Reported and Edited by Linda Moulton Howe
Members only content (Real-X-Files or 120+ days)
November 3, 2004 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada - Wesley K. Clark was born in Chicago, Illinois, in December 1944, an only child of Veneta and Benjamin Kanne. His father died and he moved with his mother to Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1954, Veneta married Victor Clark who became Wes Clark's stepfather.
1 micrometer (micron) = 1 / millionth of a meter (39.37 inches) 1 nanometer = 1 / billionth of a meter
August 21, 2004 West LaFayette, Indiana - When you enter the world of bio-nanotechnology, you are so small that if one nanometer were the size of a single pea, a regular meter of 39.37 inches would be the size of the Earth! In that nano world, virus sizes vary from 18 to 300 nanometers.
"A symbiosis of methanogenic bacteria with methanothrophic bacteria in the Martian underground can be an alternative interpretation (to geothermal) and looks more likely."
- Vittorio Formisano, Ph.D.
September 20, 2004 Ischia Island, Italy - Today at the International Mars Conference held September 19-23, by the Italian Space Agency, physicist Vittorio Formisano, Ph.D., presented results from his analysis of the Martian atmosphere in a paper entitled, "Observation of Methane, Formaldehyde and HS (hydrogen sulfide): Extant Life On Mars?" Dr. Formisano designed the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) for placement on the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter. Back on May 6, 2004, when I interviewed him for Earthfiles and radio, he said his PFS data indicated molecules of formaldehyde in the Martian atmosphere and told me, "Formaldehyde is destroyed in the Martian atmosphere within 7.5 hours. There is no way that formaldehyde can exist and remain for a long time in the Martian atmosphere. If (formaldehyde) confirmed, possibly life on Mars today, yes."
September 14, 2004 Greenbelt, Maryland - In a four-week-period from August 13 to September 16, 2004 - for the first time on record in American weather history - three major Category 3 to 5 hurricanes made landfall in the southeastern United States. Charley intensified to a Category 4 hurricane and made landfall with winds of 145 mph, and gusts that topped 180 mph in Punta Gorda which was devastated along with Port Charlotte on August 13. Charley cut a huge swath of upturned trees, downed power lines, flattened trailer homes, destroyed houses and businesses all across central Florida, including Orlando, and killed at least 27 people.
August 27, 2004 Pasadena, California - Internet rumors have circulated this year that in September 2004, an asteroid will strike Earth and cause great devastation. An asteroid is going to pass the Earth's orbit on September 29th, but there astronomers and asteroid specialists say there is no chance for a hit. The Near-Earth-Passing asteroid is called 4179 Toutatis, a very strangely-shaped rock that was first discovered by C. Pollas on January 4, 1989, at Caussols, France, on photographic plates taken on the 0.9-m Schmidt telescope by Alain Maury and Derral Mulholland during astrometric observations of Jupiter's faint satellites. Toutatis is the long streak in the image below.
"If we don't understand what we're doing to our home planet, we may drive ourselves all into extinction."
- Mike Tanner, NASA Scientist, Aura Satellite
August 16, 2004 Cape Canaveral, Florida - As the ozone holes over the North and South polar regions have enlarged every year since monitoring began in 1979, the U. S. government and scientists agree it is important to study the Earth's atmospheric chemistry more closely. After several delays, NASA finally launched an environmental research satellite called "Aura" (Latin for "air" or "breath") on Sunday, August 15, 2004, from Vandenberg AFB in California.
June 25, 2004 Seattle, Washington - The June 18th issue of the journal Science featured on its cover a comet called "Wild 2." (Pronounced Vilt Two) This comet first showed up in human telescopes in 1974 when its orbit changed from far out at the edge of the solar system to one bobbing around the sun between Mars and Jupiter. Since 1974, Wild 2 has been coming around every six years and NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena decided it might be a good comet to fly by and sample dust coming off its surface in a search for not only the primordial elements that made our solar system, but for even older "stardust" residues from the bigger universe.