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Good news everyone, the animated comedy science fiction TV show Futurama has been renewed for a seventh season. After being revived in 2008 after a five year absence, the sixth season of Futurama has been such a hit that Comedy Central has already signed on the dotted line for more. Futurama stars Philip J. Fry, a pizza delivery boy from New York. On New Year's Eve 1999, he accidentally becomes cryogenically frozen and isn't thawed out until 2999. 

A seventh season of Futurama will be split between 2012 and 2013, while the current sixth season ends this September. According to Digital Spy, the seventh season will be 13 episodes in length. Futurama is being broadcast on the Comedy Central channel in the US.

The show’s executive producer, David X Cohen, spoke to SFX magazine:

Science Fiction World – SF and Fantasy news, reviews and opinions

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Iqbmkt0DiA

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It is not only that “The Walking Dead,” the hit zombie show that began its second season on AMC on Sunday, is filmed and set here. Or that Atlanta holds some of the nation’s largest zombie film festivals, zombie parades and zombie haunted houses. Or that even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that staid Atlanta-based federal agency, joined in the fun with a tongue-in-cheek guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse.

It is mainly that there are Atlantans like Kevin Galbraith, 24, a Georgia State University student who is one of the 6,000 people who applied to be zombie extras on “The Walking Dead.” The pay is meager, the hours are long, the weather is steamy and even their friends barely recognize them staggering around in the background, coated in fake blood and corpse-gray paint. And only 200 will be chosen each season.

“You have to be the sort of kid who grew up practicing your zombie walk in the mirror,” said Mr. Galbraith, a lanky, 115-pound horror fan who beat the odds and was cast in both seasons. “I feel more alive than ever when I’m dead

NYT > Science Fiction

Article by Melissa Fisher

It has long been believed by many that aliens are not only visiting our planet, but have actually been living here much longer than we have and are integrating themselves into our society. How has this happened and why don't we recognize them when we see them are common questions.

I'll take the last question first. Most people would think that any alien species that is brave enough to walk around and pretend to be human would be easily recognizable by just about anyone, after all • they are aliens. I'm sure this belief is fueled by popular Hollywood movies, fictional books and the general feeling that if we should ever encounter an alien species, they would be gray in color, with oversized eyes that are almond shaped, have 6 arms, eat bats for breakfast, and most likely, pursue a variety of other activities that are pretty much dead giveaways that they aren't from our neck of the woods.

All kidding aside, if there are aliens / extraterrestrials among us, what makes you think they haven't learned how to blend in? If the theory that a hybridization program, [often mentioned in connection with alien abductions], has actually been put into place, then those alien / human hybrids would look and act very similar to us.

As to how it happened, let's take a look at one possibility. Supposedly, back in the early 20th century, our government established communications with a species of extraterrestrials known to us as the • Grays• , this led to a meeting at Holloman Air Force Base, which in turn led to a treaty being established. This treaty allowed the Grays to abduct a small percentage of humans, cattle and other animal lifeforms for experimentation and cataloging in exchange for technology. According to the treaty, the aliens would create a list of those individuals taken and provide it to our government. This was a requirement for our government's continued co-operation. As time went by, things changed … as they always do.

This is only a small part of this story. If you would like to know the rest, or if you are interested in other alien related information, I invite you to visit: http://www.paranormalreview.weebly.com . While there, be sure to sign up for my free Paranormal-Review newsletter that deals with all things Paranormal. In future issues I will examine and comment on:Aliens UFO sightings & Abductions Hauntings Government Conspiracies Much, Much More

It was back in May 2010 that we first mentioned the Independence Day sequels, so it's great to hear they are now actually getting closer to the shooting stage. Independance Day was directed by Roland Emmerich and he is onboard to direct the sequels too. Latest reports suggest Independence Day 2 and 3 are moving into production, but it appears unlikely Will Smith will star after asking for a huge salary.

Science Fiction World – SF and Fantasy news, reviews and opinions

The truth is out there and according to some theorists, as long ago as 467 BC, Chinese astronomers recorded some odd aerial phenomena. This nowadays would likely be referred to as 'UFOs'. These ancient astronomers would log the information on their personalised calendars (no, seriously!) and they wrote at length about the strange objects which they would see in the sky. One Chinese astronomer even described an object looked like a giant pearl. He went on to say that this opened up and shone a bright line of light down on to the earth.

UFO only really stands for Unidentified Flying Object, but because in recent years it has been used as a synonym for spacecrafts, the military tend to use UAP to describe the odd flying things they can't identify these days. UAP stands for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, which means exactly the same as UFO, but it doesn't carry the same stigma.

Being that the main part of UFO is the word 'unidentified' most rationalists' say that Aliens are not out there and that really most UFOs could be anything from wayward children's balloons to gas pockets.

Swamp Ghosts and Space Crafts

Did you know, for example, that ghostly lights often hover over marsh and bog land in the night? These are called 'will-o'-the-wisp' and they're believed to be made of swamp gasses. The scientific explanation for the lights is that a combination of chemicals such as methane gases produced from rotting organic matter and hydrogen phosphate create the floating lights.

Italian chemists have actually replicated the process by adding chemicals to the gasses made from rotting meats and vegetation and proven how easily these ghostly lights can occur. So that might account for floating things which light up, but what about abductions?

Alien Abductions

People who are abducted by Aliens are named 'abductees' or 'experiencers' in UFO enthusiast circles. In the rest of the world, they're known as crackpots! However, some crackpots have made very strong cases over the years that support the existence of extra-terrestrials.

The first ever widely publicised Alien Abduction was of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961 and they claimed that they were able to communicate with the Aliens who abducted them. Betty famously said that she asked where the Alien examining her was from and that it showed her a map of the Zeta Reticuli star system which would take about 1 billion years to reach from planet earth.

Both Betty and Barney Hill were holding respectable jobs as a Social and Postal Worker. They were on local community boards such as the NAACP and the U.S Civil Rights Commission. They claimed to be abducted while driving home from a vacation and reported seeing lights in the sky followed by an odd flying object. They stopped the car to let the dog get some fresh air and to see if they could identify it.

Soon they were driving again and frightened because the car began to shake oddly, as if an electrical current were running through it. Both Barney and Betty then reported a period of lapsed consciousness before they remember driving again and getting home a full 7 hours later than they should have. Following the experience, Betty began to have bad dreams, which she regarded as flashbacks of an Alien examination, and soon the couple was famous.

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While it is a delight to be reacquainted with Ian Mckellen as Gandalf, Andy Serkis as Gollum, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, as well as the landscape of Middle Earth itself and even Howard Shore's magnificent score, it is better by far to witness Martin Freeman absolutely nail the young Bilbo Baggins.

Equally impressive is the company of Dwarves led by Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield. As much as I enjoyed John Rhys-Davies as Gimli in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, his movement always seemed excessively cumbersome to me, especially when in combat, but those (perhaps technical) issues appear to have been eliminated and the new breed of dwarf has been impressively rendered. Given the prominence of the Dwarves in the story of The Hobbit, this is a welcome development.

Science Fiction World – SF and Fantasy news, reviews and opinions

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Ghosts, but Were Too Afraid to Ask

From a very young age James Van Praagh was aware of a dimension that most of us cannot see, and he has dedicated his life to explaining it to the rest of us. The New York Times bestseller Ghosts Among Us takes us on an incredible journey into the spirit world that brings to light one of our greatest mysteries—what happens to us after we die?