aliens

Low Latency is a weekly comic on CNET's Crave blog written by CNET editor and podcast host Jeff Bakalar and illustrated by Blake Stevenson. Be sure to check Crave every Thursday at 8 a.m. PT for new panels! Want more? Here's every Low Latency comic so far.

Few science fiction creatures are as misunderstood as the Facehugger monster from the "Alien" movies. It really just wants to hug your head and impregnate you with its horrific offspring. What's so wrong about that?

You can show your sensitivity to the plight of the Facehugger with a custom corset from prop and costume maker Rage Custom Creations. The Facehugger corset misses the face mark a little bit, but makes up for it by lovingly grasping your midsection and chest.… Read more

For anyone who's seen the film "Contact," the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a very noble cause. And over the last 35 years, Jill Tarter, who was the inspiration for Jodie Foster's character, has become known as the world's most famous alien hunter.

For years, Tarter has been the director of the Center for SETI Research, and in that position, she has worked harder than almost anyone on the planet to try to find new friends in the skies. So far, her work, and that of her many colleagues around the world, has been unrewarded. Yet, in spite of constant battles for funding and the skepticism of those who believe we're alone in the universe, Tarter has persevered, and SETI has continued. … Read more

A little over a week ago, I stood at the desert site of a 1964 UFO landing and mused about what might have happened when a Socorro, N.M., policeman saw a strange-looking object take off from an arroyo.

Since then, I've heard from skeptics and UFO believers alike. There are science folks who say, "Show me the proof." There are UFO enthusiasts who firmly believe the aliens have already landed. I haven't heard from any alien abductees yet, but I know they're out there, too.

UFOs have been a hot topic for decades, with no sign of relinquishing their place near the front of public consciousness. … Read more

SOCORRO, N.M.--Roswell gets all the glory. It has a UFO festival, a UFO museum, and a prominent place in the national mindset. Roswell happened back in 1947, but it wasn't really popularized until the late 1970s.

Before Roswell got famous, Socorro, N.M., made national news in 1964 after a very peculiar incident on an April evening.

Socrorro gets its own UFO Police officer Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeding car near the outskirts of town when he turned off to investigate a loud roaring sound and a flame in the sky. What he initially thought was a car turned over in an arroyo turned out to be what he described as a shiny whitish object, shaped like an "O" with legs. … Read more

You've probably been a little too busy to have heard, but the world will end on December 21.

Some would say this is not before time. However, many might still be unprepared for the event.

As part of Technically Incorrect's public service program, I would therefore like to inform you that a single alien spaceship is ready and waiting to lift you from the Earth when the apocalypse heralds the last calypso.

I am not sure how many people can slip into the spaceship, but -- given that it is of alien origin -- perhaps you will be … Read more

In these Facebook days, our obsession with what others think of us can only increase.

We want them to want us. We want them to love us. We want them to love themselves for loving us.

Which leads us to wondering what aliens might think of us. Stephen Hawking, for his part, worried that they might actually hate us with a fervor last experienced when Mike Tyson espied Evander Holyfield's ear.

However, the experts on a two-part Science Channel series called "Alien Encounters" speculate with a rather more positive spirit.

I am grateful to The New York Times … Read more

Bridget Carey makes a full recovery from her trip to Austin, Texas, for SXSW 2012 and joins us on today's show to recap her first experience.

We'll also dive further into Michael Bay's plans for the next live-action reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and investigate the growing trend of companies asking potential employees for their Facebook usernames and passwords.… Read more

By now, the idea of applying filters to give photos a retro look is well established. But for the more serious out there who want to go beyond the obvious smartphone apps, Alien Skin Software plans to release Exposure 4 tomorrow.

The Exposure software brings a certain precision to its task, carefully emulating the look of actual film--early Kodachrome, say, or Kokak Tri-X 400 pushed a stop--for those who remember. It's not a coincidence that the software has the tagline "Taking the digital out of digital photography."

Version 4 of the $249 software brings new abilities in reproducing defects such as light leaks or dust and scratches that film-era photographers usually strove so hard to avoid. And it's got hundreds of new presets for styles such cyanotypes and wet-plate photography.

Digging through the settings is like touring decades of photo history--you get far more than the usual collection of washed-out Polaroid, oversaturated Fujifilm Velvia, and antiquey sepia tones. If you want to hearken back to an earlier time, Exposure 4 is a good way to do so. … Read more