Crater in Virginia and evolution in Spore

Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may notice that this and future entries are shorter than usual; career, family and book deal commitments have forced me to cut back some of my projects. Now, here's today's news:
g Stars - What is the habitable zone for the nearby star system Ross 614 AB?
g Abodes -Hollywood directors, take note – geologists have pieced together a cinematic account of a violent impact that gouged out a 90-kilometre-wide crater in Virginia 35 million years ago. Surprisingly, the impact may have created a new niche for life deep underground. See article.
g Intelligence -Oscar Levant, a mid-century pianist, film star and wit, once watched noted keyboardist and composer George Gershwin spend an evening playing his own music at a party and clearly having a great time. "Tell me, George," Levant said, somewhat jealously, "if you have it to do all over again would you still fall in love with yourself?" See article.
g Message - The famous question posed by the physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950 remains unanswered. "Where is everybody?" he asked. If the galaxy is teeming with sophisticated aliens, we should have heard from them by now. A new response to the Fermi Paradox comes in a recent issue of the journal New Astronomy. The aliens, like the truth, may be out there - but perhaps are so far out that there's no hope of receiving even a text message. See article. Note: this article is from 2006.
g Imagining - Spore, the latest game from The Sims creator Will Wright, is evolving into a sensation — months before it hits stores. See article.
g Aftermath - Looking for some interesting reading on “first contact”? Try the science fiction anthology “First Contact,” edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff. The book came out in 1997. Here’s a review (though it’s less than flattering).