TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
Aug 11, 2023
Messier 51 in 255 Hours
An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula, the large galaxy with whirlpool-like spiral structure seen nearly face-on is also cataloged as NGC 5194. Its spiral arms and dust lanes sweep in front of a companion galaxy (right), NGC 5195. Some 31 million light-years distant, within the boundaries of the well-trained constellation Canes Venatici, M51 looks faint and fuzzy to the eye in direct telescopic views. But this remarkably deep image shows off stunning details of the galaxy pair's striking colors and extensive tidal debris. A collaboration of astro-imagers using telescopes on planet Earth combined over 10 days of exposure time to create this definitive galaxy portrait of M51. The image includes 118 hours of narrowband data that also reveals a vast glowing cloud of reddish ionized hydrogen gas discovered in the M51 system.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html?
Fire crews battling massive fire at industrial site in west Toronto
Aug 11, 2023 / 6:13 am
Firefighters are battling a major out-of-control blaze at an industrial site in west-end Toronto.
Toronto Fire said crews were called to 35 Vulcan Street in the Martin Grove Road and Belfield Road area of Etobicoke at approximately 1:15 a.m. Friday.
When they arrived, they found several tractor trailers on fire at the back of the industrial building, which is listed as a chemical wholesaler.
Authorities said the flames soon spread to the building itself, and firefighters are working to prevent the blaze from spreading to nearby sites, which include a large lumberyard.
Toronto Fire deputy chief Jim Jessop told reporters on the scene more than 25 firefighters crews are battling the fire and they have shut down and evacuated all the 24-hour businesses in the area.
"We are operating from a defensive perspective right now," he said.
"We are similarly treating this as a hazardous materials incident addressing the water runoff and monitoring the air quality."
He said no injuries have been reported among people in the area and first responders, but area residents should shelter in place, keep their windows closed and call 911 if they have any medical or respiratory problems due to the fire smoke.
Jessop said Toronto Fire Services have notified the ministry of the environment about the fire that's sending massive amount of smoke into the air.
"This is a factory or business that deals in motor oil and lubricants and transmission oil," he said. "We're dealing with basically all kinds of types of oils, fluids, and solvents."
He said the CN Rail lines that run through the impacted area have been shutdown.
Jessop said the fire is expected to cause major disruption to traffic in the impacted area in west Toronto throughout the day.
https://www.castanet.net/news/Canada/441173/Fire-crews-battling-massive-fire-at-industrial-site-in-west-Toronto
>re-post
oops, I wasn't paying attention enough and didn't realize you had already posted it.
Thanks, btw, listening now.
UFO whistleblower claims the government is trying to leak his medical records in an effort to smear his credibility - after his testimony was slammed by head of Pentagon office as 'insulting'
UPDATED: 07:55 EDT, 10 August 2023
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The US intelligence community has been accused of trying to discredit a UFO whistleblower by revealing his mental health issues
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David Grusch delivered bombshell testimony last month in Congress about alleged government UFO programs
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Investigative journalist Ross Coulthart says a news outlet was given his medical records and the source could 'only' be the intelligence community
A UFO whistleblower who delivered bombshell Congressional testimony last month has sensationally claimed the government is trying to leak his medical record to destroy his credibility.
David Grusch, a former high-ranking intelligence official, revealed to lawmakers details about a secret government program to retrieve 'non-human' technology.
But after his testimony captured headlines about the alleged covert operation, he claims The Intercept informed him it planned to publish an article about his past struggles with mental health and PTSD.
Local sheriffs allegedly denied being the source of the leak, leading investigative journalist Ross Coulthart to conclude the 'only' possible source of the information could be the intelligence community.
Grusch made several sensational claims as he appeared before Congress in July, including suggesting the government had killed people to cover up its operations and that the US had been in possession of UFOs since the 1930s.
He was among three military whistleblowers who testified under oath in July that they had firsthand encounters or knowledge about secret government programs involving technology that is 'non-human.'
His remarks were condemned, however, by the head of the Pentagon's UFO office, Sean Kirkpatrick, who slammed Grusch's claims as 'insulting'.
Grusch now believes the backlash to his testimony from officials has extended further, with the alleged article's release reportedly set to publicize his PTSD, grief and depression struggles.
But Coulthart, who previously interviewed Grusch, said the information about the intelligence official's personal issues should never have even been available.
'This is a document, that if the media had done the right thing, would be in his police department file in the county sheriff’s office,' he told NewsNation.
He said Grusch assumed the journalist who obtained the files sourced them through the sheriff's office, but claims they confirmed the leak did not come from them.
'The only other place that had this information is the intelligence community… The intelligence community leaked it,' he said.
The Intercept has been contacted for comment over the alleged leak.
Coulthart added when he sat down with Grusch, he admitted to his past mental health issues - which were never deemed bad enough for intelligence officials to remove his security clearance.
'When I asked him whether there was any dirt that anybody could drag out to try to discredit him, he barely thought it was worth mentioning but he acknowledged that he’d suffered from PTSD when he returned from Afghanistan,' Coulthart said.
'The intelligence community and the Defense Department clearly accepted that there was no issue because he was allowed to keep his security clearance.
'David served his country honorably and with distinction. He’s a decorated officer.'
Grusch explained his mental health issues in a statement regarding the potential article, saying his struggles when he returned from Afghanistan were worsened by the loss of a close friend.
'I was personally affected again years later when a close friend of mine, an intelligence officer who was serving in Air Force Special Operations Command at the time, took his own life shortly after we last spoke,' Grusch said.
'I am proud to be transparent on this matter and am glad I got the help I needed to continue my intelligence career.'
He also reportedly insisted his PTSD had no bearing on his testimony, and Coutlhart called for an investigation into the leak.
'For anyone to seek to use the suffering of veterans, people who are dealing with PTSD, is utterly reprehensible. It’s contemptible and it should be exposed,' Coulthart said.
'There should be an investigation into how a sensitive file like this was so obviously leaked within the intelligence community to try and discredit a good human being.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12390863/UFO-whistleblower-claims-government-trying-leak-medical-records-effort-smear-credibility-testimony-slammed-head-Pentagon-office-insulting.html
UFO reporting hotline is MIA
08/10/2023 05:00 AM EDT
There’s no phone number. No email address. Not even a website.
More than a year since the Pentagon launched an office to investigate UFO sightings, there is still no hotline for pilots and others to report mysterious objects directly to the investigators.
Some witnesses say they’re getting frustrated and feel forced to turn to Capitol Hill or outside groups to tell their stories. Others say it discourages them from attempting to flag such incidents at all because they’re worried about recrimination if they report to the FAA or military supervisors.
“There is an immense amount of data that could be collected out there, from general aviation or commercial aviation pilots that are afraid to come forward at this point in time,” said Chris Van Voorhis, a commercial airline pilot who says he regularly sees “self-luminous” orbs high up in the atmosphere flying in strange formations.
Van Voorhis said he hasn’t reported those through any official channel because the methods for doing so are so opaque.
“I’m not even sure what they are, to tell you the truth,” he said. And even if he were to report the incidents, he believes it would “fall on deaf ears.”
The reporting issues are highlighting the tensions over gathering data on so-called unidentified anomalous phenomena. Pilots wary they won’t be taken seriously hold back from saying anything. That means information that might identify objects as benign, as foreign surveillance tools or — yes, maybe even something extraterrestrial — simply isn’t in the system and may not be for quite a while.
The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which was launched by the Biden administration in July 2022 to investigate UAP sightings, has made strides in recent months to set up internal channels for service members to report such incidents.
In May, the military services and geographic combatant commands for the first time standardized UAP reporting, and required the information be transferred to AARO, Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said in an email. The group is also working to expand UAP reporting to the rest of the government, including the weather and oceanic agency NOAA, the Coast Guard, FAA and Department of Energy, she said.
“One of AARO’s first efforts has been to establish a streamlined reporting system for all service members,” Gough said.
The FAA also documents UAP sightings whenever a pilot reports them to an air traffic control facility, according to a statement from the agency. If the incident “is corroborated with supporting information, such as radar data,” the FAA shares it with AARO.
But that hasn’t been enough yet to counter suspicion on the part of those who’ve witnessed strange phenomena, especially following a whistleblower’s explosive accusations that the U.S. government is covering up a decades-long program to reverse-engineer alien craft. The former U.S. intelligence officer, retired Maj. David Grusch, claimed during a July hearing that the U.S. has recovered non-human “biologics” from alleged crash sites.
In May, the military services and geographic combatant commands for the first time standardized UAP reporting, and required the information be transferred to AARO, Pentagon spokesperson Susan Gough said in an email. The group is also working to expand UAP reporting to the rest of the government, including the weather and oceanic agency NOAA, the Coast Guard, FAA and Department of Energy, she said.
“One of AARO’s first efforts has been to establish a streamlined reporting system for all service members,” Gough said.
The FAA also documents UAP sightings whenever a pilot reports them to an air traffic control facility, according to a statement from the agency. If the incident “is corroborated with supporting information, such as radar data,” the FAA shares it with AARO.
But that hasn’t been enough yet to counter suspicion on the part of those who’ve witnessed strange phenomena, especially following a whistleblower’s explosive accusations that the U.S. government is covering up a decades-long program to reverse-engineer alien craft. The former U.S. intelligence officer, retired Maj. David Grusch, claimed during a July hearing that the U.S. has recovered non-human “biologics” from alleged crash sites.
The Pentagon has denied the claims. At the same time, it has encouraged witnesses to come forward with any information related to the effort to investigate UAPs — but has not yet provided a public avenue to do so.
AARO is required by law to launch a public-facing website where witnesses can directly report potential UFO sightings. But the website is tied up in Pentagon red tape: It is still “under development” after officials submitted a first version to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks for review before Christmas, Gough said.
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The existing reporting mechanisms only receive two or three reports a month, said Lt. Ryan Graves, the first active-duty military pilot to come forward with his experience seeing a UAP in 2018. Graves recently founded a nonprofit group to support other pilots who see things they can’t explain, Americans for Safe Aerospace. Van Voorhis is also working with the group.
Graves said he himself gets the same number of reports every couple of days — arguing this is evidence that pilots either don’t know how to use those avenues or are fearful of doing so.
Graves and others in his organization are working with lawmakers and officials in the Pentagon to bridge this gap. In some cases, Graves has introduced witnesses to trusted senators — who he declined to name — and the next step is to arrange meetings with AARO.
“We are hand-walking people in to do that, because AARO is negligent on having the proper public-facing procedures to have people do it themselves,” Graves said.
Gough said the Pentagon is still working on the more easily accessible portal for the general public.
“Once established, we will issue guidance for how to access the secure mechanism for authorized reporting,” Gough said.
Graves said he himself gets the same number of reports every couple of days — arguing this is evidence that pilots either don’t know how to use those avenues or are fearful of doing so.
Graves and others in his organization are working with lawmakers and officials in the Pentagon to bridge this gap. In some cases, Graves has introduced witnesses to trusted senators — who he declined to name — and the next step is to arrange meetings with AARO.
“We are hand-walking people in to do that, because AARO is negligent on having the proper public-facing procedures to have people do it themselves,” Graves said.
Gough said the Pentagon is still working on the more easily accessible portal for the general public.
“Once established, we will issue guidance for how to access the secure mechanism for authorized reporting,” Gough said.
The delay, however, is providing space for confusion to build and means the military may be missing out on important intel of the non-alien variety, said Steven Aftergood, a secrecy specialist with the Federation of American Scientists.
There are some serious questions that remain unresolved because of “sensational and nonsensical claims,” Aftergood said. One is whether U.S. airspace is being penetrated by foreign aircraft, such as the Chinese balloons that made headlines earlier this year.
“If and when that ever happens, the government and the military need to know it instantly, not days or weeks later,” he said. “Any reluctance by military pilots to report sightings, or by authorities to receive such reports, would be a dereliction of duty. It’s not clear that new procedures are required. People just have to do their jobs.”
Meanwhile, those questions have become “conflated in the public domain with foolishness about alien spacecraft, ‘non-human biologics’ and so forth. It’s an embarrassment and a disservice,” he said.
The administration’s handling of these incidents is also offering fuel to its most vocal critics. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), whose concerns sparked last month’s House Oversight subcommittee hearing focused on UFOs, said he doesn’t trust the military to handle reports — through existing methods or even directly to the AARO when that becomes possible. He says pilots he’s spoken to have faced retribution for reporting incidents to their superiors.
Those words feel empty to people like Van Voorhis, the commercial pilot, who said he first saw a strange and unidentifiable object almost two decades ago, while flying from Japan to Hawaii. At the time, he and others who witnessed the event agreed not to report it because they feared for their careers.
Van Voorhis said he advises other pilots to report sightings to outside groups that collect data on UAPs, specifically the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena, a nonprofit focused on aviation safety-related encounters with UAPs, and the Mutual UFO Network, another nonprofit composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings.
His goal, Van Voorhis said, is “to make sure that the people that are working with me know that they aren’t crazy for seeing this stuff, and that they won’t be treated as such.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/10/pentagon-ufo-reporting-00110566
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Huge UFO bombshell as 'up to 30 non-human craft' have been recovered after crashes
UPDATED: 11:52, Fri, Aug 11, 2023
A huge UFO bombshell has shaken the US as top investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger has reported that as many as 30 non-human craft have been recovered by intel officials.
The potential UFO bombshell comes amid national attention on the issue after a Congressional hearing on UAPs - government-speak for UFOs.
"Very, very senior people with high-security clearances were afraid to talk to me," Shellenberger said on former Fox anchor Glenn Beck’s YouTube channel.
He continued: "I believe that if they had talked to me [publicly], it could have been very bad for them. They were straight up.
"There’s somewhere at least on the north side of a dozen retrieved non-human craft. I have other people that say it’s up to 30 and that’s all since World War II."
He noted that there was the potential to “finally get to the bottom” of the issue now that there is an interest among lawmakers in the US surrounding UFOs.
The comments come after a former intelligence official and US Air Force officer David Grusch told multiple media outlets that he had conversations with unnamed US officials which led him to believe the government maintained a secret UFO program.
Grusch went in front of Congress on July 26 2023 and claimed that he “was informed in the course of my official duties of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which I was denied access”.
He told House members that the US had retrieved “non-human” biological material from the crashes.
However, several experts cast doubt on Grusch’s claims citing a lack of hard evidence for UFOs.
“One can state objectively that his claims are two steps removed from being Earth-shattering: not only has he not shared any verifiable evidence -photographs, artifacts, or any other manner of data - but he also has not personally seen or touched any of the objects he references,” John Semester of NASA’s UAP independent study team wrote in Boston University’s Alumni magazine.
He cited a famous quote by Carl Sagan: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1801190/ufo-claims-non-human-craft-us-government
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RgyFWZt0-I
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