Welcome to our 46th edition of the World Tonight newsletter dedicated to '2001: A Space Odyssey', space exploration and the unknown. It seems another page has been taken from Arthur C. Clarke's "Space Odyssey" in regard to the Galileo project. NASA plans to crash its $1.5 billion Galileo spacecraft into Jupiter this weekend. The crash will ensure Galileo doesn't hit Europa and spill bacteria onto the ice that caps its enormous oceans.

"The Europans would be surprised to know with what intensity and baffled wonder that black monolith is also studied by the minds behind those moving lights. For centuries now their automatic probe has made a cautious descent from orbit always with the same disastrous results. For until the time is ripe, the monolith will permit no contact."
- Arthur C. Clarke, 2010: odyssey two

This past year has been too tremendously busy for me to attend any space-related conference. However, this month I managed to escape for a couple of hours to attend the Bay Area UFO Expo in Santa Clara, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. On Saturday, September 13, I met Ufologist Bubb Hopkins and Stan Gordon and was able to attend their lectures as well as Dr. Roger Leir and former NASA scientist astronaut and Ivy League professor, Brian O'Leary.

My interest in the UFO phenomenon was because of my first sighting 20 years ago in San Mateo County (20 minutes south of San Francisco). I never revealed this episode except for this newsletter. The strange craft was approximately hundred feet in diameter, which gave off a pale white and pink hazy luminous glow with rotating lights below its bottom half. The lights were red, white and blue and were close to the forest area of the mountainside. The shape of the UFO was cigar shape and it moved in slow motion with intelligent direction. More than a dozen people and I witnessed this craft for one hour at 11 PM in the cold Saturday evening. As it got later, people started to go home except my girlfriend and I. We decided to chase after the UFO in our car. We did mange to return to the area within 15 minutes but it disappeared. We decided drive back to the vista point where we witnessed the sighting and then in a few minutes later it reappeared in the area above the treetop, lighting up the area. We watched the sighting for a few minutes until it disappeared for the last time. We waited for its return outside the car until we fell asleep. We woke up the next day in the car and
decided not to mention this story to anyone until we can gather more information. We never saw any news about the sighting. I drive by the area every week and have never seen another sighting since then. But I knew then that perhaps Stanley Kubrick was right about UFOs and I always had a respect to Ufologists who are trying to find the truth. Today, it seems that more members of the military establishment are trying to find loopholes to give us more information about UFOs and I feel the field of Ufologist is making progress to reveal this information. I had one such similar experience revealed to me privately during the year I was helping Tech Museum build the '2001' exhibit because of my interest in the unknown. The story will be revealed in my forthcoming book.

The most startling revelation at the Bay Area UFO Expo was the ongoing scientific research among US doctors studying the alien implants that are found inside patients. Dr. Roger Leir is investigating this strange phenomenon shared a video of an actual surgical procedure of these implants being taken out of patients which is happening all over the world. The medical community is now recognizing this unique but puzzling epidemic.

The exposition was well attended and was visited by many people from around the world. I highly recommend visiting this event the next time if want to learn more about UFO research.

For more information about the 5th Annual Bay Area UFO Expo, go to their website at http://www.thebayareaufoexpo.com

For the latest information about UFOs, hear Peter Davenport on Coast To Coast on Friday September 19 or visit" http://www.ufocenter.com/

In 2001, a very close friend of mine from Ireland gave me a book, 2001- A SPACE ODDITY, published by Staples (In association with Parker). In 1999 Staples organized a short story competition for children across the UK. Parker generously donated the prizes, and more than 6000 entries were received. Due to the great success of last year’s project, Staples decided to run the competition again in 2000, this time to benefit three more charities.
This book has become my favorite reading about space exploration and extraterrestrial life forms from a child’s point of view through story and pictures.
The following is an example of many stories and my favorite from a child at age 10:

"Slowly, Amy realised her life was never going to be the same again, for she found herself in the year 2001, floating in space, millions of children surrounding her as if they knew her. They heard a piercing
sound and all the kids ran off and zoomed around in jet boots, one boy flew around the sun and got a bit singed. Amy was drawn to a dome where she had fried alien for lunch, ate squashed alien eggs for dessert and had alien milk to drink! She wrote with her index finger on a magic pad.
2001 was strange."

For more information about 2001-A SPACE ODDITY, visit: http://www.staples.co.uk

HAL 9000 Screensaver site with new URL:
Anyone with interest in the famous HAL 9000 screensaver, can visit Mike Jackson’s webite:
http://www.mental-pictures.com/hal9000/

"2001" Timeline:
"2001" fan Dana Lubich, reminds us that on July 8, 2003: This would have been the planned end of Discovery's 100 day exploration of Jupiter's system, when the whole crew would go into hibernation. (Script, pg. c15e)
For more information about the "2001" Timeline, visit: http://www.2001exhibit.org/science/frames5.html

Space News:
Dana Lubich reports to TWT the following on the heels of talk of a possible name change for NASA (Dana still favor USAA). Now there's talk (you may have already have heard of it) of going back to reliable Apollo-like capsules for a shuttle replacement! Visit this news report:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=
753&e=1&u=/nm/20030917/sc_nm/space_capsules_dc

It would be interesting if the government goes retro, while Rutan pioneers the next generation of shuttles with his White Knight/Space Ship One combination...

For information about Galileo crash into Jupiter, visit NASA:
http://www.nasa.gov/news/mission/galileo_dies.html

"2001" websites Update:
We’ve updated the Links page on the 2001 Collectible website. Visit: http://www.2001exhibit.org/links.html

"2001" Events:
Dorene Goad has updated us about the next "2001" fashion show in San Francisco. Dorene says that the Golden Gate Parks Conservancy is going to have a videographer at the Oct. Event to video the whole show. She is giving us a copy of the "Grand Finale" to post on our website later this year.
For more information about this event, read our last newsletter at:
http://www.2001exhibit.org/2001expo.html

"2001" Collectibles Update:
Peter Preuss and I have updated all the collectible categories in the Arts section and added a new Video/DVD category. Visit: http://www.2001exhibit.org/arts/collectibles.html

If you have "2001/2010" collectibles you like to add to this new area of the website, contact us!

I like to thank "2001" Terry Boblet for helping put this month’s newsletter together. Sometimes, I need a second pair of eyes when one has his plate full. If you have anything about "2001/2010" or space news, report it to the World Tonight and I’ll give you special credit. Until then…

See you next Wednesday (Frank).