Folks in Phoenix - the less-than-skeptical ones, anyway - are convinced their city has been buzzed by UFOs. In a display that echoed a 1997 incident now referred to as "The Phoenix Lights," several glowing red lights approximating a V-pattern were seen over the skies of the Southwestern city.

Unlike the sighting in the 90s, which surprised onlookers in southern Arizona, Texas and northern Mexico as well, the Tuesday night flight of ETs appears to have only been spied in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. Also differing from the conditions surrounding the 1997 incident is the household name status in 2008 of a little website called YouTube, which already carries gobs of stuff on the phenomena perhaps 18 hours after alien TGA (that's Trans Galactic Airlines) flight no. 8,792,351,111 crossed American airspace.

Old fashioned photos for those old enough to remember, say, Project Blue Book, are here.

Today and this week should make for some good publicity time for astronomers, xenobiologists and SETI people to leave the observatory to come into sunlight for a few hours in hopes of delivering a quotable quote or two.

Here's Steve "Dr. Sky" Kates in The Arizona Republic via sci-fi geek 'site Io9.com: "I believe life abounds in the universe, but I just have a hard time accepting many of the things that I'm hearing, or seeing, that it has a direct relationship to people or creatures coming from another world. Why not land? Why not show yourself? And where's the evidence?"

Kates goes on to opine that it is "unlikely the lights were some kind of alien craft from outer space" and that "an explanation probably will surface after videos and pictures are analyzed."

Just goes to show that scientists don't know everything, eh, T'Pal?

(Incidentally, ultracool MPR just happened to stumble across the silly above-linked webpage, let me assure you. No, this isn't a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" officially licensed replica communicator pin. It's a ... um ... o, never mind.)