Pretty day, if fatal. Even the winter lovers have to agree that this is nippy beyond reasonable parameters. I had to go drive for half an hour in a car with the heat blowing full-strength, and 45 minutes later my feet are a rumor the rest of my legs are starting to believe. Coldest weather in four years. Wind chills: 40 below in some spots.

Six months from now, it'll be 130 degrees higher, so relax. Speaking of cold, some news from space:

ALIENS Why did NASA remove the links to these pictures? Look at that thing! It's a spacecraft from the planet Falconia IV, right?

This super-legit news site explains:

You got that? A UFO researcher's reputation is on the line here.

So the pictures were deleted because someone at NASA realized that the ALIENCOVERUP folder had been made public by mistake, sorry, my bad, and all of these pictures were out there for the world to see.

Or, they just didn't want to have the servers hammered by a flood of UFOers. If so, oops: there are still some pictures up. Quite beautiful.

Believe if you wish - I'm one of those unhappy souls who thinks there's life out there, but isn't convinced by a single piece of proof so far - or enjoy the things we do know. After last week's pictures of a dead Martian river, we have news of a lakebed in a crater, and a prize-winning Hubble Hidden Treasure entry. made by a high school teacher:

Lovely. Before you get too swoony over the beauty of the magnificent cosmos, remember that it's just as happy to kill us with rocks, solar eruptions, or kill-shot gamma bursts that fry everything. Seems we got one of those in the eighth century, but not enough to destroy all life. Thanks, universe!

TRAVEL Google's boss went to Best Korea. His daughter went along. Here's her blog.

Fifteem above? Pshaw. She visited the E-Library, where the most modern technology was put to use:

An entire state run on the twin concepts of Fear and Theater. But they're warmer than us. Keep that in mind.