NASA has selected 16 individuals to participate in its independent study team on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena are categorized as UAPs.
The independent study will begin on Monday, Oct. 24. Over the course of nine months, the independent study team will lay the groundwork for future study on the nature of UAPs for NASA and other organizations. To do this, the team will identify how data gathered by civilian government entities, commercial data, and data from other sources can potentially be analyzed to shed light on UAPs. It will then recommend a roadmap for potential UAP data analysis by the agency going forward.
Yup. I still like the topic. I’d be hard-pressed to believe any advanced civilization would find our planet or species more than casually interesting. But, a civilization capable of checking us out might find us worth examining in terms of historic development.
Eideard 
“Scientists Are Gaming Out What Humanity Will Do If Aliens Make Contact : Will the monumental moment of first contact fuel division among war-hungry humanity, or will it inspire our better angels and unite us?” https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3px5b/scientists-are-gaming-out-what-humanity-will-do-if-aliens-make-contact
“The enduring debate about whether UFOs are caused by extraterrestrial beings will once again be front and center next week as U.S. intelligence agencies will provide Congress with an updated report on UFO incidents over the past year.
Meanwhile, it appears that other more recent incidents are being attributed to weather balloons, other airborne clutter, and foreign surveillance, according to a U.S. official.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has until Monday to provide Congress with its first annual unclassified update on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena, the new term for UFOs, that includes all new UAP incidents over the past year and any previously unreported incidents.
The report was required by the 2022 Defense Bill that mandated that the DNI provide an annual declassified update and a classified annex by Oct. 31 of every year through 2026.” https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ufo-report-week-incidents-unexplained/story?id=92303931
“Live long and prosper”
The UFO Bubble Goes Pop
Watch the skies? No, watch our intelligence agencies and their penchant for disinformation. (Wall Street Journal 12/2/22) https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ufo-bubble-goes-pop-disinformation-pentagon-uap-sightings-china-nelson-nasa-secrets-11670010814?mod=trending_now_opn_5
“…the UFO kerfuffle has much in common with the FBI and intelligence community campaign to promote the false Russia collusion story. It has much in common with the convoluted efforts of former FBI chief James Comey to turn false piffle masquerading as “Russian intelligence” into the secret but widely leaked justification for his improper actions in the Hillary Clinton email case.
Finally the real danger comes into view, and it’s not aliens or even Chinese or Russian possession of super-advanced technology. It’s intelligence officials who think their job includes promoting false and tendentious information to the American public for their own purposes. The representative spy of our time really is Britain’s Christopher Steele, presumably trained by MI6 in both information and disinformation techniques. It was only the latter that he peddled to his private clients, including the FBI and the Clinton campaign, in the collusion hoax.”