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-...

[Mark]

More post announcement planning than pre announcement, but more signs from the UK government that they intend to suppress after the announcement:

WhatsApp, Snapchat and iMessage could be banned under new laws

http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/10/whatsapp-snapchat-and-imessage-could-...

You should make full use of WhatsApp, Snapchat and iMessage because you may not have them for much longer.
The popular apps could be banned under new laws as they use encrypted messages.
The government sees this as a potential security concern and home secretary Theresa May hopes to ban the types of messages with the controversial ‘snooper’s charter’, aka the Draft Communications Data Bill.

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British Military Should Focus on Drones, Spy Tech, Says Prime Minister David Cameron

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/british-military-should-focus-on-dro...

Britain's defense forces should spend more of their budget on spy planes, drones and covert forces to fight extremist militants, Prime Minister David Cameron said today.

The government last week announced it would meet the minimum defense spending target set by NATO of two per cent of gross domestic product for the full five years of Cameron's Conservative administration, elected in May.

"I have tasked the defense and security chiefs to look specifically at how we do more to counter the threat posed by ISIL and Islamist extremism," Cameron said in a statement, referring to Islamic State (IS) militants, who have carved out large regions of control in Syria and Iraq.

[casey a]

Researchers confirm: The Largest Pyramid in Mexico has been found
http://zonnews.com/news/450-researchers-confirm-the-largest-pyramid...

Another features which makes this “unique” pre-hispanic structure stand out are the seven platforms which integrate it and were specific spaces intended to serve as palaces, temples, housing and administrative units. It is a unique structure for various specific functions within the social, political, economic and religious structure, which is not repeated in any other archaeological site of the Mayan world stated researchers.

(A complete complex where the "inhabitants" ran everything from...)

[Mark]

Could German UFO files finally reveal whether aliens have visited Earth? Court forces government to release top secret documents

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3155085/Could-German...

Germany's parliament has been ordered to release confidential documents about UFOs after a lengthy legal battle.
The existence of the files was disputed as recently as 2008, but a UFO enthusiast discovered evidence to the contrary and pushed for their release.
News of the impending publication has been welcomed by UFO researchers, but some fear they may not be as exciting as hoped.
The German Supreme Administrative Court in Leipzig ordered the Bundestag to make the UFO files available.
In 2008, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's Minister of the Interior denied that the German government had ever investigated UFOs, but in 2009, a UFO enthusiast named Robert Fleischer discovered a parliamentary department had been investigating extraterrestrial objects.

A German blogger named Frank Reitemeyer took the Bundestag to court over the secret reports and the dispute has only just been resolved,The Express reported.
No date for the release of information has yet been confirmed.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11706313/Aster...

Asteroid tsunami could kill thousands in Britain, warn scientists

Although the UK is not directly in an asteroid path, it is at risk from impact 'corridors' of known asteroids in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea which could trigger devastating tsunamis

Asteroids could wipe out the Earth unless governments come together and start monitoring them Photo: Alamy

Britain is at risk from an asteroid tsunami which could kill hundreds of thousands of people living in coastal regions, scientists have warned.

Experts at the University of Southampton have developed software which predicts the impact ‘corridors’ of known asteroids and calculates the risk to communities if they struck.

Although the UK is not directly under an asteroid path, it is at risk from impacts in the Atlantic Ocean and North Sea which could trigger devastating tsunamis. For example there is a one in 10,000 chance that a space rock could hit just off the coast of Norfolk within the next 85 years.

PhD student Clemens Rumpf who developed the software – called Armor - is hoping it will help organisations like the United Nations decide whether to evacuate communities or send spacecraft to intercept deadly objects.

^{Red lines showing impact 'coridors' where asteroids are likely to hit}

“We have discovered around 13,000 asteroids and around 500 of them have a chance of hitting Earth,” he said.

“We can now calculate where they could impact and the damage that would be caused so that we could get evacuation plans in order.”

“When an asteroid strikes one of the biggest problems is a tsunami. Britain is an island with lots of coastline, and lots of people living there so it is a risk.”

The new maps show a wide asteroid risk zone running through Europe, passing directly over Scandanavia, Germany, France and Spain.

The US is largely unaffected, although Florida and Louisiana could be hit. South Australia is particularly at risk with several asteroid paths crossing the Lake Gairdner National Park and heading up towards Queensland.

The asteroid impact probability distribution was also combined with the Earth population map to produce the global asteroid impact risk distribution which shows that south east Britain is one of the most at risk areas of the world.

Dr Hugh Lewis, Senior Lecturer in Aerospace Engineering, at the University of Southampton, added: “It’s very easy to be flippant because of the Hollywood effect but it is a real risk.

“When you look at global vulnerability Britain is at very high risk. You might think that is odd because we are a very small country but we have a high population density on the coastline so that means we are vulnerable to an impact in the Atlantic Ocean.

"Small asteroids are hitting the Earth all the time, and even if we don’t anything large, we are still likely to have tens of thousands of people dying in the next 85 years. It has a similar death toll to other natural disasters.

“This new software not only allows us to see where an impact is likely to happen but we also simulate what might happen if we tried to deflect it, such as by using a spacecraft to give it a slow push in space.

The last large asteroid to hit Earth was the Tunguska impact of 1908 which felled 80 million trees over an area of 830 square miles, with the energy of 1,000 atom bombs. Had that fallen in central London it is likely to have killed everyone within the M25.

The Chelyabinsk meteor which hit Russia in 2013 injured nearly 1,500 people.

The research was released to coincide with World Asteroid Day, which was co-founded by Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Dr Brian May to raise awareness of the importance of monitoring space rocks. It is backed by more than 100 scientists and astronauts including Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and Richard Dawkins.

[Ecosikh]

Search for deadly asteroids must be accelerated to protect Earth, say experts
Campaigners including Brian May and Lord Rees are marking Asteroid Day by raising awareness of the the threat posed to the planet by speeding space rocks

from Today's Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/30/search-deadly-astero...

[Mark]

Military and police in biggest ever London training exercise to prepare for terror attack

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/military-and-police-in-bigges...

The biggest anti-terrorism exercise ever staged in London was underway today as 1,000 police responded to a “marauding” attack on the capital.

Emergency services, the military and Government were being tested on their ability to handle a devastating terror assault on a number of key sites.

The exercise was planned several months before last Friday’s beach attack on holidaymakers in Tunisia and the beheading in France but officials say they hope to learn vital lessons to improve their response to what is now their most-feared type of assault.

The Met’s deputy assistant commissioner Maxine de Brunner said the two-day “live play” exercise, codenamed Strong Towers, was “focused on the extreme end of what may happen”.

It is likely to draw upon tactics seen in the terror attack on Mumbai in 2008, the stabbing of two police officers in Australia last year and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January.

Ms de Brunner said: “When the very worst happens, we are prepared to be the very best. [It’s based on] what we think a terrorist could throw at us.”

Speaking in advance, she insisted the mock attack bore no relation to any current threat. The threat to the UK from international terrorism remains unchanged at “severe”.

Ms de Brunner said: “It’s not being created out of response to any specific intelligence. We have been planning this since January. It’s completely unconnected with anything that might be going on at the moment.
“It will be hugely challenging for officers and partners. They won’t have seen anything like this.”

One of the first incidents involved officers, including armed response units and others trained to carry firearms, being called to the disused Aldwych Tube station.

Full details of the exercise, which will last until tomorrow afternoon, have been kept under wraps to make it as realistic as possible for officers on the ground.

The public was advised that any gun-shots and explosions they heard around Aldwych were not real. Surrey Street, alongside King’s College London, was cordoned off.

It is the first such event since 2012, when the capital’s ability to respond to a chemical attack was tested. The Government requires the Met to test its capability on a regular basis to respond to the “changing nature of terrorism”.

The Home Office-funded “major live play” is part of its national counter-terrorism programme and also involved London Ambulance, London Fire Brigade and Ministry of Defence staff, British Transport Police, City of London police, City Hall and Transport for London.

[Mark]

Queen 'could move out of Buckingham Palace'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-33250274

The Queen may have to move out of Buckingham Palace to allow maintenance work costing £150m to be carried out.
It is one option being considered by the royal household, which says the palace needs new plumbing and wiring, with some rooms last decorated in 1952.

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3131160/Will-child-w...

Will YOUR child witness the end of humanity? Mankind will be extinct in 100 years because of climate change, warns expert

07:02 EST, 19 June 2015

Humans will be extinct in 100 years due to overcrowding, declining resources and climate change, according to a prominent scientist.

The comments were first made by Australian microbiologist Dr Frank Fenner in 2010, but engineer and science writer David Auerbach has reiterated the doom-laden warning in his latest article.

He criticises the recent G7 summit for failing to deal with the problems facing the survival of humanity, such as global warming and exhausting Earth's resources.

Mr Auerbach goes on to say that experts have predicted that 21st century civilisation faces a similar fate to the inhabitants of Easter Island, who went extinct when they overexploited their natural habitat.

‘Homo sapiens will become extinct, perhaps within 100 years,’ Dr Fenner told The Australian in 2010. He later passed away in November 2010 at the age of 95. 

‘A lot of other animals will, too. It's an irreversible situation. 

'I think it's too late. I try not to express that because people are trying to do something, but they keep putting it off.’

At the G7 talks in Bonn in Germany earlier this month, governments failed to come up with a clear plan to cut emissions in the coming years.

It emerged that countries' current pledges for greenhouse gas cuts will fail to achieve a peak in energy-related emissions by 2030.

This will likely result in a temperature rise of 2.6°C by the end of the century, the International Energy Agency said.

‘When the G7 called on Monday for all countries to reduce carbon emissions to zero in the next 85 years, the scientific reaction was unanimous: That’s far too late,’ Mr Auerbach wrote.

‘At this point, lowering emissions is just half the story - the easy half. The harder half will be an aggressive effort to find the technologies needed to reverse the climate apocalypse that has already begun.’

He noted that ‘dangerous’ climate change was already here, but the question now was whether ‘catastrophic’ climate change could be avoided.

Earlier this week, Nasa released new data that showed how temperature and rainfall patterns will change around the world by 2100. This map, produced using the data, shows the maximum daily temperatures in July under scenarios that predict carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will reach 935 parts per million

The widely agreed goal is that global temperatures must be kept below a rice of 2°C by the end of the century.

A 5°C increase, as predicted to occur by 2100 at the moment, would cause widespread flooding, famine, drought and mass extinction.

‘Even the 2°C figure predicts more than a metre’s rise in sea levels by 2100, enough to displace millions,’ Mr Auerbach noted in his Reuters article.

But he said that current targets are simply not enough to keep under this 2°C target.

The US has suggested cutting emissions by up to 28 per cent by 2025 from 2005 levels, the EU 40 per cent from 1990 to 2030, and China an unspecified amount.

‘Ultimately, we need a Cold War-level of investment in research into new technologies to mitigate the coming effects of global warming,’ he concluded.

‘Without it, the UN’s work is a nice gesture, but hardly a meaningful one.’ 

[Starr DiGiacomo]

http://www.dcclothesline.com/2015/06/07/army-corps-of-engineers-see...

Army Corps of Engineers seeking ‘civilian workers’ ahead of ‘impending national disaster’?

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Shepard Ambellas

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS EUROPE DISTRICT/FLICKR

ARMY CALLING FOR ‘WORKERS’ TO RESPOND TO FUTURE “DISASTER STRICKEN AREAS OF THE US”

KENNEWICK, Wash. (INTELLIHUB) — A tip was sent to me by a reader via email Saturday documenting how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now soliciting civilian workers for “maintenance” positions ahead of what appears to be an upcoming and potentially ‘imminent event’ of some type.

Shockingly as listed in the solicitation numbered “NCFL156545791382984S” which is posted at USAJobs.gov the Army Corps of Engineers is literally calling upon skilled individuals amongst the civilian population in search of potential prospects rather than using already active Army personnel.

The “job summary” section of the solicitation strokes the prospect’s ego, reading:

“Civilian employees serve a vital role in supporting the Army’s mission. They provide the skills that are not readily available in the military, but crucial to support military operations. The Army integrates the talents and skills of its military and civilian members to form a Total Army.”

It’s also important to note that the position may extend up to “four years” and that “employees” will be required to respond to “disaster stricken areas of the US”.

Did I miss something?

Disaster stricken areas of the U.S., WTF does that mean?

Does the U.S. Government know something that they have not yet told the general public?

Is there an impending disaster looming such as the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano or possibly a predestined asteroid impact which rumor has may be coming in September? After reading a potion of the solicitation’s “about” section  you may be asking these very questions too. It reads:

“Employees occupying these positions will provide emergency support to disaster stricken areas throughout the US. Employees must pass a stringent medical screening and be prepared to live and work in extremely austere conditions. Work schedule will initially be arduous, with much overtime. Sleeping arrangements may be limited to using a sleeping bag or in the vehicle used to move from location to location. The duty station for pay purposes for these positions is Kennewick, WA with possible 75% or Greater Business Travel in various locations throughout the US.”

Additionally it’s important to point out that “Kenniwick, WA” is only the “duty station for pay purposes”, signifying that employees who have accepted the position can end up anywhere throughout the U.S. as “75%” of the job is listed as “travel”.

Interestingly duties of the job include:

“[…] computing and making flood releases, inspecting, repairing and maintaining the appurtenant structures and systems of the dam (skills include, but are not limited to, electrical and mechanical work); and participating in the dam inspections. Maintains and repairs facilities such as public restrooms, camp sites, picnic areas, park roads, etc. Repair equipment such as, hydraulic gates, hoists, hangers, cranes, elevators, sump pumps, water systems pumps, chlorinators and stand-by generators. Dam Operation; Collects humidity, temperature and wind velocity readings from weather instruments, makes gage readings pertaining to water storage and performs related calculations. Reports weather information and operating data in accordance with establishedschedules. Makes gate settings to regulate outflow of water in accordance with regulatory requirements. Inspects dam and appurtenant structures and equipment using standard inspection checklists. Performs a variety of miscellaneous duties such as, maintaining roads and clearing debris. Operates a variety of vehicles and vessels, such as, sedans, light duty pickup trucks and 5-ton trucks, tractors, fork lifts, motor boats, work barges, etc.”

The job pays $21.93-$25.57 per hour.

[K Tonkin]

Nasa asks for the public's help to identify mysterious bright spots on Ceres

If you vote, notice that 38% of those polled selected "Other" as the source of light on Ceres!!!

Cast your vote for lights on Ceres

Nasa scientists have asked the public what the bright spots on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres could be, being no closer to the answer despite the Dawn probe taking the most clear and detailed pictures of the planet ever.

The Dawn space probe, which was launched in September 2007, took the pictures of Ceres that show the bright spot from almost 29,000 miles away. The probe is getting closer to being pulled into orbit around the dwarf planet.

The pictures show two clear bright spots on the surface of the planet, which is around 590 miles in diameter and made up of rock and ice.

Bright spots had been seen on the surface of the planet earlier, but only after the Dawn probe took detailed images, could Nasa scientists see that there were many bright spots close to each other.