* Webcomics Week (Oct 7-14 2010) – You do a webcomic? Come and tell us about it, while everyone else is at NYCC.

* New Comics Talk (6oct10)

* T-shirt Of The Fortnight #003: BEER IS MY TOTEM ANIMAL

* Musicians, Bands And Noisemakers: Work, Sites & Gigs

• UD researcher on project team for NASA’s first visit to the sun
  "A University of Delaware researcher is helping to design instruments for a robotic space probe that will go where no other has gone before: the sun."
  (tags:space SET+CONTROLS+FOR+THE+HEART+OF+THE+SUN also+there+was+a+Sun+Probe+in+THUNDERBIRDS )
• Hungary sludge flood called ‘ecological disaster’ – Yahoo! News
  "Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties Tuesday after a flood of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant engulfed several towns and burned people through their clothes. One official called it "an ecological disaster" that may threaten the Danube and other key rivers."
  (tags:eco horror )

From Creative Review’s coverage of the Brighton Biennial.

…a series of photographs by Nick Gleis which reveal the interior opulence of the private jets owned by African dictators in the 1960s and 70s.

And that’s one of the problems with crazy sci-fi design in the real world: it never belongs to the people you want it to belong to, and it carries a completely different and sinister statement about who owns the future.

Versace doing SPACE:1999 set design. It should have been Freeman Dyson’s ride.

Russell Davies agonising a bit over what to write in his next WIRED UK column. I go through exactly the same thing for mine. At least I now know what to avoid agonising over this weekend.

Also, Russell, this?

I sometimes think all this talk of atemporality is an abdication of sci-fi responsibility. SF writers seem very keen to deny that they’re writing about the future. They’re not doing prediction, they’re telling us about the now. OK. Well. Pack it in and get on with some prediction.

SF was never really about prediction. It was about extrapolation from the present condition, usually (in the classical traditional) to observe and comment upon the present condition. Which isn’t the same thing. "Prediction" is sf’s side effect.

Prettymaps– post-digital design decadence in action. Maps that don’t tell you a damned thing. Like hammering a tool flat so you can hang it attractively on a wall. Very pretty, mind you. But I’ve not seen a prettymap yet that I can use like an actual map. I’m cheating here, because I’m linking you to a prettymap that is being sold as a print. (Here’s a fairer link.) But presumably I’m missing the point of prettymaps in general. On the other hand, my GPS doesn’t show me the Doctor Who time-tunnel howlaround when I’m trying to navigate rural Suffolk.

Charlie Huston continues to swing the hammer at the Mulholland Books blog:

You can’t, as the comedians are wont to say, make this shit up.

Facts, in these situation, kick the shit out of fiction every fucking time.

The present moment is born of the past. The future moment is born also of the past, and the now.

1 in 5 children born from the past into present poverty. How the fuck did that happen?

On graphic novels that would make interesting film adaptations. Got a little punchy by this point:

….”Gone With The Wind” with Jason Statham playing all the roles and nut-punching alien coke-rhinos from beyond space in the laser-scorched plantation fields of Georgia…

(Artemus Engle)

I am delighted to note that Alex Cox’ wonderful adaptation of Borges’ DEATH AND THE COMPASS, starring Peter Boyle and Christopher Eccleston, has been made available for free viewing by DailyMotion and the BFI. This film absolutely charmed me when I saw it on its original tv screening, many years ago, and I cherished a videotape of it until the thing all but dissolved.

Death and the compass
Uploaded by BFIfilms. – Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Ian Holloway’s new collection. Major Radiophonic Workshop vibe. You know I love the Confusing English Electronic Music. Move on if that sort of thing doesn’t twiddle your knobs, obviously. I think this is gorgeous, diaphanous and glittering.

• NASA mission ‘E-Minus’ one month to comet flyby
  "We use 'E-minus' to help with our mission planning," said Tim Larson, EPOXI mission project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The 'E' stands for encounter, and that is exactly what is going to happen one month from today, when our spacecraft has a close encounter with comet Hartley 2."
  (tags:space )

Katelan Foisy: Creating A Death Goddess

BRANCHES feat. Carin – “C o o l K i d s.” I’m a complete sucker for this sound. Note first 12 seconds are silent.

On my visit to the RED set:

Cully got to visit the set in warm and wonderful New Orleans. They liked Cully. Cully’s a clever artist what draws the pretty pictures. Me? I got sent to Toronto in the middle of their worst winter in years. They were building shelters for the homeless out of frozen hipsters on Yonge Street…

From OSBORN #1, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and art by Emma Rios. Here’s a page. Link for embiggening. I got to see the script for this bit, which was complex and clever, and Emma’s nailed it. I’ve written a back-up story for this issue, which will be out mid-November.

Been in London, having meetings and stuff. Back home now. Normal-ish service resumes shortly.

First of my guest posts about RED.

Today’s bon mot from Paul Morley in the Observer:

• Huge Windstorm Spawns New Classification: ‘Super Derecho’
  "A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri and Illinois in May 2009 was so fierce that it has earned a brand-new name: super derecho."
  (tags:weather dooooom dooooooooom )
• Light Painting with an HTC Desire ? Blog ? BERG
  "Janine Pauke has been emulating the light-painting technique we used in Making Future Magic. Instead of an iPad, she?s been using her mobile phone, and slicing her own 3D models up." Small neon spaceship flying through a house at night.
  (tags:art photography )
• Why Wesabe Lost to Mint – Marc Hedlund’s blog
  Interesting postmortem, one question unresolved: how the fuck do you pronounce Wesabe? Wee-sayb? Weh-sar-bay? Wee-say-be? Hard to recommend something you can't reliably pronounce. (There are one or two other clangers in there that I'll leave you to enjoy.)
  (tags:web )