The launch of the next-generation Vectra (or Insignia, as it has become) has been a long time coming, and Vauxhall is making good and sure everyone notices now that its time has arrived. As part of an elaborate marketing scheme, the automaker crashed a UFO in Potters Fields Park in London, and there was even a fence, men in dark glasses that were evidently mute and copious amounts of smoke to set the scene. Just how this relates to a new motorcar? You've got us there.

[Via Black-Night-Sky]

Hey France, we've got one more for your sophisticated UFO archive. Dreamed up by artist Peter Coffin and crafted in conjunction with London-based Cinimod Studio, this 7-meter structure was built from aluminum and covered with 3,000 shockingly bright programmable LEDs. Furthermore, there's an on board 6kW generator to provide power, and the overall UFO can be remotely controlled via SMS. There are even assertions that this thing flew along the coast of Sopot, Poland on July 4th (and even a video to "prove it," posted after the jump), but we all know how dubious such proclamations can be.

[Via Hack N Mod]

According to a recent report, the French head of stun-gun maker Taser has plans to create a "mini-flying saucer like drone which could also fire Taser stun rounds on criminal suspects or rioting crowds." Antoine di Zazzo, fervent proselytizer of the electroshock weapon, is cutting through the is / isn't torture noise of recent UN reports with the news that the non-lethal device is about to make a serious splash in France, with president Nicolas Sarkozy promising to hand one to every policeman and gendarme. Of course, once di Zazzo's army of tiny, hovering stun machines take to the air -- sometime next year -- the police probably won't have to worry about brandishing their weapons.

[Thanks, Craig B.]

We've seen plenty of space-aged (and cosmically-influenced) lighting systems in our day, but a newfangled German operation is melding high-class style, energy efficiency, and whole lot of pizazz into one nifty lighting structure. Neues Licht's UFO Chandelier rocks strands of fiber optics arranged above a floating ring, which give off a colored glow depending on whatever light source you attach to it. The designer, Simon Bruenner, describes his innovative chandelier as "simplicity from another planet," and describes that its origin of light can be from the sun or in a different room altogether. Furthermore, the fixture is reportedly waterproof, making it feasible for use in your new spa / pool room, and considering the potential energy savings from pumping in sunlight, you shouldn't have too much trouble convincing your SO that this thing's worthwhile. Simon's masterpiece was on display lighting things up at last week's Cologne Furniture Fair, and while there's no set date for mass production, we can't imagine Lowe's not jumping all over this one sometime soon.

[Via Inhabitat]

With the responsibility for training their astronauts turned over to Europe and cat launchings no longer in vogue, what's a French space agency to do? Become the official Internet source for UFO sightings, naturally. See, according to Jacques Arnould of France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales space agency, CNES will publish their archive of some 1,600 UFO sightings and other foo fightin' phenomena before mid-February. The on-line archives will consist of about 6,000 reports (many relating to the same incident) filed by pilots and the public alike over the last 30 years. That gives you about two months to hone your conspiracy theories and brush up on your high-school French. What, you didn't expect these to be published in English did you?

[Thanks, Mike]