A month ago, we told you about a new 12-minute animated film based on the tribulations of the Floyd's lighting director at Detroit's Olympia Stadium, 23rd June 1973. The film, 'Bad Day At The Office', was created by a film-maker fan of the band who created a tongue in cheek animation based on an actual recording of Floyd lighting designer Arthur Max grappling with the technical challenge of working with a brand-new follow-spot crew.

At the time, the venue policy was to use only in-house staff who were more used to covering ice hockey events. The film shows an animated version of Arthur Max trying to work with these new people, and is accompanied by a live rendition of Obscured by Clouds. Some of you will have heard the audio of this during the fourth of the six part Capital Radio Pink Floyd Story from 1976/77, and will know just how amusing it is as Max figuratively pulls his hair out at the people running the lighting. The good news is that the video is just as funny.

Directed by animator Cliff Port and produced by Simone Kay, the world premiere for 'Bad Day at the Office' was at this year's sold out Glastonbury Festival, last weekend, but now they have released the film on YouTube:

On October 2nd, 2013, another book - 'Pink Floyd: Behind The Wall' - joins the shelves of publications looking at the history of the band. The publishers promise "the first complete illustrated history of Pink Floyd from 1965 through today" in this book by noted author and music journalist, Hugh Fielder.

There are of course a number of books along these lines, but hopefully this book will bring the story right up to date with Roger's 2013 tour included. 'Pink Floyd: Behind The Wall' is said to recount "the band's entire history, analyzes their recordings, and provides a complete discography. Readers will discover stories behind the band’s formation, recordings, and tours, as well as the bitter disputes, both public and private. Complemented with more than 250 images, including live performance and candid off-stage photographs, as well as rare memorabilia like gig posters, concert tees, picture sleeves, backstage passes, buttons, and ticket stubs."

We're hoping to bring you a review of this book closer to the date of publication, but in the meantime, if you wish to add this to your collection anyway, you can save up to 22% on the normal selling price through these direct links: Amazon UK, Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Espana and Amazon Italy, who all run a pre-order price guarantee, which means if they price match any other retailer between now and release, or indeed drop the price further, you automatically pay the lowest price.

Orders are now being taken for the recently revealed Official 2014 Pink Floyd Calendar, which is due for publication on July 15th, 2013. An annual favourite amongst fans, the calendar - designed as ever by the good people at StormStudios, and published by the appropriately named Pyramid - celebrates the band over the course of the year, and is often then squirrelled away as a collectable for the years to come!

This year's calendar looks at their entire catalogue, with the cover showing a mosaic of different cover images, with the ever-watchful eye of the Division Bell heads gazing out. As you'll see from the thumbnail of the rear of the calendar, each month tackles a different aspect of the band's history, and each month runs over two 12-inch pages - much akin to a gatefold vinyl album being open to view.

If you want to place your order now, you can do so through these direct links: Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon Espana and Amazon Italy. Order information for Amazon.com and Amazon.ca should be with us soon.

On Thursday, NASA launched the Iris spacecraft on a Pegasus rocket to examine a little-studied region of the sun that it hopes will improve space weather prediction. The satellite was air-launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Thursday evening.

The goal is to learn more about how this mysterious region drives solar wind (a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun) and to better predict space weather that can disrupt communications signals on Earth.

The mission will last two years and will cost US$182 million. Now, normally we wouldn't report on such things, but the if you click on the thumbnail of the mission patch to the left (created for each and every space mission - manned and unmanned) you will see it is a little different this time, and hints at a Pink Floyd fan within the design team of NASA... Our thanks to Tim Taylor for alerting us to this info.