Recent rumour was that the UN was about to appoint Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman as the ambassador to extraterrestrial intelligences. The venerated Sunday Times even published an article that Othman would soon jolt the lumbering, conservative Royal Society with the announcement. The plan was apparently to make Othman, who heads the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) the “take me to your leader” point of alien contact—after ratification by the UN general assembly, of course.
The Royal Society, on its part, knew nothing about it. Calls to the UN headquarters were rerouted to an unoccupied extension at the UNOOSA office in Vienna. Finally, Othman herself came to her own rescue: “It sounds really cool, but I have to deny it.” All those waiting aliens…