Most aliens speak English.

It may be British English, American English, or Australian English, but indeed, most aliens speak English. Perhaps this all began because "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" many spoke English. Maybe that's where we learned the language from. At the time of the Stargate film in 1994, aliens in the Stargate universe did not in fact speak English. Between 1994 and the beginning of 1997 series, aliens in multiple galaxies had all learned English. Perhaps Daniel Jackson taught them while he was living on another planet or they simply heard Earthlings were coming (just the American English speaking kind) and they wanted to be prepared. I appreciate the effort, especially in such a short time.

Interestingly, the aliens I see via Doctor Who all speak British English, including the Doctor himself and the evil Daleks. In Battlestar Gallactica, they are humans, but human aliens with no contact with earth. True, they speak a frakked-up form of American, but the persistence of this language across galaxies is uncanny.

There are a few aliens out there who don't speak English, such as all sorts of species in Star Trek and in Farscape. Apparently those crews were able to travel far enough to find areas of space that English hadn't pervaded, at least until a wormhole brought Ben Browder and Claudia Black to Stargate Command and the world of English-speaking aliens. Oddly though, the translator microbes in Farscape gave an Australian accent to those speaking, even though the listener spoke with an American accent. What an odd translation quirk!

The tenacious Star Trek crew was able to understand alien-speak via the "universal translator." The universal translator worked on the basic scientific principle of magic. With a click of a button, magically everyone could understand each other and the camera could record English-speak. For the uninitiated, "universal translator" is code for "writers' pitiful attempt to deal with alien communication problems." At least they made an attempt, albeit a sad one.

The influence of English across the universe is amazing and unbounded. With this sort of power, I don't see how non-English speaking cultures here on Earth have any hope.

What to do when I accidentally become invisible.

This appears to be a serious problem in science fiction. Accidentally becoming invisible is very different from becoming invisible on purpose, such as Harry Potter with his cloak of invisibility.
When someone becomes invisible intentionally, usually the person knows how to become visible again. In sci fi, accidental invisibility is usually termed "out-of-phase." When one is "out-of-phase," the person cannot affect the world around her or him. Therefore, eventually the person will die of starvation and dehydration if the problem isn't fixed. This is serious. Somehow, the out-of-phase-ees pass right through all matter, including walls, but do not pass through floors. Physicists are looking into the bizarre properties of floors which make them impermeable to those out-of-phase.

If this happened to you, what would you do? Since I could not affect the world around me, I would not be able to tell anyone that I was still there, instead of the common assumption that I was eaten by a space monster or vanished into a black hole. There seem to be two options in this case. First, I would take a look at the device I was messing with when I first became invisible. I may discover that it has some sort of interface to allow the out-of-phase to communicate with those in-phase. I may be able to see an entire display that those in-phase cannot see. Usually, however, it will be written in an obscure alien language which I do not know. You may want to study up on alien languages in case this scenario happens. The device may allow some sort of direct communication with the in-phase world. In which case, if I can just get someone to look at the device, I'm saved.

In the event the device does not allow any communication, I really only have one option: hope I have smart friends. In general, surround yourself with brilliant people who will be able to figure out and fix the problem should this happen. If possible, make friends with an android. They seem to be good at deduction. Secondly, be consistent and reliable. If you are an unreliable person in general, people will assume you just didn't show up. However, if an otherwise reliable person fails to appear, intelligent people will think that maybe, just maybe, you're out-of-phase. They are your only hope.

Beautiful people make better journalists.

I've long known that beautiful people make better actors and actresses. Some ugly actors can still act well, as their manliness bolsters their beauty deficiencies. However, ugly actresses have nothing to make up for their ugliness. Since the 90s in the U.S., ugly actresses have been put on the endangered species list. Apparently, there have been breeding problems, as the ugly actors have stopped mating with the ugly actresses and the ugly actresses are dying out. In Britain, ugly actresses are still thriving and the U.S. is turning to Britain for conservation measures.

But it's a relatively new discovery in the U.S. that beautiful people actually make better journalists as well. Scientists made this important discovery when they put beautiful people in dark places. Surprisingly, their incredible beauty illuminated them in the dark. This powerful glow illuminates the difference between truth and fiction, thus allowing them to unearth stories and leads that ugly people cannot. After this discovery was released, journalism schools flooded with beautiful people. Amazingly, beautiful women are particularly adept at interviewing athletes on the field. Their beauty simply puts everyone at ease. This leads me to wonder: Is there anything beautiful people can't do?

To loot corpses.

This is one of the most important lessons of the media. It is abound in television and films. Whenever someone dies, one must search the body for important goods, primarily weapons and ammunition. At a minimum, one must pickup a gun from the dead body. This applies to all sorts of people, especially police officers, FBI agents, and criminals. However, I believe television is trying to tell me that if I end up in a situation where I'm around a dead body, it's best to pick up a gun regardless of who I am. It's better to be safe than sorry, but that's a different lesson.

The media considers this such an important lesson that it created training programs to teach us the gravity of remembering to pick up items from dead bodies, namely video games. In video games, people are scored on their ability to scavenge from the dead. We practice this so unrelentingly that we hopefully will remember to do it in a real crisis situation. In video games we learn that the dead do not just have ammunition and guns, but also food, diaries that help explain crazy events, strange pills and syringes, money, tools, magic potions, and even tape recorders. The next time that I find myself in a chaotic, near-death experience, I know who to find for help: The guy who scored highest in Bioshock.