David Icke is your friend

There is a current conspiracy theorist buzz in the air about a forthcoming disclosure from Obama on what the US has long known about the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Of course this isn't the first time: that would be just after the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, which was leapt upon by some nutters as government propaganda for a revelation of the truth about UFOs. This theory surfaces periodically even with specific disclosure dates that have come and gone, and this year it's 27 November, after which there'll be people going around looking like Seventh Day Adventists the day after the world should have ended.* Or instead there'll just be further predictable theories about too much advanced internet rumour scuttling the announcement.

I, for one, welcome our new bandwagon overlords.

Also, Bill Clinton on UFOs. No denial on sexual relations with the Greys.

* Assuming they actually believe their own bullshit.

2009 books

61) Olaf Stapledon, The Flames, 1947
I picked up this first edition novella from a dealer in Oxford a few years ago, and ISFDb tells me its most recent edition was as far back as 1975. It takes the form of a letter written by a researcher into the paranormal, currently incarcerated in a mental home, who claims to have discovered sentient alien life in the flames of a hearth fire in an English winter cottage. It's subtitled 'A Fantasy' but it's still science fiction, and it wasn't a huge hit when published: whereas Star Maker leaves readers feeling they'd been taken as far as the human imagination can go, this is a just a leisurely walk around the block in comparison.