The Bad Astronomer writes "Rumors have been flying in recent days that the SETI project has received a strong signal from space, indicating the fortuity of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Bad Astronomy breaks down the origins of this (false) claim, which mostly amounts to a heaping helping of shoddy journalism. 'I just talked to Dan Wertheimer, the astronomer quoted in the article. He told me that the original dialogue was about sending signals into space (so-called active SETI) as opposed to just listening for aliens. After the interview, he talked to the pressman about some of the astronomy he does, including looking at what are called radio transients: bursts of radio waves that are seen once and never repeat. These may come from one-off events like colliding neutron stars, exploding stars, and so on. Somehow, in the article the anchorman mixed up the observation of the transient signals with detecting a signal from E.T.'"

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