An 'alien' signal that turned out to be from Earth, a woman killed while impersonating a ghost, and some painters who got stuck outside the 26th floor of an apartment building after an ornery tenant cut their rope were among the strange and unusual stories to cross our desk this week.

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence popped up in the headlines this past week by way of two stories concerning our quest to find out if we are 'not alone.' First, researchers revealed that a peculiar signal from space that was detected last year and deemed a promising potential sign of alien communication wound up being traced back to Earth in the form of radio interference from a malfunctioning device. Meanwhile, a team of NASA scientists published an editorial calling for the development of a framework when it comes to announcing the discovery of life outside Earth, since such a development will likely occur over time rather than in a dramatic reveal akin to how pop culture depicts such a scenario.

Jason King

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