This second spiral was spotted in the Russian skies over a day after the one in Norway and it actually does look a bit more like a rocket spinning around and less like a mysterious phenomena:

Ah well, the rocket-like appearance of this spiral and the explanations for the Norway one aside: I still want to believe and even suggest Florida as the next invasion attempt. It's sunny here and we won't fight back much. [Discover]

You are right, dear UFO and strange phenomena experts who sent the emails in the gallery. It is true, this is not what happened with the mysterious giant spiral in Norway. And since you are right, I'm sharing your theories on the matter with everyone in Gizmodo (yes, these are serious emails and comments from real readers).

Niesluchowski was known as NEZ at the SETI volunteer program. He scored 575 million hours of data mining during a nine years period, which pushed him to "god" status among the SETI@home users, who in 2007 were writing things like this:

What is NEZ? Who is NEZ? Is he a god?

According to the Higley Unified School District investigation, Niesluchowski went from installing SETI—a software program that analyzes data from radiotelescopes in search of intelligent signals—in every computer in the district to purchasing more powerful computers specifically for that task. And downloading porn. And left all the machines running 24/7. And adopting 18 school computers at home. In total, the school says that his Earthling antics got the bill up to $1.6 million. [Arizona Republic via Techdirt]

Over the last five days, the Vatican invited 30 of the world's leading scientists to participate in a "study week" on astrobiology that focuses on questions regarding life's origins and the existence of extraterrestrial life. What conclusions they arrived at have not been made public, but there are plans in the works to publish the findings.

At any rate, this move is further evidence that the Vatican is taking a kinder, gentler, more active role in science and technological progress. After all, theology and science don't have to be mutually exclusive. [Physorg via PopSci]

Talking to the Daily Mail, a spokesman from Moscow's weather forecasting service said: "Several fronts have been passing through Moscow recently, there was an intrusion of the Arctic air too, the sun was shining from the west – this is how the effect was produced.

"This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive," he added.

Ok, so it's just clouds—but when you watch the video you still expect an alien ship to drop through that hole with lasers blazing. [Telegraph]

It's being developed by a Panasonic subsidiary called ActiveLink, who say they don't expect to see it being used for things like disaster relief efforts until around 2015. At the moment it has an aluminum-alloy frame weighing around 500lbs, so hopefully they can shrink it down a bit. Very cool, though. Check out the vid: [Mainichi (translated) via PinkTentacle]

Neill Blomkamp originally made the Halo shorts with Peter Jackson as proof of concept for the Halo movie that he was supposed to direct. As it was to be his first film, the studios got nervous, and now that film looks unlikely to be made. So instead he made a movie based on his own ideas rather than Bungie's.

So not only is Neill Blomkamp at the helm, but he's again got Peter Jackson's WETA doing the special effects for him. As for the story, it's about a world where aliens have landed and settled on Earth. They want to leave, but we humans brilliantly make them second-class citizens and put them in ghettos while we try to figure their advanced technology out. Things don't go well.

The movie is based on a non-Halo-related short film that Blomkamp made that you can see here. District 9 comes out on August 14th, and I will be seeing it that night.

Creator Alan Rorie says that the concept behind the Neuron Chamber is that there are alien brains inside the chamber that are under observation, and we're watching the cerebral process at work. In this case, it's an reaction moving from the Soma down the Axon of the neuron.

In actual terms, this is an arc puller causing an atmospheric reaction that looks like a flame moving down the rail. Rorie likens the design to a horizontal Jacob's Ladder. Throw in some steampunky elements for good measure and you get a pretty neat art exhibit. [Almost Scientific]

The comment came up in a forum, and argued that the alien creature was obviously a carnivore because of his "narrow pointed small mouth." Other commenters smashed the alien-spotter: "The coronal ridge shows ample structure to support the musculature of antennae, although none are visible in this view."

Obviously—and unfortunately—it's just a rock. A rock or an alien who covered himself in beach sand and fell asleep as the Martian seas evaporated. [Daily Telegraph]

Jiang insists that the elaborate white designs were inspired by the theme of "watching," and involve fully or partially obstructed faces on each model – like guests at a gala celebration wearing masks. But I'm not blind—I've been to many a gala celebration, and nobody has worn anything even close to this.

Nope. To me, the message in this collection is clear: "Welcome to China, space creatures. One Universe, One Dream." [Jezebel and 3news]

Photo from Getty

Oh. Oh that's what it is. A cybernetic pop-up penis. [SheCoolHeCool via Fashionably Geek]

From inside to out, the Klein Bottle experimental house plays with the theme of a mathematical puzzle that manifests in an interesting hodgepodge of geometry. But cleverly hidden within these angles and crevices is a rain water collection system and solar paneling (because aliens hate to pollute).

So be honest, readers. Would you live in a house that looked like this? And if so, would you be willing to transplant it into any normal housing development? Or would you need to be part of some off the grid martian colony? [dornob via io9]

Cocoon says that the bags have a some meat to them beyond just their organic good looks. Inside the bags, there's a proprietary material called the Grid that serves as an "elastic organization system." The system either allows users to organize the interior into several configurations, or it serves as an incubator for the most deadly fictional creature known to man.

We'll know more by CES, I'm sure. [UberGizmo]

Yes, sending text messages to nobody in particular, allowing them to travel out in some random direction and end up in space, is the hot new thing. You know, because aliens will know exactly how to interpret "r u coming here aliens? Gtfo." The texts cost the standard rate to send, at least, but $15 for a certificate of confirmation for a text sent to nowhere is kind of crazy.

But hey, you've got to hand it to Virgin Mobile for figuring out a way to collect $15 from people for mailing out a piece of paper. I mean, that's pure profit right there. Good for you, Virgin Mobile. [Virgin Mobile via Pocket Lint]

This supposedly historical shot was pulled from the 1997 documentary Area 51: Alien Interview. According to the film, on November 4, 1697, the citizens of Hamburg, Germany spotted "two glowing wheels" in the air. To some, it was just further proof of another civilization visiting Earth.
But to modern historians (that would be me, browsing UFO sites when I was bored one Sunday afternoon), these glowing wheels are proof not of future alien technology but of current Microsoft technology. Clearly the company has some sort of time travel machine that resembles a giant Xbox 360 logo. Wait, scratch that. According to this sketch, they have two such machines. And they're probably running some sort of advanced NXE with really fantastic avatars and Netflix streaming in 4K.

Well, that, or the pundits were right and Bill Gates is an alien after all. [flickr and Alien UFO Pictures and IMDB]

The PRIMA system consists of many small mirrors that are moved by pistons at levels that are smaller than an atom. The light from each telescope is reflected into underground tunnels in a way that cancels out the light waves from a star. What remains is the faint light of an orbiting planet—hopefully a planet capable of harboring life. Apparently, PRIMA will start hunting down E.T. in about six months time—and according to Fred Kamphues, developer of a major component of PRIMA called a Star Separator, we stand a good chance of finding them inside the next 100 years. Meanwhile, a high-level government official who has had E.T. on ice for the last 60 years is laughing his ass off. [Wired Science]

[Webhemera via Neatorama]