I like Barack Obama; I suspect his presidency will be a profoundly good thing for both the US and its allies. But Alex Grey's rendering strikes me as self-parodic and creepily messianic, the stuff of dystopian fever-dreams.

The International Space Station has never quite managed to excite me -- in part because it doesn't represent the kind of future I would have liked to live in back when I was in elementary school losing myself in the visions of Gerard O'Neill. Even so, there's real majesty to be found in the ISS, and these photos help to capture both the strangeness and cluttered familiarity of our species' first permanent space-borne home.

Mile-long secret tunnel in central London for sale

I'm adding this to my Christmas wish-list immediately.

45 Vintage 'Space Age' Illustrations

Until we all are living in outer space with flying automobiles and robot servants, we can pass the time with these 45 vintage illustrations of a space age tomorrow. Hopefully these beautiful and creative works of art won't bring back too many childhood disappointments.

Don't worry, you'll get your jetpack someday.

Found: UFO Debris

British UFO researcher Gary Heseltine, who edits a monthly UFO magazine in the UK, says that he has some of the debris that was collected by the soldiers, who saw the UFO slam into the Troodos mountain range in Cyprus in 1973. They were ordered to collect the debris and put it into black plastic bags, but Clarke managed to confiscate some small pieces of golden tinted foil (similar to the debris found at Roswell).

Does anyone know more about this case (assuming it is, in fact, an actual "case") . . . ?

"Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

--J. B. S. Haldane

Corpus 2.0 by Marcia Nolte

Corpus 2.0 by Marcia Nolte is a set of seven portraits illustrating how the human body could adjust itself to the design of products, including a hole in the lips for smokers and an extended shoulder for holding a phone.

Other proposals include a ridge in the nose developed for wearing glasses, ears moulded to accommodate earphones, a thumb with an extra joint for sending SMS messages more efficiently and a foot adapted to create the same posture as wearing high heels.

William Burroughs shoots Amy Winehouse (as art)

Artist Marco Perego sculpted a lifesize scene of Amy Winehouse shot dead in the head. William Burroughs is holding the shotgun.

Ten of the Kinkiest Science Fiction Books You'll Ever Read

Not only have I read the late Octavia Butler's "Xenogenesis" trilogy, I actually met her in person.

Wal-Mart worker dies after shoppers knock him down

A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors at a 5 a.m. sale. Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers shouted angrily and kept shopping when store officials said they were closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

Boy, they must have had some really good deals on PlayStations . . .

1st commercial ship sails through Northwest Passage

The Canadian Coast Guard has confirmed that in a major first, a commercial ship travelled through the Northwest Passage this fall to deliver supplies to communities in western Nunavut.

Tibetan Glaciers Melting at Stunning Rate

Glaciers high in the Himalayas are dwindling faster than anyone thought, putting nearly a billion people living in South Asia in peril of losing their water supply.

Sweet! Galactic Molecule Could Point to Alien Life

Glycolaldehyde has previously only been detected near the center of our galaxy, where conditions are extreme compared to the rest of the galaxy. But its discovery in an area far from the galactic center in an area known as 'G31.41+0.31' suggests that the production of this key ingredient for life could be common throughout the galaxy. This is good news in our search for alien life, because a wide spread of the molecule improves the chances of its existing alongside other molecules vital to life, and in regions where Earth-like planets may exist.

Yet another example of the erotic cyborg meme:



More at Cyberpunk Review.

Want more? Pink Tentacle's got the scoop right here.

The space-age Aerohotel concept

The concept is applicable to freshwater or shoreline applications and consists of an outer ring membrane with an interlacing web of pedestrian roads connecting the hotel, cafes, a restaurant and garden areas. The Aerohotel would also include recreational activities on the water-line below and would be accessible via sea or built to accommodate airship docking.

Alien-like Squid With "Elbows" Filmed at Drilling Site

A mile and a half (two and a half kilometers) underwater, a remote control submersible's camera has captured an eerie surprise: an alien-like, long-armed, and -- strangest of all -- "elbowed" Magnapinna squid.

(Via Futurismic.)

Now that's what I call an eldritch horror.

Return of the Neanderthals

Every serious scientist knows that we and other animals evolved from the same ancestors. The real question today is whether to put our DNA and theirs back together. Until now, that question has been raised in the form of human-animal hybrids made in labs for research. You can argue that these are somehow wrong because they're newfangled and artificial. But what can you say about Neanderthals? They were made by nature, not industry. In fact, we're the industrial villains who apparently wiped them out. They're as natural as we are.

Of course, just because "we" survived and the Neanderthals didn't doesn't necessarily entail that we're smarter. I actually suspect that Neanderthals were at least the equals of Cro-Magnons.

Maybe that's exactly what this planet needs right now: some good old-fashioned Neanderthal brains steering the ship.

New acquisition:





Meanwhile . . .

Greenhouse Gases Hit Record Levels Last Year

Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) touched new highs after more steady rises in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade, the World Meteorological Organisation said.

"The major greenhouse gases -- CO2, methane and N2O -- have all reached new highs in 2007. Two of them, CO2 and N20, are increasing steadily and there is no sign of levelling off of those two gases," WMO expert Geir Braathen told a news briefing.

"Paranoid Android" (Radiohead)

Found Image #29





(Hat tip: Dedroidify.)

Searching for Dyson Spheres

It could be argued, of course, that a ring made out of planetary material, a habitat so vast that it completely encircles its star, is actually one of the smaller Dyson concepts. It was in 1960 that Freeman Dyson suggested how a civilization advanced to the point of such astro-engineering might use everything it found in its solar system to create a cloud of objects, a swarm that would make the most efficient use of its primary's light. And as you keep adding objects, you point to the ultimate outcome, a Dyson Sphere that completely envelopes the star from which it draws its energy.

Blog of the day: Transmaterial

The eco machine that can magic water out of thin air

The company, Element Four, has developed a machine that it hopes will become the first mainstream household appliance to have been invented since the microwave. Their creation, the WaterMill, uses the electricity of about three light bulbs to condense moisture from the air and purify it into clean drinking water.

Even better:

The City Dehumidified

Over the years, say, tens of thousands -- even millions -- of these machines are installed in a humid city like New York, Tokyo, or London, achieving imperceptibly slow local climate modification. The city goes into a drought, with very little rainfall as humidity disappears -- and it's all because of a certain line of products that have been installed, gradually, home by home, over the course of a decade.

CNN'S American Morning to Feature UFO Week

Looks like more of the same drek to me. Next, please.

Why the universe may be teeming with aliens

As astronomers explore newly discovered planets and create computer simulations of virtual worlds, they are discovering that water, and life, might exist on all manner of weird worlds where conditions are very different from those on Earth. And that means there could be vastly more habitable planets out there than we thought possible. "It's like science fiction, only better," says Raymond Pierrehumbert, a climate scientist at the University of Chicago, who studies planets inside and outside of our solar system.

(Via The Anomalist.)

Philip K. Dick: A Day In The Afterlife

Yet despite these shortcomings, Dick embodies everything that I like about sci-fi, for while his characters and their interactions may be lacking, the worlds in which they dwell and the societies that run them are superbly realized. The conflicts which arise in these worlds are fantastic, oftentimes absurd, and yet they mesh flawlessly with the reality that he created. It was these aspects that defined the genre for Dick and, in turn, it was these aspects that he poured most of his efforts.

"Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself?" (Morrissey)

Matter is actually just fluctuations in the quantum vacuum (Paul Raven)

Another classic case of the headline saying it all: physicists have confirmed that matter is no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum. Everything is arguably illusory, including ourselves. All of a sudden I have a vision of Terence McKenna muttering Beatles lyrics to the hyperspace elves in between fits of gently manic laughter . . .

Scientists cloning endangered Amami rabbit

To produce the clone, researchers took a cell from the ear of a dead Amami rabbit and injected it into the unfertilized egg of an ordinary lab rabbit. After the egg developed into the cloned embryo, researchers inserted it into the oviduct of a lab rabbit surrogate. The clone will be born in the coming weeks if the pregnancy comes to term.

In which I share an existential moment while hotel-bound in Nova Scotia:

I've encountered dozens (if not hundreds) of examples of supposed NASA image tampering. These, if real, are unquestionably the most arresting.

(Thanks: The Keyhoe Report.)

I can't help but love this headline by Cliff Pickover:

World's sexiest women are now "alien" life forms, born with no belly buttons or constructed in secret Arctic labs, far from the scrutiny of ordinary men

Taken at O'Hare airport in Chicago.

(More photos, as always, right here.)

Cosmic Rays from Mysterious Source Bombarding Earth

"This electron excess cannot be explained by the standard model of cosmic ray origin," said Wefel. "There must be another source relatively near us that is producing these additional particles."

Evidence of vast frozen water reserves on Mars: scientists

Evidence of vast frozen water reserves on Mars: scientists
Ground-penetrating radar used by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveals numerous huge glaciers up to one half-mile thick buried beneath layers of rock and debris. Researchers said one glacier is three time the size of Los Angeles in area.

"All together, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that's not in the polar caps," said John Holt, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin and lead author of a report about the discovery, which appears in the November 21 issue of the journal Science.

I just had the strangest sense of deja-vu.

Mac Tonnies sings while making breakfast before coming out as an Alien On Earth.

Nope, not me. But there's indeed a weird (if superficial) resemblance.

My new Loving the Alien column, "UFOs and Science Fiction," just went live.

Good news -- "Darklore" (vol. 2) is out. If you're looking for an esoteric stocking-stuffer, this is the one. (Choose between paperback format or limited edition hardcover.)

I'm alive and well -- albeit very hungry -- in Halifax.

Twitter updates here.

I'm up late surfing YouTube. This one's pretty good:

Just a note that I'll be leaving for Nova Scotia tomorrow to help finish an astrobiology/SETI TV documentary (to be released in Jan.) My Net access will be limited until the 21st, although I plan to check in from my hotel.

Found Image #28

Greg Bishop relates three curious "psychic" experiences.

Indian Tricolour Placed on the Moon on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's Birthday

In a historic event, the Indian space programme achieved a unique feat today (November 14, 2008) with the placing of Indian tricolour on the Moon's surface on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's birthday. The Indian flag was painted on the sides of Moon Impact Probe (MIP), one of the 11 payloads of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, that successfully hit the lunar surface today at 20:31 hrs (8:31 pm) IST. This is the first Indian built object to reach the surface of the moon.