• Physicists close two loopholes while violating local realism
  "Special relativity then ensures that the objects cannot influence each other, since no physical signals can travel faster than the speed of light. In these experiments, classically unexplainable correlations were still observed between the objects, indicating a violation of local realism."
  (tags:sci )
• Shonky futurism: debunking Kurzweil – Futurismic
  "This one should set the transhumanist blogosphere alight for a week or so; IEEE Spectrum has an article that carefully picks apart the futurist predictions of Ray Kurzweil, prophet of the Technological Singularity. In summary: the best way to make successful predictions is to couch them vaguely enough that you can argue for their veracity after the point"
  (tags:futurism nutter )
• pretty dumb things: at the saloon at the ends of the worlds
  “I could crap a better existence than this.”
  (tags:writing )
• Adventures in Killing the Radio Star by Unfortunate Productions ? Kickstarter
  "The Rock God ideal of "sex, drugs, & rock n roll" is an antiquated notion. For today?s independent musician, touring, internet presence and publicity are more important than ever. This film is an exploration and celebration of the changing face of independent music told by the enthusiasts, supporters & hard-working musicians keeping it alive."
  (tags:film )

This week, new comics are being released to specialty comics shops in Canada on Dec 1, in the US on Dec 2, and in the UK… I don’t know. Dec 2 or 3? The snow’s looking kind of rough outside. I could be wrong about all of this. Time is out of joint.

KING CITY #12. Ah, KING CITY. Brandon Graham. Brandon is sort of a floating zen savant of comics. Madness falls out of his pen in such apparently effortless hyperdetailed ligne-claire waves of invention that other comics people just kind of stare and weep. The image above will be printed on the inside front/inside back over of the book. Click to embiggen. Would you like to see some of it? These, too, are clicky for increasedness.

EDGE OF DOOM is Steve Niles and Kelley Jones doing their own little TWILIGHT ZONE series on paper. Each issue a self-contained story, with no connection to the others, other than, you know, being dooooomed. #2 is out this week, and worth a look — Niles writes a snappy short story, and Jones’ art is always gorgeously odd.

GENERATION HOPE #2: all I know about this is that it’s a Marvel comic, something to do with the X-Men, and written by the excellent Kieron Gillen. So you should probably look at it. Yes.

EDIT: because I didn’t know what this book was, I asked Gillen to tell me. He said:

GENERATION HOPE is about the first mutants born after a long gap coming to terms with whatever that means in 2010. The first arc is about art and inspiration. Being a superhero comic, we do this by messing up Tokyo with a mass of biomechanical tentacles in true 80s Bodyhorror style. It’s basically My (So-called) Life meets The Authority.

So now we are all wiser.

Image via Wikipedia

Jeff Smith’s RASL has been a very slow burn: #9 comes out this week. I was once told that Smith wanted to do this book in an outsize format, but several retailers, including my late friend Rory Root, talked him out of it. I could have bent Rory’s walking stick around his head for that, and told him so. To have had that much more space in pages that are about space and spaces… Still, although a slow build, RASL’s assembled itself into an interesting, off-kilter piece of science fiction that will speak to anyone who likes, say, FRINGE. And while #9 might not be the best place to start, I wanted to bring it to your attention if you didn’t already know of it. And your local comics shop probably has back issues, or the first two collections — which are, pleasingly, oversized editions.

ACHEWOOD HC VOL 03: HOME FOR SCARED PEOPLE – I love ACHEWOOD. Don’t know if I love it enough to want it in HC, but I love it nonetheless. Comics industry note: the deeper into deadline insanity Matt Fraction goes, the more he talks like Roast Beef.

And, in a terrible case of whorebaggery, I would remind you that SUPERGOD #5 ships this week, and here is a preview. Also, the paperback of the fourth and final PLANETARY collection, SPACETIME ARCHAEOLOGY, is released. So is something called VAMPIRELLA MASTERS SERIES TP VOL 02 WARREN ELLIS, but I don’t know anything about that. I did a bit of VAMPIRELLA back in the 1990s, because I wanted to work with the series artist, Amanda Conner. I’m presuming this is a collection, but I don’t know precisely what’s in it.

Related articles

• comicsweek 24nov10 (warrenellis.com)
• GUEST INFORMANT: Steven Shaviro (warrenellis.com)

For a while, I had a capture of my twitter feed running here. It ended up doing something weird to my API calls, stopping me from running my desktop client, so I killed it. Which is probably just as well, as I talk a lot of shit on Twitter. It’s basically mental slurry, the wet lumpy bits from a day spent at the keyboard vented off into a trap so the buildup doesn’t blow some crucial valve in my head. Look at these, from the last month:

* “BBC: Package is not a bomb but is “potentially sinister.”" “Potentially sinister” describes half the people I know.

* Good morning. There is no god, no-one really loves anyone and you’re going to die soon. Have a great Thursday.

* What? I bring joy to the world. I am filled with mirth and sunlight. Also, I am Batman.

* Spent last 3 hrs un-virusing Lili’s laptop & explaining that if I catch her using IE again I will confiscate her arms.

* This halloween I am going out dressed as the man who turned all the children who knocked at his door into a skin cloak

* @RobertKirkman If you want a damned good thrashing for being a language-mangling colonial oik, then, certainly, my good man. (takes snuff)

(The above appears to be in response to Robert Kirkman asking if he can call me “dude.”)

* (I’m allowed to make up words like “hauntophonic.” I have awards.)

* I kind of love that there’s a designer called Helmut Stab.

* Ah. NASA believe they may have found a young black hole relatively locally. That’ll be where my fucking socks are, then.

* Home. Switching feeds on. Atomic batteries to power, turbines to speed, etc. (slumps in chair, twitches weakly)

* it seems this bottle of dark mead makes me mighty like Mind Viking and yet easily confused like… easily confused thing

* keeping mealtimes interesting for a teenage daughter: waving a machete while intoning “THE EMBACONING COMMENCES”

* Hoping I get to fly to America again soon. The TSA Grope sounds like the sort of thing I’d usually have to pay for.

* Half the joy, sometimes, is in putting together people from disparate but creative fields and seeing what happens.

* The other half of the joy, of course, was spitting in all their drinks while they weren’t looking. Off to forage for food now.

* Weaving, bescarfed fop on borisbike, I WILL instruct this cab driver to run you the fuck down

* Limehouse, you are still a toilet with roadsigns

* I am shocked to discover at this late date, that “Into The Valley” actually had lyrics aside from “Into the valley.”

* You know, I have this feeling that I’m STILL not going to get a parang for Xmas. I just don’t understand why.

* Also, @Templesmith has convinced me that I need a chariot. That’s not asking much, is it? A chariot and a parang.

* @Templesmith give us a rendition of “Sun Arise” then paint Uluru using only pigments derived from your own body fluids

* @Templesmith wugga wugga kin ya tell what it is yet YES IT’S A FUCKING SQUID tie me cephalopod down sport

* @Templesmith I just wrote you an entire variety show in like a single twoot. We should call our agent.

* Sarah Palin’s going to visit you in your dreams wearing a fresh bearskin and a wooden strap-on, you mark my words.

* People need to stop blaming me for the weather. It’s not like I’m some kind of grumpy northern ice god. No, really.

* The official Kremlin advent calendar is a 25-photo sequence of Vladimir Putin shagging a bear and making the bear like it.

* see me spread joy across the internets like aerosolised rabbit semen

* Pre-dawn glow outside at 11pm: snow on the ground, snow in the sky, all reflecting streetlights, everything stained amber.

* this is going to be like that time when Joss Whedon tried to make me drink his spit, I just know it

Snowing hard. But at Ellis Castle I am inviolate. We begin.

This is warren ellis dot com. Good morning, sinners.

• polis: Territories of Spatial (in)Justice
  "While one method of investigating spatial justice is by mapping urban data, it is essential for such maps to transcend a mere communication of facts, and to begin explorations of resistance and transformation rather than mere representation."
  (tags:cities )
• Found Objects: The Ghost Telephone
  "Bernard Jones, inventor of "The Perceptor" and a telephone to call the "other side". A video about this here"
  (tags:haunt )

Ariana has built a thing so that my friends can sort out your Xmas shopping for you. It is http://2010shopping.tumblr.com. Take a look. Someone in your life will want a poster illustrating all the ways in which the world will end, as written by a respected future strategist. A Wil Wheaton t-shirt. And I could go on, but I need caffeine, so just click through and take a look for yourself.

Out from Wednesday, the end of the serial. A little delayed — I think I broke the artist. The first sequence of #5 can be seen at this link here.

So Ariana had a brain seizure over the weekend, and this is the result. And you can buy it. Never say we don’t love the Giftmas season.

From Audrey Eschright, who says:

I made a station identification image from a picture of Creepius Bear, who is part of a project to talk about online sharing and privacy issues. My website is lifeofaudrey.comand Creepius has his own Facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/creepius.

How to describe this? “Gothic Breakcore”? Tormented and crunching.

• BBC News – Cosmos may show echoes of events before Big Bang
  "The events appear as "rings" around galaxy clusters in which the variation in the background is unusually low."
  (tags:space )

Parked my place on Diaspora. Am on Instagram as warrenellis. There is an Official Compound on Facebook that mirrors this site, my Flickr stream and Tumblr reblogs. (I do have a personal Facebook page, but tend to only add friends and fellow travellers at best.)

This is rather pretty, and, I think, will be my work soundtrack for tonight. Click through to pick up the download for a minimal six US dollars. Layers of electronic wash and mutated instruments over eccentric percussion.

It’s a little chilly today, yes. This is warren ellis dot com, updating sporadically over the weekend.

• Swede broadcasts music from his stomach
  "A Swedish man broadcast music from his stomach for several hours via a mini audio system, but said he was disappointed by the sound quality."
  (tags:music tech nutter )

A fine interview by Carl Watkins with Paul Alborough, alias chap-hop gentleman of performance Professor Elemental. This bit made me smile:

GG:Your most recent single, “Fighting Trousers,” seems to really be picking up steam and is quickly becoming a viral video hit, collecting over 100,000 views in the week since it’s been posted. This week it’s also the 48th most favorited music video on youtube. How does it feel to be getting so much international attention and praise from people like writer Warren Ellis?

PA:It’s been brilliant! I mean, Warren Ellis?! My favourite writer saying nice things about my words is pretty much as good as it gets for a comic geek like me. Plus I have had more odd offers than I could have possibly imagined: everything from gigs in aquariums to offers to do a nude photo shoot. I had to say no to that last one though, I don’t think people are quite ready for me to do the full monty, despite the fact that I have honed my body to near physical perfection.

For artists who like to play around in public, the new REMAKE/REMODEL art challenge is up at my message board. All are welcome.