
“Cheap And Spiteful” – Kabarette Obscura
“No Human Words” – Saint Eve
“It Was Summer” – Electrum
“Another Song About The Darkness” – Lauren Hoffman
“Four Color Love Story” – The Metasciences
“Brent Oh Brent” – RAIDEN BATHROOM!
“Chinchilla The Chilla” – The Chris Farley Arcade
“Black Widow” – Crawling Kingsnakes
“Eat That Egg Fast” – Russell Davies