• Cave Entrances Found on Mars
  The holes, which the researchers have dubbed the “Seven Sisters,” are at very high altitudes on the planet
  (tags: space caves+of+mars)
• Police raid doomsday cult born from floods | Oddly Enough | Reuters
  Apocalyptic sects are a particularly sensitive subject for the east African nation, where another group killed nearly 800 followers in massacres and a mass suicide
  (tags: cult)
• RIA Novosti – Russia – Boy survives two-hour flight to Moscow hanging onto plane wing
  The airport did not confirm the report. “We have no information on this,” the Vnukovo press service told RIA Novosti. However, Moscow’s air and water transport control department said the radio’s claim was true.
  (tags: bullshit good+story+though)

My old mate Charlie Stross, one of the best science fiction novelists alive today, is being shipped out of Edinburgh on an October western-US signing tour. Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. All details are here. I urge those of you in these areas to go and see him, and certainly to buy a book (I personally recommend ACCELERANDO and SINGULARITY SKY). Also, you should throw panties at him.

(“Battle Ready?”)

Out today for free download.

I’ve decided to start podcasting mixtapes of music released freely on to the net by new, unsigned and indie bands — again. (I seem to do this once every year or two — piloted a third run earlier in the year but the hosting shat itself).
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Whenever I did this before, the audience seemed to be between 1500 and 5000 people.
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So if you?re making music yourself, and you?d like me to listen to your stuff towards including it in a podcast, email an mp3, ideally 128kbps or above, to warrenellis@gmail.com, along with a link to your website. Obviously, I won?t be able to include everything I receive in whatever podcast I finally make, but everything will get listened to. (Please DON’T send me other people’s music just because you really like it.)
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(warrenellis@gmail.com isn’t my main personal address, so don’t otherwise contact me on it looking for an instant response.)
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Thanks for your time.

Judith and Holofernes

Monkey Shoulder: a blend of small-batch single malts from three Speyside distilleries, casked in batches of 27. Because it’s a blend, you shouldn’t be afraid to mix it — straight, it has strong vanilla notes, and a long honey and malt finish. Powerful Speyside nose to it. Also good for replacing your blood with. As I am, right now.

I’ve been reading this near-religiously for years, but I don’t mention it often for some reason. Julian Cope’s monthly Address Drudion is an essential pitstop for anyone who just fucking loves language. For there is little better than watching M’Lud Yatesbury fuck language lovingly as he tries to describe what’s in his head and his ears.

This looks interesting: a quarterly sf anthology that combines prose and short comics, featuring work from the likes of Richard Calder and Jon Courtenay Grimwood. All details at http://murkydepths.com/.

• BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Injured man sent for post mortem
  An error in paperwork sent a man in Venezuela, who was knocked unconscious in a road accident, for an autopsy… His wife, who had been told he had died, later found him lying on a hospital trolley in a corridor…
  (tags: crime med)

1) Stephen Fry has a blog. 2) Stephen Fry is a bigger nerd about smartphones than even I am. 3) I need a drink.

“He was set about and caged by crazed valkyries, and still cannot talk about the appalling depredations visited upon his poor twisted avatar without crying…”

• The Futurist: The Top Ten Transhumanist Technologies
  criticism of the Lifeboat piece
  (tags: sci future)
• LF Special Report: Top Ten Transhumanist Technologies
  report by the Lifeboat Foundation
  (tags: sci future)
• BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Georgia clues to human origins
  A team of scientists working in Georgia has unearthed the remains of four human-like creatures dating to 1.8 million years ago.
  (tags: history)

You let it burn for three minutes — watching worrying chemical processes occur in the blue fluid as it flames and flares — to bring it down to 45% vol. I got bored after a minute and a half. My God.

Coming soon:

Originally uploaded by NebulaskiN.

(“Spotted on the back of a PT cruiser in the cinema car park last night. I’ve only ever driven a Cruiser in Gran Turismo, from which experience I would have to agree that it is evil.”)