Welcome to the 115th issue of The World Tonight newsletter dedicated to '2001: A Space Odyssey,' space exploration and the unknown.
As reported in issue 114, we've stopped updating the website until February. And weíll begin to update once more in March. But due to other important responsibilities that demanded my time at work, I had to stop building the new Science & Technology category, which will cover various hardware from "2001". We just restarted the project March st.
In TWT issue 111, we reported the Yuri's Night 2007 event at NASA/Ames Research Center. The event was so successful NASA/Ames has invited back the Yuri's Night team April 12 for another space party. In April of last year, over 4,000 people from the communities surrounding Moffett Field, California, and some from further away converged at NASA Ames Hangar 211 for a ten-hour celebration of space exploration, music, science, art, and technology for Yuri's Night Bay Area (YNBA). Yuri's Night is a global non-profit and non-governmental event sponsored by the Space Generation Foundation (SGF). SGF aims to engage people committed to using space to make a difference and inspiring them, connecting them, challenging them, and facilitating their ideas, visions and projects. Loretta Hidalgo, George T. Whitesides and Trish Garner created the first Yuri's Night, which was held on April 12, 2001. Similar events have been celebrated all over the planet simultaneously since then. Locations have included Los Angeles, Stockholm, Antarctica, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and the International Space Station. For the next Yuri's Night, the team is aiming to double the attendance number to 8,000 people, with a 2 pm to 2 am event on April 12, 2008. During daylight hours, organizations from across the Bay Area will be invited to hold salons and demonstrations throughout parts of the NASA campus as a way to build cross-community awareness and support for both technical and artistic groups, and the many that overlap. At dusk, the true Yuri's Night World Space Party will begin, repeating and enhancing last year's unique integration of music and art installations with distinguished space speakers and technical demonstrations throughout the night, and linking up with parties across the nation, across the Earth, and beyond in a celebration of exploration. The complete 2008 speaker line-up has not yet been announced, but here are a few of this year's speakers, performers and artist:
Speakers:
Saul Griffiths (President of Makani Power, one of the world's most innovative green power companies)
NASA scientists including Dr. Jonathan Trent (leading the development of green tech within NASA)
World-famous game designer Will Wright (talking about astrobiology and his newest game)
If you want to read about my personal experience at last yearís YNBA at NASA/Ames, go to my 2001:exhibit web page,
Yuri's Night 2007.
And Space Shuttle Endeavour target launch date is at 2:28 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 11. The STS-123 crew includes Rick Linnehan and Robert L. Behnken, Pilot Gregory H. Johnson, Commander Dominic Gorie and Mission Specialists Mike Foreman, Garrett Reisman and Takao Doi. To read more about the mission, go to the Space Exploration.
I want to thank the readers and supporters of 2001:exhibit for listening to the Normal Bates Memorial Soundtrack radio program on February 16 on KFJC 89.7fm with host Robert Emmett. My guest DJ appearance with Robert was a splendid experience and my special guest; UFO researcher and science fiction writer Kevin D. Randle was great. The two-hour special covered how UFOs inspired popular culture in movies and television. We played a of vintage records about UFOs and sound bites of past UFO news alerts and soundtrack music from UFO/ET movies from the 1950s to the 1970s. The response was tremendous and the feedback was encouraging. So we hope to be back on the show to finish the segment on UFOs and ET inspired film and TV from the 1970s to the 2000s. I want to thank my friends that contributed music to the show, Robert Emmett, Bob Ekman, Lanajean Vecchione, and David Rudiak. I also want to thank Terry Boblet for digitizing music for the show and being our cameraperson. You can look at the photos of Robert and I at the KFJC studios and a sample of the program on ning.com. Make sure to join our 2001 newsgroup for updates on the next radio program.
For more information about the radio program, go to our ning.com website.
We also dedicate this issue of TWT to Roy Schieder in his memory. He passed away February 10. Thank you for the memories Roy.
The Arts: The Gallery: 2001 Influences: Dana Lubich sends TWT pictures of Disney's new (and apparently "improved") Space Mountain. Inside is what looks like a clunky/chunky Discovery hanging from the ceiling: http://www.2001exhibit.org/mem/arts/gallery/influences.html.
The Arts: The Gallery: 2001 Influences: From Flying Saucers In Popular Culture, I found two books with artwork influenced by the film, "2001". You can see the paperbacks on our website: http://www.2001exhibit.org/mem/arts/gallery/influences.html.
2001 Influences: Film: Dana also sends a TWT images of Zardoz, the 1973 film epic of the future. Itís the only film known that makes this kind of reference to "2001." And the "1984" reference is to Orwell's story:
http://www.2001exhibit.org/mem/arts/collectibles/2001/film.html
News-
UFO: Dana Lubich reported to TWT about the Anderson's show UFO, and noticed several tie-ins to 2001: In the episode "Exposed" you see the inside of one of the studios at Borehamwood. The inside structure/details look just like the photos of 2001's centrifuge stage. Michael Billington later states in his commentary (in another episode) that 2001 was filmed a couple of stages away.
In "Closeup," the life support backpacks used on the spacewalk are very similar to those used on the moon sequences in 2001.
In "The Man Who Came Back" there are some audio outtakes that never made it into the story, where SID (their equal to HAL) is damaged. He apparently was to have sung the song "Home on the Range" in slow motion. The outtake was similar to HAL singing "Daisy."
In "The Long Sleep" the aliens plant a bomb that is triggered by sunlight, the same way the monolith is triggered in 2001.
And finally, for those who are old enough to remember, there's a GI Joe Mercury space capsule on a shelf of General Henderson's office, displayed as if it were a real spacecraft!
Magnificent Desolation: Dana reports about the DVD of Tom Hank's Magnificent Desolation, the IMAX movie about the Apollo moon landings.
There's a section where he recounts manís dreams of space flight, from the ancients through movies and television. There's a brief shot of Space Station Five shown.
Also, Military History Magazine has a special issue out called The 100 Greatest War Movies out. Stanley Kubrick makes the list four times. The following movies are ranked:
2 Paths of Glory
16 Full Metal Jacket
41 Spartacus
84 Dr. Strangelove
For local Bay Area 2001 fans, our international 2001:exhibit volunteer for the website, Peter Preuss will be visiting March 26. If you want to get together with Peter and I, please contact me. Hope to see you all.
Dana Lubich reports to TWT that you can now get the 1971 documentary Primer for "2001: A Space Odyssey," from Creative Arts Television (CAT), which explains about the movie with excerpts and hosted by Keir Dullea. Dullea is dressed in a blue denim suit, with thick glasses like Michael Caine wears. The set he's on is very simple, but looks like it is out of 2001, with an ultra modern, white desk with a view screen built into it. The desk even has a small model of the monolith on it. He pretty much reviews the whole movie, especially addressing negative remarks from other reviewers. He reads a snippet of deleted narration about the Moonwatcher, and offers a bit of trivia from the movie: the chess game Poole has with Hal is an in-joke for Kubrick, an avid player himself. And Elenaís husbandís diving research is an in-joke for Clarke, an avid diver himself. The Documentary is 29 minutes long. There is another documentary/interview available from CAT Iím going to get eventually: Arthur C. Clarke talks about Kubrickís "2001: A Space Odyssey", where Clarke talks to a film reviewer about the movie. I asked Stephan Chodorov, from CAT about the production of A Primer, and why it was not included in the Special Edition of 2001ís re-release. Here's his response:
Dear Dana,
Thank you for your letter. Camera Three was broadcast on some network affiliates but was actually produced in New York City for distribution through the local station there.
We didn't talk with Kubrick but we did make contact with Clarke. However, as you can see, the script itself is really just a close reading of the film, a kind of college paper on the subject.
Warner Bros did consider our program for its re-release-- as well as our program on "A Clockwork Orange", but declined. They explained that it would be too expensive to clear the music rights. Evidently the music on the sound track of the film was OK, but not the same music on another product.
Such is life.
As reported in issue 114, Dana says, that he found the documentary "Universe" that was one of the inspirations for Kubrick (along with The Sentinel, and two other documentaries shown at the '64/'65 World's Fair). The VHS was available from the National Film Board of Canada for $150. I recently checked back to their web site, and found out that it was now available on DVD, and only $39.95.
Review on "Universe" from Dana Lubich:
I just viewed it, and itís a "MUST HAVE" for any "2001" fan. You can definitely see the seeds of many of the shots seen in "2001", especially:
-A lunar horizon shot, which became a shot with the Aries descending.
-The moon and Earth dropping down to reveal the sun, as seen in the opening credits of 2001 (although itís shown sideways here).
-Asteroids tumbling, just as when the Discovery is seen in the belt.
-Several shots of Saturn no doubt inspired Trumballís Silent Running.
-And thereís a journey compressing millions of years of space travel into a few seconds out to the galaxies, which resembled the Star Gate sequence. (The narration states that you're "moving with the freedom of a god," which makes you feel like the Star Child moving through space.)
-Strangely, Uranus and Neptune arenít shown in this tour of the solar system.
-3-D like animation (pre-CGI) of nebulas resemble pictures from the Hubble telescope, with its near-3-D clarity, too.br />
-The operation of an observatory in 1960 is nicely documented in pre-computer controlled days.
-And your narrator: None other than an uncredited Douglas Rains, HAL himself! (The web site gives him the credit.) It's a chance to hear what he normally sounds like, unlike the measured, almost hushed-like persona of HAL.
For a black and white film, and pre-CGI, it holds up very well today.
URL link for purchase: www2.nfb.ca
Douglas Trumball applied the same slit scan technique for television and commercials after 2001. 2001 fan Terry Boblet reports to the TWT that the theme is called 'Nikki' and Burt Bacharach named the tune after his daughter. Check out The Movie of Week on YouTube: http://de.youtube.com
Music Through its Relationship to History with the use of Film, Video and the Specious Present, by Sloan Edward Williams III - Found this interesting link about 2001's music being used in a school's curriculum: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/ units/1998/1/98.01.10.x.html
Twice a year, I attend the Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, California.
KFJC and 16-millimeter film aficionados promote the festival to raise funds for the station's programming. For more information about the festival, go to www.kfjc.org.
I hope to see local "2001" fans at the festival this weekend.
STS-123 is scheduled to launch March 11, 2008, at 2:28 a.m. EDT. Dominic Gorie will command the mission. Gregory H. Johnson will be the pilot. Mission specialists will be Mike Foreman, Rex J. Walheim, Garrett Reisman, Rick Linnehan, Robert L. Behnken, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Takao Doi. opping the list of milestones is the delivery of part of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's module, marking the beginning of the agency's presence on the station. The Japanese Experiment Logistics Module, Pressurized Section - called the JLP ñ is really just the warm-up act for JAXA. It will contain critical avionics and serve as a storage area for experiment materials. At 14.4 feet in diameter and 12.8 feet in length, it is the smaller of two pressurized Japanese modules. Combined with other elements, they will make up Kibo, the station's Japanese complex, named for the Japanese word for hope. Kibo's main facility and its robotic arm are scheduled to launch on the following shuttle mission, and a "front porch" that will allow astronauts to expose experiments directly to space will be delivered later. Reisman is scheduled to join Expedition 16 as flight engineer after launching to the International Space Station on mission STS-123.
For more information, read the mission page at:
Above: From the right (front row) are astronauts Dominic L. Gorie, commander; and Gregory H. Johnson, pilot. From the left (back row) are astronauts Richard M. Linnehan, Robert L. Behnken, Garrett E. Reisman, Michael J. Foreman and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Takao Doi, all mission specialists. Credit: NASA
Left: Endeavour.
Europe's new station resupply ship, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), is scheduled for launch Saturday at 11:03 p.m. EST. The ATV will launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Meanwhile, the Expedition 16 crew is preparing for the arrival of Endeavour on the STS-123 mission. They are reviewing robotics procedures and tagging up with specialists on the ground
For the latest news and information on their mission, visit the main station page:
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA):
On Monday January 14, I toured NASAís Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Aircraft at the Flight Operations Building at Moffett Airfield. Only employees and their families were invited to see the aircraft. This was a rare opportunity to see the plane, board it and compare it to its predecessor, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, a C-141 aircraft outfitted with a 36-inch telescope onboard. To read my article, go to my web page on 2001:exhibit.
For the first time, NASA beamed a song ñ The Beatles' "Across the Universe" ñ directly into space at 7 p.m. EST on Feb. 4. The transmission over NASAís Deep Space Network commemorated the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASAís founding and the groupís beginning. Two other anniversaries also are being honored: the launch 50 years ago this week of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and the founding 45 years ago of the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe. For more info about Sir Paul McCartneyís live performance with the astronauts:
www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/mccartney.html
Mars Exploration Rover mission:
SPIRIT UPDATE: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter. For more info, visit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20080215a.html
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: This view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows bedock within a stratigraphic layer informally named "Gilbert," which is the rover's next target after completing an examination of three stratigtaphic layers forming a bright band around the inside of Victoria Crater. For more info, visit:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20080215a.html
Cassini-Huygens:
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:
At least four Martian avalanches were caught in action. As debris fell down the slope, it hit the lower slope and continued downhill, forming a billowing cloud front: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/press/20080303a.html
Images from the Chandra and Swift observatories show evidence for possible detection of a binary star system that was later destroyed in a Type Ia supernova explosion. The progenitor to a Type Ia supernova has never been detected, but promises to answer important questions about the exact configuration and trigger for these explosions:
Space Odyssey Institute Program, Beijing China, 6-17 July 2008 ñ The International Space University (ISU) hosts a nine-week "Space Studies Program" (SSP) each year to teach approximately 120 rising space professionals about the space sector in an international, intercultural, and interdisciplinary setting. ISU Is promoting the Space Odyssey Institute, which is based on the premise that leadership requires constant renewal. Vision of the future, understanding of current opportunities, and of the rich diversity of talent available to an increasingly international space sector requires leaders to explore new directions and interact with their peers. Unfortunately the burdens of responsibility often work to isolate leadership, rather than to renew it. The Space Odyssey Institute focuses on a different issue of emerging importance each year, and provides professional renewal for its participants while increasing the space sector's understanding of important new trends. For 12 exhilarating days ISU's Space Odyssey Institute will explore the strategic questions involved with identifying, picking, and pursuing niches in space exploration. Gathering in Naples, Italy, this year's institute will benefit from Italy's insight and experience in making the pursuit of exploration niches exciting and worthwhile.
HIDDEN TRUTH - FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE Dr. Greer's newest book ñ just published - is his own personal disclosure from intense spiritual experiences to meetings with the world's leadership to his vision of the future. An extraordinary memoir - Available at www.DisclosureProject.orgor call 888-ET-CSETI [888-382-7384] (US mainland orders only). Readthe introduction on the web site at: http://www.DisclosureProject.org/hiddentruth.htm
I would like to thank Terry Boblet for helping me put this month's newsletter together. If you have anything about 2001/2010 or space news and the unknown, report it to The World Tonight and I'll give you special credit. Until then...
Dana Lubich reports to TWT that Profiles In History, a company that sells famous autographs, currently have one from Kubrick (see our website):
The Arts: The Gallery: 2001 Influences: Dana Lubich sends TWT pictures of Disney's new (and apparently "improved") Space Mountain. Inside is what looks like a clunky/chunky Discovery hanging from the ceiling: 
UFO: Dana Lubich reported to TWT about the Anderson's show UFO, and noticed several tie-ins to 2001: In the episode "Exposed" you see the inside of one of the studios at Borehamwood. The inside structure/details look just like the photos of 2001's centrifuge stage. Michael Billington later states in his commentary (in another episode) that 2001 was filmed a couple of stages away.
Magnificent Desolation: Dana reports about the DVD of Tom Hank's Magnificent Desolation, the IMAX movie about the Apollo moon landings.
Dana Lubich contributed an issue of the magazine, Civilization. 2001 is mentioned about the soundtrack. The article is available in the 2001 Collectibles category:
As reported in issue 114, Dana says, that he found the documentary "Universe" that was one of the inspirations for Kubrick (along with The Sentinel, and two other documentaries shown at the '64/'65 World's Fair). The VHS was available from the National Film Board of Canada for $150. I recently checked back to their web site, and found out that it was now available on DVD, and only $39.95.
Twice a year, I attend the 
NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA):
For the first time, NASA beamed a song ñ The Beatles' 
SPIRIT UPDATE: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter. For more info, visit:
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: This view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows bedock within a stratigraphic layer informally named "Gilbert," which is the rover's next target after completing an examination of three stratigtaphic layers forming a bright band around the inside of Victoria Crater. For more info, visit:
During MESSENGER's flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008, the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) acquired images to create eight different mosaics. To see the mosaics, go to:
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of material orbiting Rhea, Saturn's second largest moon. This is the first time rings may have been found around a moon.
At least four Martian avalanches were caught in action. As debris fell down the slope, it hit the lower slope and continued downhill, forming a billowing cloud front:
Images from the Chandra and Swift observatories show evidence for possible detection of a binary star system that was later destroyed in a Type Ia supernova explosion. The progenitor to a Type Ia supernova has never been detected, but promises to answer important questions about the exact configuration and trigger for these explosions:
Stephenville UFO - What People in Texas Really Saw (part 1), on YouTube:
Unearthing the truth of UFOs, Group investigates reported sightings.
