Crop Circle Madness

Don Smith sent in this rather humorous photo, which would appear at first glance to be an abortive attempt at a crop circle.  If so, then our fateful alien artist has tied on a good one.  For it would seem inebriation and driving is not solely a human malady! 

Don explains:

• I came across (this pic) while actually having a serious discussion about ancient aliens, modern visitations, other worlds and dimensions.

What's more is the shear scale of this "project"!     Use the cars at the bottom for scale and you can see that our artist, earnestly covered several acres!  That what I call dedication.  And the fortitude?!  This had to have been at least two kegs!  There is an alien artist that surely loves its' work. 

Looking For Exo - Civilizations

In this recent Daily Galaxy article I found a really novel approach for looking for life or more to the fact, thriving high tech civilizations on other planets.   In the past astronomers have looked for alien civilizations by listening for radio signals or looking for ultra-short laser pulses.   Now in the past it was not uncommon to listen in the communications bands as well hoping that we literally "listen in" for  extraterrestrial intelligence.  The problem in that approach is that like us it is not unreasonable to expect that many of these signals would be shielded or better focused and in cable for television and phone, therefor making such signals almost impossible to detect.

Now astronomers from Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Princeton University have suggested a novel idea for detecting alien societies - urban lights.

It is a beautifully simple idea and it is played out every 90 minutes or so aboard the ISS.   It is a very striking sight to see the lights of the big cities glowing on the night side of Earth.   A truly vigorous society on another planet would almost certainly have bright cities at night.   No matter what wavelength these lifeforms would see in, artificial lighting is all but a given in a city environment.   The astronomers are of the mindset that the total change in light levels  from a planet with city lighting will vary in a way that is measurably different from a planet that has no artificial lights.

It really is a brilliant and brilliantly simple idea.  Read the complete Daily Galaxy blog article here.

Weaver's Screen Test for Ripley!

Check out the screen test that Sigourney Weaver did for her Alien character Ripley. This is a screen test? She nails it so close that I found myself thinking, I don't remember this part exactly! IO9 reports that the clip is part of the Alien anthology box set, out Oct. 26th.

"Alien" prequel still moving ahead

From EW.com 's blog PopWatch comes news of the ongoing prequel to the movie "Alien"

Rumor has it that Gemma Arterton, of Prince of Persia fame, might be Ridley Scott’s choice for the heroine in his latest project in the Alien franchise.

A rep from the Arterton camp is claiming though that there was no truth to the rumor. BUUUUUUUUUT EW reports that when they talked to Gemma directly, she didn't rule out the possibility.

From the article :

• (Arterton said) “The honest truth is that Ridley Scott has approached me to meet with him about something in the next few weeks,”

Ripley's Power Loader Suit a Reality!

Check it out! Sci-fi tech meets the real world. What am I blabbin on about? Well remember that scene in Alien when Ripley climbs into the powerloader exoskeleton to do damage to the queen? Well science fiction has again influenced real world tech thanks to Japan's Activelink. Check out this video of the real deal in action!

Alien Prequel Confirmed

SF Wire is reporting that rumors that Alien was up for a remake are true.

• Producer Tony Scott confirmed that he and brother Ridley Scott are developing a prequel film to Ridley's original Alien movie, with Carl Rinsch directing.

• Scott said that he hopes to get the movie before cameras ""hopefully [by] the end of the year" for a summer 2011 release.

more

No Aliens For Alien 5?!! WTF?

From IO9: Sigourney Weaver has revealed that she and Ridley Scott have talked about teaming up to make Alien 5 - but are thinking about leaving the alien out of the movie altogether. Is that WTF or the work of genius?

Weaver told MTV's Movie Blog that she and Scott have discussed returning to the character of Ripley in a new movie: What we’re interested in is taking the character of Ripley and seeing what other science fiction story we can tell about someone who has lived several lives.
Knowing the 4 preceding films as we all do I and IO9 have to ask: "Other science fiction story"? As in, one that isn't the latest iteration of "Bad Ass Woman Fights Aliens, Rinse And Repeat"?

And as you are all now groaning with the idea, lets think a moment - After Alien and then maybe Aliens....did you really get much into Ripley fighting of the aliens in 3? In 4 we saw Weaver bring some real kick ass strength to Ripley. I mean really - the line "Who do I have to .... to get off this ship? " was both so different for Ripley and instantly made her someone you didn't want to screw around with. I mean my contention for the Alien movies is that for science fiction movies they make great monster movies. You know? And yes I know most science fiction movies are a monster waiting in the wings somewhere to destroy everyone. As scarey as this is, quite frankly it's not really good science fiction. So the thought of Ripley, who has become so very much more than what she was in the start, doing something else besides kicking monster butt has some ummm charm. I'm game.

<- MTV movies blog via IO9 ->

A pilot for Paul Reubens

Thanks to TVSQUAD for this gem

It seems that pesky little problem has finally left Paul Reubens behind. (of course from my perspective - its not his behind that the pesky little problem has to leave, but then, that's just me......PAC) He has been cast as the lead in a pilot for NBC called Area 52. He'll play the role of an alien who is being housed in a government facility. Ahhhh does anyone have trouble picturing Rubens as an alien.....didn't think so. Paul Reubens has done all sorts of guest starring roles on television, most recently on Dirt and 30 Rock, since his arrest for public ummm......oooh....ahhhh... well you get the point. He is also currently filming Pee-Wee's Playhouse: The Movie-- further proof that his past is now behind him.

(if my mic dies during this article....I'm sorry, I really am trying to be good....honest! links I've just got to remember it's links)