"That's no moon...it's Rob's Random 5!"

1. Parker: In the last Random 5 I mentioned Darwyn Cooke (who's my favourite comic-book artist/storyteller and who I really can't praise enough) and his graphic adaptation of the first book in Richard Stark's 'Parker' series. Well, I was delighted to see today that the first print run has sold out and the publisher IDW is running a second print. This comes after Cooke's adaptation was rightfully praised by everyone reviewing it - from the New York Times to Entertainment Weekly. It's astonishingly good and I can't wait for the next three he's adapting over the coming few years. Even if you're not a fan of comic books or graphic novels I'd urge you to buy/read it because frankly it's the best piece of fiction published this year, and I don't say that with hyperbole.

2. Twitter: I joined Twitter last week and I have to admit I'm not really getting it. Maybe it's because I'm still getting used to the whole thing or because I find myself with nothing to Tweet about, but I just don't find it very interesting. It's me, I know. I don't lead a terrifically interesting life and when I do have something I want to say the chances are that 140 characters isn't quite enough room for my insane and pointless ramblings. I use Facebook for my craziness. And I find that a lot of the people I want to hear from aren't actually on Twitter or don't Tweet very often (Darwyn Cooke, where are you? Jasper Fforde, Tweet more often!). To be honest, if it weren't for Stephen Colbert's hilarious Tweets, and Wil Wheaton's geek-centric updates I might have given the whole thing up several days back. For me Twitter is still very much on a probationary period. Impress me Twitter!

3. Science: Did Cancer get cured without my knowledge? Or did someone invent anti-gravity while I wasn't looking? No? Well then get back to f**king work Science and start coming up with my anti-Cancer jab and my hover-bed, because right now some of your research is a little, shall we say, 'Pub-talk based'. This week there was a widely-published report from a Canadian University about the possible effects of an outbreak (or should that be 'ootbreak'?) of zombies. Apparently if zombies were real we'd all be screwed. However, as they are not real, I find myself wondering what the point of the whole thing was and wondering if I should have become a PhD scientist so I could study, oh I don't know, the mating rituals of dragons, or the effect of Wi-Fi on unicorns. Please, if you are a scientist doing reasearch on a stupid/pointless subject then put down your test tubes and titration sets and go help out the scientists working on worthwhile endeavours. That way we can all have our cancer-curing hover-bots when we're living on the Moon.

4. Shooting Stars: I am extremely excited to see that Shooting Stars is returning to TV. In honour of this good news, let's summon down the Dove from Above

5. Trunk-nology: This article on io9 caught my eye, partly because it's the Best Article Title Ever, and also it's a story that will warm your heart. Awww... Also, it features cool technology. Lazy/pointless scientists mentioned in '3', this is what you should be doing!