Unfortunately, a general tone of prankishness has taken hold of the extraterrestrial discussion today, thanks in large part to the coverage surrounding the arrival of those hoping for an enjoyable throwdown (and hopefully some actual topic enthusiasts too) near Area 51 in Nevada.
As has been well-documented in recent weeks, a since-abandoned Facebook event page for an immediately and widely popular gathering dubbed Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us first earned the plan some headlines. Though the page was clearly started as a bit of a farce, the Powers That Be appeared to take the exponentially growing number of theoretical attendees seriously.
Event co-creator Matty Roberts eventually re-shifted his focus to an event in downtown Las Vegas, the Area 51 Celebration. That gathering featured extraterrestrial-themed cans of Bud Light; the company's social media presence has remained understandably fixated on universal matters of intelligent life beyond Earth for days now.
"I might have noticed some red flags earlier, but that's about it. It's all a learning experience," Roberts told the Las Vegas Review-Journal Thursday night when asked if he would handle anything differently with the benefit of hindsight.
Meanwhile, others gathered at the back security gate of the Area 51 facility, where they held up tongue-in-cheek protest signs and—on at least one occasion—joined together in a chant of "clap them cheeks."
An early headline-maker arrived in the form of a bold soul performing an impromptu Naruto run during a KTNV news broadcast from Thursday. This, of course, makes sense to those familiar with the original Facebook event page's suggestion of "If we Naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Let's see them aliens."
On a more serious note, the past few weeks have been excitedly riddled with news on UAPs. Earlier this week, for example, To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science (co-founded by Tom DeLonge) received some vindication against detractors thanks to U.S. Navy statements acknowledging a series of videos it released as indeed depicting "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (UAP).
