Reader Brooke brought these to my attention- the new mascots for the London Olympics. And what a surprise- more aliens. These are faintly reminiscent of the Teletubbies, though the cyclops look is a bit disconcerting. The levitation bit is a nice touch, no?For casual readers not familiar with the repeating alien motifs attached to the Olympic Games, here's a nice primer from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles...
...and here's Christine Anu (literally "sky god" in ancient Sumerian) performing at the foot of a solar obelisk while the five-tone signal from Close Encounters of the Third Kind chimes away merrily during the refrain.
The Olympics were named for Mount Olympus, home of the gods. They were created by Hercules and were meant to entertain the gods with the athletic prowess of their creation. And now we see all of these alien motifs time and again, both subtle and not so much.
Gee, what do you think they're trying to tell us?
Click here for more Olympic alienation.
UPDATE: And look, it's our old friend the Heavenly Beam. And rainbow colored...
...which syncs quite sweetly with this bizarre story last week in the Telegraph:Aliens have hijacked a Nasa spacecraft and are using it to try to contact earth, a UFO expert has claimed.UPDATE: The media is running with the alien mascot meme.
Hartwig Hausdorf, a German academic, believes that the reason Voyager 2, an unmanned probe that has been in space since 1977, is sending strange messages that are confusing scientists, is because it has been taken over by extraterrestrial life.
Since its launch, Voyager 2 has been sending streams of data back to Earth for study by scientists, but on April 22, 2010, that stream of information suddenly changed.
UPDATE: Wenlock and Mandeville are names of legendary English warlords. Mandeville was a Templar, and is buried in the Temple Church in London.
UPDATE: Mascots are universally trashed, design studio deletes them from its site, branded "gay one-eyed alien Nazi spacemen" by Gawker.
Did someone say gay, one-eyed, alien Nazi spaceman?UPDATE: Oh, here's an interesting quote for you:
“Biology and technology are fusing,” said Edward M. O’Hara, the chief creative officer at SME, which creates logos for professional and collegiate teams. “It’s certainly not the same model as previous mascots, but as a concept, they are right in line with what appeals to youth.”