Life imitates "Contact"

[bolson]

I watched this talk by a woman doing SETI work. She was actually not a very good speaker, in my fabulous opinion. She gave a nod to "Contact" by using the "awful waste of space" line, but at other times seemed to just be stealing from it (badly). Then she mentioned a further parallel that was just a little too crazy. Microsoft founder Paul Allen is playing Hadden (the rich old benefactor from Contact) by funding a dedicated radio telescope array for SETI work. (This is actually old news, in the works since 2003, but new to me.)