Remember this moment. This could well be the beginning of our long descent into a bad science fiction novel. The kind where we all die at the awful clicking tungsten mandibles of ROBOTS DESIGNED TO EAT EVERYTHING:

A new type of autonomous robot will soon be loosed upon the land. A robot that forages, grazing on weeds and shrubbery, on rotten logs — even on dried out roadkill and other carcasses. This is DARPA’s EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot), by RTI. It will be fueled by the Cyclone external combustion engine that can run on virtually any type of dry carbonaceous material.

That includes, of course, well-rotted human flesh.

The terms they’d like us to use include "sustainable machines" and "autonomous foraging robots." But you know what they really are. Look at them:

These are crawling death robots who want to gnaw the meat off our bones. Kill your children now, so that they don’t have to suffer.

(Okay, I admit it, they really look like this:)

My friend John Rogers’ tv show LEVERAGE got picked up for a second season on TNT.  Congratulations, mate.

"Birthdays!"

(don’t look)

(actually, I bloody hate birthdays. So if you think I’m doing that for mine, you are nine kinds of wrong.)

1. Snow Hat, 2. crystal palace tower, 3. Snow, 4. Greenwich Park, Royal Observatory Greenwich and National Maritime Museum in the Snow, 5. Snow, 6. nivina and rae

One of my favourite music writers ever, Simon Reynolds, is now blogging regularly for the web end of the Guardian newspaper here in Britain. This is his first piece:

In the age of Blogger, Live Journal and other online formats for non-professional music commentary, the fanzine ought be on its last legs, a relic of another era, as antiquated as an electric typewriter. Yet strangely zines are holding their ground. People still make them. And it’s not just die-hard veterans from the golden age of the fanzine (approximately 1977 to 1994, punk rock to riot grrl) but younger people who’ve never known a world without email and the web. Although it’s hard to quantify, it feels like the fanzine is making a resurgence in the face of digital culture…

Which I find particularly interesting in light of recent thoughts about Papernet.

More gold from EnglishRussia: detailing the revival of the practise of turning old railway carriages into churches. I suspect these may make an appearance in a project I’m developing with the working title ATOMGRAD.

Things happening today at my internet cave of horrors:

* Self Portrait Imagethread for the month is up.

* As is the monthly reboot of the most inexplicably popular regular thread on Whitechapel, The I Did Not Need To See That Imagethread.

* Musicians, Bands, Singers, Noisemakers: Thread is open for people who make music to plug their new stuff, drop links to their sites, show off and talk among themselves. We like music here, and need more.

* Webcomics Week 2009: you do a webcomic? Come and tell me about it. People are watching. You want their eyeballs.

* The Battlestar Galactica thread that I seem unable to obliterate.

* If you’re new to the place, please do Introduce Yourselves.

* Cherie Priest (first) and Caitlin Kittredge (second) have been shooting new author photos for each other:

Which I post for no other reason than that my friends are pretty and that they’re on tour soon.

* Remember I muttered the other day that 2009 could prove to be the year of POD? Looks like Jamais Cascio may be testing the hypothesis:

* Magdalene Veen is taking off some of her clothes at something called Zivity, she tells me. Track the weird spacegirl here.

* I know I’ve got readers in Tokyo. You people should be following Jean Snow, if you’re not already. Old friend of mine. Arranges great events.

* D’Israeli on drawing the TORCHWOOD comic. Also, a nice preview of his LOWLIFE and other art.

* Bryan Lee O’Malley:

* William Gibson: Steampunk And Hubertus Bigend.

* Irene Kaoru lives:

Good news: I just got an email letting me know that my photograph, “The strange forest,” was accepted into the Work/Wassaic “I Heart Art” benefit show! The show will be February 14th from 1-4 pm and will include bands, an affordable auction, cupcakes and beer! The piece will be a special edition signed 5×7? print.

Currently infesting my internet cave of freaks:

* Webcomics Week 2009. You do a webcomic? Tell us about it. Many people want to read your webcomic. Not all of them have diseases.

* REMAKE/REMODEL: The Black Terror. Regular thread for artists to reinvent crappy old characters returns.

So I saw my friend Budgie say to Ariana, “Ariana – what would a “kids’ page” of warrenellis.com look like?”

And then I found this.

Ariana, of course, is going to prison.