Pre-Announcement Media Coverage

[John Smith]

We are seeing so many remarkable pre-announcement pieces showing up, this is a place to post and discuss them. This one for example, is making discoveries sound 'ho hum' which a few months/years ago were heralded as amazing breakthroughs. Today for example: 

"Nearly Every Star Hosts at Least One Alien Planet"

http://news.yahoo.com/nearly-every-star-hosts-least-one-alien-plane...

When a month or so ago they were making a BIG deal about finding one planet in the sweet zone which could possibly support life, son they they say 25% of them could support life! Including mention of red dwarfs, etc. The Zeta predicted evidence continues to build up!

Here is another blog that relates, describing a wobble:

NASA Scientists "Discover" a Wobbly Planet!?

https://poleshift.ning.com/forum/topics/nasa-scientists-discover-a-...

[casey a]

Astronomers just discovered two of the closest-orbiting twin stars ever

http://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-just-discovered-two-of-the-...

And this isn't just any old binary star system – these stars, called HD 133131A and HD 133131B, are the the closest-orbiting twin stars that scientists have ever found in a binary system where both the stars host planets.

That might not sound close to you and me, but for a binary star, it's pretty intimate, all things considered, with the next comparable closest binary system having a separation of around 1,000 AU between its two stars.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

This from MSN News

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/barack-obama-will-reveal-alien-...

Barack Obama 'will reveal alien and UFO details held by the US before he leaves office'

[SongStar101]

'Strong signal' stirs interest in hunt for alien life

http://phys.org/news/2016-08-strong-alien-life.html

A "strong signal" detected by a radio telescope in Russia that is scanning the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial life has stirred interest among the scientific community.

"No one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization, but it is certainly worth further study," said Paul Gilster, author of the Centauri Dreams website which covers peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration.

The signal is from the direction of a HD164595, a star about 95 light-years from Earth.

The star is known to have at least one planet, and may have more.

The observation is being made public now, but was actually detected last year by the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia, he said.

Experts say it is far too early to know what the signal means or where, precisely,it came from.

"But the signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target," wrote Gilster.

The discovery is expected to feature in discussions at the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on September 27.

"Working out the strength of the signal, the researchers say that if it came from an isotropic beacon, it would be of a power possible only for a Kardashev Type II civilization," Gilster wrote, referring to a scale-system that indicates a civilization far more advanced than our own.

"If it were a narrow beam signal focused on our Solar System, it would be of a power available to a Kardashev Type I civilization," indicating one closer to Earth's capabilities.

Gilster, who broke the story on August 27, said he had seen a presentation on the matter from Italian astronomer Claudio Maccone.

"Permanent monitoring of this target is needed," said the presentation.

Nick Suntzeff, a Texas A&M University astronomer told the online magazine Ars Technica that the 11 gigahertz signal was observed in part of the radio spectrum used by the military.

"If this were a real astronomical source, it would be rather strange," Suntzeff was quoted as saying.

"God knows who or what broadcasts at 11Ghz, and it would not be out of the question that some sort of bursting communication is done between ground stations and satellites," Suntzeff said.

"I would follow it if I were the astronomers, but I would also not hype the fact that it may be at SETI signal given the significant chance it could be something military."

[SongStar101]

Home from home: Scientists may have discovered an Earth-like planet with water

https://www.rt.com/viral/356189-earth-like-planet-water/

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is reportedly set to announce the discovery of a new “Earth-like” planet at the end of August. The unnamed planet is thought to have liquid water on its surface.

The as of yet unnamed planet orbits the small Proxima Centauri star, which, other than the sun, is the closest star to Earth, located only 4.25 lightyears away.

According to Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, the exoplanet is located in the so called “Goldilocks zone” or “habitable zone,” meaning it orbits the star at a distance which would be favorable to having liquid water on the surface, which is vital for supporting life.

"Never before have scientists discovered a second Earth that is so close by," the report said, citing an unnamed source at the ESO, who themselves have neither confirmed or denied their rumored announcement.

"We were surprised to see the article in Der Spiegel and do not know the source," ESO spokesman Richard Hook told Space.com. "ESO has no further comment to make at present."

If true, the planet’s discovery will come just over a year after NASA found two other exoplanets outside the solar system - Kepler-452b and HD 219134b.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-Will-You-Do-when-the...

What Will You Do When The Lights Go Out? The Inevitable Failure Of The US Grid

Aug 12, 2016, 5:27 PM CDT

Some key points of the article:

Despite a few billion dollars being thrown at the grid to improve its resiliency or reliability, the number of outages due to weather is expected to increase, assuming that climate change will indeed intensify extreme weather, as some predict.

What we are certain of, is that severe weather will continue to stress and threaten our power grid. And unless something changes, ultimately, it will fail. So when we talk about reliability, we’re talking about “when” and “for how long” scenarios, not “what if”.

The how-long factor plays a huge role into how bad is “bad”; not because of the events that one knows will follow, which includes mass food spoilage, deaths due to overheating in the hot summer months, deaths due to freezing in the cold regions, and the halting of everything we take for granted these days—airlines, internet and most other forms of communication.

In the context of blackouts, we saw this in 1977, when a lightning strike in New York on a Hudson River substation tripped two circuit breakers, causing power to be diverted in order to protect the circuit. The chain of events that followed ended in an entire blackout for the area, which led to mass rioting, over 1000 deliberately set fires, the looting of 1600 stores, and the eventual arrest of 4,500 perpetrators and the injury of 550 officers, according to some estimates. The power was only out for 25 hours, and in one area.

In all likelihood, the haves (those who have removed themselves from the grid and prepared accordingly) will soon be overrun by the have-nots in the event of any extended blackout, with heavily populated areas taking the brunt of the chaos—and your solar roof panels or generator will not suffice as your savior.

[Ovidiu Pricopi]

Planet Nine is mention in the article : Scientists noticed that rebel Niku seems to be hanging around a gang of other strangely aligned objects. At first glance, the scientists thought that this might suggest that Planet Nine, a hypothetical planet that would be about as much as 10 times as massive as Earth, might be pulling on the objects.

But it turns out that the rebellious object would be out of Planet Nine's reach, too free-living to succumb to the undiscovered planet's gravitational attraction.

So exactly what's going on is still a mystery. https://amp.businessinsider.com/niku-mysterious-object-orbiting-bey...

[Kris H]

NASA study shows warming from core to surface.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/science/696717/CLIMATE-CHANGE-SHOCK-I...

[Craig]

A radical new theory has claimed the mysterious 'Planet Nine' might...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3698383/Did-Planet-N...

[Ryan X]

And another one "found" ...

New 'large and bright' dwarf planet discovered in our solar system

"The new dwarf planet, dubbed 2015 RR245, has such a huge, highly elliptical orbit that it takes an astonishing 700 Earth years to complete one trip around the sun, and it ventures over 120 times further away from the sun than our planet does."

[Scott]

Small Moon Discovered Orbiting Dwarf Planet Makemake (June 28, 2016)

Scientists have discovered a small moon orbiting Makemake, a dwarf planet found at the edge of our solar system in the Kuiper Belt region.

“Makemake’s moon proves that there are still wild things waiting to be discovered, even in places people have already looked,” said Alex Parker, lead author of the paper detailing the findings, in a statement.

http://time.com/4385809/moon-orbiting-makemake-solar-system/

ZetaTalk Chat Q&A for June 25, 2016

Prong 2 sought to answer why “Planet 9” evaded discovery for so long by suggesting that Hubble and Kepler and WISE looked afar, at bright objects, so that anything close in or somewhat dim would be missed. As evidence of this, the ESO’s observatory in Chile had discovered several exoplanets overlooked by the other sky mapping enterprises. Prong2’s agenda is to place into the public mind that an object such as Nibiru, shrouded by dust, could sneak into the Solar System unnoticed. To this end we have the newly announced second moon of Earth, an orbiting asteroid, just recently “discovered” by NASA.