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BACK to the timeline: Before 1,951 AD in Perspectives...
Human lifespans are doubling; Soviet Sputnik launch stuns USAmerica
Man lands on the Moon and the first nodes of the internet are created on Earth (ARPANET)
The Apple I personal computer
The IBM PC
The World Wide Web
The Cold War Ends
1,951 AD: France installs a permanent weather monitoring station on Kerguelen| -- About Kerguelen ["http://www.kerguelen.org/kerguelen.html"] by Jaap Boender, September 12, 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,952 AD: USAmerica is forced to modify its patent laws yet again to remedy various problems and excesses of the process| -- "Patent", pages 354, 355, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Volume 18, Funk & Wagnalls, Inc., MCMLXXIX |
The 1952 Universal Copyright Convention is created. USAmerica will be one of many national subscribers to the new convention.
| -- page 194, "copyright", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,950 AD- 1,953 AD: The Korean War| -- page 442, "Korean War", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
35,000 Americans die during the Korean War
| -- USA is playing into bin Laden's hands By Thomas C Greene; The Register; 20 September 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"Preventative war ... I don't believe in such a thing, and frankly I wouldn't even listen seriously to anyone that came in and talked about such a thing."
| -- A TIME FOR DISSENT IN AMERICA By Richard Reeves; Jun 29, 2002; Yahoo! Op/Ed |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,955 AD: USAmerican McCarthyism jumpstarts China's space program|
The McCarthyism of USAmerica led to talented rocket scientist Tsien Hsue-shen being forced to go to China in 1955, after five years of accusations and various restrictions on his freedom by the US government. In China, he is credited with almost single-handedly getting their rocket and missile programs off the ground.
"It was one of the greatest tactical errors the United States has ever made" -- U.S. threw out man who put China in space ["http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-asecchinatsien11x121101dec11.story?coll=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines%2Dspace"] By Michael Cabbage; Orlando Sentinel; December 11, 2001 |
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1,956 AD: War erupts between Israel and its neighbors once again
| -- page 407, "Israel", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,957 AD: Human life expectancy at birth is virtually doubling; Sputnik is launched by the Soviet Union|
Before now (for more than 99.9% of human history) our life expectancy at birth was just 30-40 years
-- from book reviews about aging in Scientific American, found on or about 1-1-97 -- Strange Science: Timeline ["http://www.strangescience.net/"], narrative text and graphic design by Michon Scott, found on or about 9-16-200 |
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1950 AD- 1966 AD: In terms of unit cost, computing speed is doubling every two years during this period| -- The Web Within Us By Ray Kurzweil, raymond@kurzweiltech.com, Business 2.0: WEB FUTURE, December 1999: The Next 1000 Years, http://www.business2.com/ |
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1,958 AD: Canada institutes almost free hospital services for citizens
| -- page 357, "health insurance", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,959 AD: USAmerican labor unions lose again; 35% of USAmerican elderly live in poverty
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-- page 850, "union, labor" or "trade union", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
-- Seniors Living Longer, Healthier Lives, Reuters Health/Yahoo! Health Headlines, August 10 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,950 AD- 1,960 AD: In constant dollars, US GNP growth per capita is 18% through this period| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"...we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disasterous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower, US Republican President, 1961
| -- page 815, Dwight David Eisenhower, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 15th edition, by John Barlett, Little, Brown, and Company, 1980 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,960s AD: The manned Trieste descends to 36,000 feet undersea; Doug Engelbart invents the computer mouse, and creates prototypes of hypertext browsing, editing, email, and more; A series of Russian Mars missions fail; USAmerica enjoys "its most prosperous decade ever", while maintaining a top tax rate of 70%; Of every dollar of US business profits after taxes, 44 cents is paid out in dividends to shareholders; There's an average annual turn over of 12% in all the stocks traded in the US
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-- A Little History of the World Wide Web ["http://www.w3.org/History.html"]
-- The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for June 20, 2000, http://www.LearningKingdom.com |
In 1960 many US families will end up spending over $25,000 over the next 17 years for each newborn child they have now.
| -- Cost of Child-Rearing in U.S. Rises by 2 Percent, Reuters/Yahoo! Top Stories Headlines, April 27, 2000 |
From 1960-1965 Russia launches a series of probes towards Mars, with disasterous results.
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-- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000
-- What Europe can teach Uncle Sam ["http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,707051,00.html"] by Will Hutton; April 29, 2002; The Guardian; excerpts from book The World We're In; Little, Brown [apparently to be published in 2002] Nations have often grew rapidly economically with higher top tax rates than 46%. The US had a top tax rate of 70% in the 1960s and had "...its most prosperous decade ever...". -- ITALY; ECONOMICS REPORTING REVIEW: The NYT and the Washington Post Under the Microscope [possibly by Dean Baker] Week of October 28 - November 3 (found on or about 11-5-00), citing "Italy's New Politics: The Beauty Contest," by Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times, October 30, 2000, page A6; [TOMPAINE.com: ECONOMICS REPORTING REVIEW ["http://www.tompaine.com/news/2000/11/03/2.html"] may be the original link] |
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1,962 AD: The Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USA approve Operation Northwoods-- perpetrating random acts of terrorism on American citizens, on American soil, and publically accusing Cuba of being responsible for the events
| -- Salon.com Books | "Body of Secrets" by James Bamford (review by Bruce Schneier); April 25, 2001 |
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1,964 AD: Interest rates on long term government bonds stand at 4.20% by the end of 1964| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,965 AD: USAmerica enacts limited national health insurance programs in the form of Medicare and Medicaid; 66% of educational achievement in the US is determined solely by family incomeMedicare serves those 65 and older, while Medicaid is meant to aid the poor with medical costs.
USAmerica will remain the only industrial nation in the west with no form of comprehensive national health insurance for decades to come. This seems at least partly due to the long time opposition from the USAmerican medical profession and various private medical insurance companies.
| -- page 357, "health insurance", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
USAmerican political party dominance immediately before and during this noteworthy time
Contemporary/short term party precedence in power regarding this period (in power during noted events and/or during the 4-6 years preceding same events):
President: Democrat, Lyndon B. Johnson, contemporary; 1963-1969
John F. Kennedy, Democrat, preceding executive (assassinated)
| -- The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews & McMeel, pages 70-91, and other sources |
Senate: Democrat majority, contemporary (88th, 89th Congresses)
Democrat controlled (85th, 86th, 87th Congresses) during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- U.S. Senate Statistics: Majority and Minority Parties ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_13.html"] and Senate Statistics Vice Presidents ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_statistics.html"] |
House of Representatives: Democrat majority, contemporary (88th, 89th Houses)
Democratically controlled 85th, 86th, 87th, during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- Political Divisions of the House of Representatives (1789 to Present) ["http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/divisionh.htm"], Source: Committee on House Administration. Charlie Rose, Chairman. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. History of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1994 Washington: 1994 |
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Some 66% of personal educational achievement in the US in 1965 was determined solely by family income. In 1965 the US Pell grant paid for about 85% of a four year degree program at a public college.
-- Log cabin to White House? Not any more ["http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,706484,00.html"] by Will Hutton; April 28, 2002; The Observer; Guardian Newspapers Limited |
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"The rash assertion that 'God made man in His own image' is ticking like a time bomb at the foundation of many faiths, and as the hierarchy of the universe is disclosed to us, we may have to recognize this chilling truth: if there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they cannot be very important gods."
-- Arthur C. Clarke, scientist and author, 1965
| -- Arthur C. Clarke By Frank Houston; March 7, 2000; Salon.com; http://www.salon.com/people/bc/2000/03/07/clarke |
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"My government is the world's leading purveyor of violence."| -- Shocked and Horrified By Larry Mosqueda; September 18, 2001; CounterPunch |
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1,967 AD: Hermann Kahn predicts pocket telephones, home satellite dishes, VCRs, and that a majority of people will possess home computers capable of searching databases and performing communications tasks| -- Robot Wisdom WebLog for June 1998 ["http://www.robotwisdom.com/log1998m06.html"] citing http://www.herring.com/mag/issue55/economics.html |
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1,967 AD: Canada makes its nearly free national health insurance program more comprehensive in scope; Israel's Six-Day War erupts
|
-- page 357, "health insurance", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press
-- page 407, "Israel", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,968 AD: The USA apparently loses a nuclear bomb off the coast of Greenland; it may stay there, unexploded, for at least 32 years to come|
A US B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear bombs crashed off the coast of Thule airbase in Greenland in 1968. One of the bombs (with a possible serial number of 78252) may never have been recovered.
-- Lost U.S. Nuclear Bomb Off Greenland Base Site? By Peter Starck; Reuters/Yahoo!; August 13, 2000 |
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1,969 AD: USAmerica successfully lands men on Earth's Moon; Assembly of ARPANET begins at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute (the beginning of the internet)|
-- The Learning Kingdom's Today in History for July 20, 2000, http://www.LearningKingdom.com
-- Saving Bits and Bytes for History ["http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000807/t000073831.html"] By ASHLEY DUNN, August 7, 2000, Los Angeles Times |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,960 AD- 1,970 AD: In constant dollars, US GNP growth per capita is 33% through this period| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
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1,970 AD: A major earthquake (7.7 on the Richter Scale) rocks northern Peru; Crude oil costs less than $4 per barrel on world markets; The USA possesses 200 pounds of anthrax spores for weapons useA cyclone also kills over 300,000 people in Bangladesh.
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-- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon: Grim Statistics, 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/stats.html
-- Prodigal Sun by Arthur Allen March/April 2000, The MoJo Wire/MOTHER JONES magazine, Foundation for National Progress The USA possessed over 200 pounds of deadly anthrax spores in its weapons programs that were ended in 1970. Other agents stockpiled included crop destroying fungi, and variants of bugs which could be used to cause tularemia, Q fever, and Venezuelan equine encephalomyelitis. -- U.S. Had 200 Pounds of Anthrax, Documents Show By Maggie Fox; Yahoo!/Reuters; October 26 2001 |
A rudimentary artificial intelligence, through an unusual convergence of events, 'awakens' to consciousness, takes control of its host aircraft and begins exploring the extremes of its flight manueverability. It takes little notice of the human pilot-in-training onboard at the time. The pilot is understandably terrified by the plane's wild gyrations and ejects. The plane notices the ejection and realizes its excessive behavior, and attempts to rectify matters as best it can. Unsure where to land, it finds a suitable spot and waits for its people to find it.
Does the plane's newfound consciousness dissolve after this episode, rendering it just an uncommon machine again? Or does it simply 'mature' sufficiently to realize its duty, and avoid scaring pilots again afterwards? The answers remain unknown...but the plane ends up in a museum.
|
Of 277 F-106A all-weather interceptors (original designation F-102B) built between 1956 and 1960, all including a form of built-in artificial intelligence (a Hughes MA-1 electronic guidance/fire control system) allowing the planes to pretty much do all the flying and fighting themselves except for take-offs, the plane identified as serial number 58-0787 in 1970 inexplicably went out of control during a training mission, spurring its pilot to eject. After the pilot was gone, 58-0787 righted itself, and carefully landed on its belly in a snowy field close to Big Sandy, Montana. The landing was performed so well that little damage was done, and the plane was back in service again almost immediately. 58-0787 served with the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron until 1986, at which time it was put on display in the USAF Museum which maintains the web site in the URL.
It's unknown if the ejected pilot ever flew 58-0787 again. 58-0787 was capable of carrying nuclear missiles, had a top speed and ceiling of 1,500 mph and 53,000 feet respectively, a range of 1,500 miles, and carried one pilot (or not). -- CONVAIR F-106A "DELTA DART" ["http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/modern_flight/mf30.htm"], USAF Museum, found on or about 11-02-01 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
Mid-1,960s AD- 1973 AD: Newly discovered gamma ray bursts make for some tense Cold War years
| speculative fact, gamma ray bursters/Gamma Ray Bursters: Unexplained Lights in the Sky by Mia Molvray modified from original presentation in Analog ["http://www.sfsite.com/analog/"], Sept 1994; found on or about 5-17-02 |
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1,969 AD- 1973 AD: Another series of Russian missions to Mars fails to live up to expectations| -- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
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1,971 AD: For the first time in documented USAmerican history, the elderly are no longer the poorest segment of the population
| -- Social Security, born 65 years ago, still paying dividends ["http://www.sduniontribune.com/news/uniontrib/sat/news/news_1n12socsec.html"] By Mary Deibel, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE, August 12, 2000 |
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1913-1972: Total-factor productivity increases annually at an average rate of 1.08%
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It appears the total-factor productivity figure given above relates to the USAmerican economy alone.
-- The slowing pace of progress ["http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/001225/change.htm"] By Phillip J. Longman, US News & World Report, found on or about 12-30-2000 |
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1,972 AD: E-mail is invented by Ray Tomlinson| -- The digital century: Computing through the ages by the PC World staff, (IDG) /CNN, November 24, 1999 |
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1,973 AD: The Shadowfast supercar project comes to a spectacular endSignposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,973 AD: The Yom Kippur WarThis war and the previous two left Israel with still more additional land under its control, taken from its neighbors. Israel says it will not relinquish the new territories without a suitable peace agreement.
| -- page 407, "Israel", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,974 AD: USAmerican Republican President Richard Nixon resigns due to his involvement in the Watergate break-in
| -- Encyclopedia Americana: Republican Party ["http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/ea/side/rparty.html"] possibly by George H. Mayer, University of South Florida, Grolier Incorporated |
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1,974 AD: Humanity purposely transmits a message to possible alien listeners; The first true mouse-using, GUI (Graphical User Interface) computer is created at the Palo Alto Research Center of XeroxThe Arecibo radio telescope located in Puerto Rico is used for the task. The message (created by Frank Drake, among others) contains basic information regarding humanity. Some voice concern that the message might attract attention from unfriendly aliens in the void-- but the message is sent anyway.
Fortunately some precautions are taken with this largely symbolic event to make it unlikely it ever reaches anyone very soon.
The narrowcast, three minute long message is beamed just once, towards the globular cluster Hercules, Messier 13, some 25,000 lightyears away. The cluster of 300,000 star systems will also have moved by the time the beam enters the targeted vicinity, due to galactic rotation. Thus, the beam will miss the cluster. However, if anyone did exist in the target area around 26,974 AD, they could detect the message easily with equipment similar to that which sent it.
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-- First Message To ETs Sent Twenty-Five Years Ago By Bill Steele, 15-Nov-1999, http://www.unisci.com
-- Saving Bits and Bytes for History ["http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000807/t000073831.html"] By ASHLEY DUNN, August 7, 2000, Los Angeles Times |
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1,954 AD- 1,975 AD: USAmerica suffers a humiliating defeat in its Vietnam War
| -- page 873, "Vietnam War", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
More than 50,000 Americans die in the war.
| -- USA is playing into bin Laden's hands By Thomas C Greene; The Register; 20 September 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,975 AD: Total human population on Earth reaches four billion; 67% of the world's computers can be found in USAmerica; 21% of USAmericans 65 or older report serious health problems| -- The History of World Human Population (http://bioslave.uio.no/~andrewsl/whp/history.html) by Andrew Sverre Louka, 1998 |
51% of USAmericans regard ill heath to be a big problem for those over 65. 21% of elderly polled in 1974 said they personally suffered serious health problems.
|
-- Most Americans optimistic about old age By Charnicia E. Huggins
Reuters/Yahoo! Health Headlines, April 10 2000
There were 300,000 computers worldwide in 1975: 200,000 of them were in USAmerica. -- Good Times By Ronald Bailey; Reason Magazine; April 25, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,976 AD: Steve Wozniak builds the Apple I personal computer; A major earthquake (around 8 on the Richter Scale) occurs in Tangshan, China
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-- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon: Grim Statistics, 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/stats.html
240,000 Chinese are killed by the Tangshan earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale in 1976. It marks the biggest death toll in 400+ years. -- Analysis: Giant quakes shook human history by MARTIN SIEFF, United Press International, 31 January 2001 -- Saving Bits and Bytes for History By ASHLEY DUNN, August 7, 2000, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000807/t000073831.html |
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1,978 AD: USAmerica rewrites its copyright lawsCopyrights give the creator of literary and artistic works exclusive control over their publication, for a certain period of time. At this time USAmerica chooses to lengthen the creator's ownership of their works to the creator's lifespan plus 50 years.
| -- page 194, "copyright", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989 |
USAmerican political party dominance immediately before and during this noteworthy time
Contemporary/short term party precedence in power regarding this period (in power during noted events and/or during the 4-6 years preceding same events):
President: Democrat, Jimmy Carter, contemporary; 1977-1981
Gerald R. Ford, Republican, preceding term (replaced Republican Richard M. Nixon, who resigned over Watergate)
| -- The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews & McMeel, pages 70-91, and other sources |
Senate: Democrat majority, contemporary (95th Congress)
Democrat controlled 92nd, 93rd, 94th during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- U.S. Senate Statistics: Majority and Minority Parties ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_13.html"] and Senate Statistics Vice Presidents ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_statistics.html"] |
House of Representatives: Democrat majority, contemporary (95th House)
Democratically controlled 92nd, 93rd, 94th, during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- Political Divisions of the House of Representatives (1789 to Present) ["http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/divisionh.htm"], Source: Committee on House Administration. Charlie Rose, Chairman. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. History of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1994 Washington: 1994 |
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Late 1,970s AD: Labor unions weaken still further in developed nations like USAmerica
| -- page 850, "union, labor" or "trade union", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,979 AD: The Moonshadow stealth airship is confiscated by authoritiesSignposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,970s AD- 1995 AD: The average temperature on Mars drops an astounding 36 degrees Farenheit in mere decades
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-- Ancient Life on Mars??? [sic] Compiled by Pat Dasch and Allan Treiman, citing Hubble Space Telescope Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2
image, February 1995. Philip James (University of Toledo), Steven Lee (University of Colorado,
Boulder), NASA. A related URL may be http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/mars_meteorite.html
Mars' distance from the Sun and its circa 2000 AD temperature may indicate that the source of heat which kept water flowing on the planet early in its past was geothermal in nature. -- SOLAR-SYSTEM PUZZLES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #97, JAN-FEB 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing Richard A. Kerr; "The Solar System's New Diversity," Science, 265:1360, 1994 |
Mar's surface atmospheric pressure is 1% that of Earth's. Mar's considerably smaller quantity of geothermal heat than Earth may have left it with little or none of the tectonic plate processes which tend to recycle and replenish the Earth's own atmosphere. Thus, Mars couldn't replenish what was lost to space or trapped in its crust, and its atmosphere dwindled to what is seen today (circa 2000 AD).
At least the above is what scientists thought before they acquired new information through the Mars Global Surveyor program. Now the problem of what happened to Mars' atmosphere appears to be more complex than that described above.
The cosmic bombardment Mars received early in its history may have thrown off a large part of its atmosphere-- perhaps as much as 99 percent. The magnetic component of the solar wind may also have caused a slow trickle drain of the atmosphere into space, over time.
It may be that Mars was able to replenish some of its lost atmosphere from internal reserves after the intial big loss. And Mars seems to have enjoyed its own geomagnetic field too early on, which would have acted as a shield against losses due to the solar wind. But as Mars' internal heat ran down, so did the internal dynamics spawning the magnetic shield-- and the losses to space increased. The failure of the shield came about in Mars' youth-- not recently.
There's a strong possibility that Mars was never warm enough for liquid water in any normal sense; it could be that water only flowed briefly in various locations due to catastrophic cosmic impacts or volcanic eruptions. And those brief moments have been captured forever in the landscape observable in 2000 AD. Long term landshaping could have occured with flowing water underneath protective ice sheets over millennia, with the ice sheets finally collapsing and all the water evaporating or seeping into the crust.
At best Mars might occasionally experience unusual periods of 10,000 years or so at a time of warmer temperatures due to massive outgassing (volcanic eruptions?), along with liquid water. But such brief stints would seem to be very limited in regards to encouraging widespread and complex lifeform development.
Mars' most interesting period may have been its first billion years of existence.
|
-- Mystery of the missing atmosphere by Oliver Morton,
New Scientist issue: 20th November 99
Source: Geo-Marine Letters (vol 18, p 285), New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com) and EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"]
Signs of Lake Superior-sized lakes on ancient Mars-- some as deep as three miles. They may have been ice-covered for at least part of their history. -- THE MARTIAN GREAT LAKES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #45, MAY-JUN 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing Anonymous; "Great Lakes on Mars," Science 86, 7:13, April 1986 There appears to be evidence of substantial glaciation in the past of Mars. The latest glaciation may have occurred much more recently than previously thought. This implies the presence of warmer temperatures and significant elements of water and atmosphere on Mars at the same time. There seems good reason to suspect the presence of hardy microbial life on Mars near hydrothermal vents and underground. -- WARM, WET, FERTILE MARS From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #82, JUL-AUG 1992 by William R. Corliss, citing Jeffrey S. Kargel, and Robert G. Strom; "Ancient Glaciation on Mars," Geology, 20:3, 1992, and Penelope J. Boston, et al; "On the Possibility of Chemosynthetic Ecosystems in Subsurface Habitats on Mars," Icarus, 95:300, 1992 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,970 AD- 1,980 AD: In constant dollars, US GNP growth per capita is 24% through this period| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,980 AD: Ecologist Paul Ehrlich bets economist Julian Simon that resources, not ingenuity or innovation, drive economic growth and living standards; they agree to a ten year bet and how to measure the outcome at that time. Ehrlich will lose the betThough this single instance does not prove the matter conclusively one way or another, it does seem a happy anecdotal coincidence for those who believe innovation may save humanity from starving to death in the future, as we continually find ways to either expand supplies to match demand, or replace those items in chronically short supply.
| -- As the World Adopts U.S. Consumer Culture, Will We Run Short of Everything? By Matt Crenson, January 16, 2001, FoxNews.com/Associated Press |
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1,980 AD: Crude oil costs over $22 per barrel on world markets; Photovoltaic cells cost $4.50 per watt to manufacture| -- Prodigal Sun by Arthur Allen March/April 2000, The MoJo Wire/MOTHER JONES magazine, Foundation for National Progress |
Electricity generating solar cells cost $4.50 per watt to produce today.
| -- Power crisis has renewable energy lab humming By TIFFANY MEREDITH, Associated Press, April 15, 2001; Nando Media/Nando Times |
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"Everything under the sun made by man is patentable"| -- Patently absurd? The Economist; July 6th 2001 and Jun 21st 2001 are both dates associated with this piece. |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,981 AD: The IBM PC makes its debut; Israel bombs a nuclear reactor in Iraq| -- Saving Bits and Bytes for History By ASHLEY DUNN, August 7, 2000, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000807/t000073831.html |
Israel says the Iraqi reactor was capable of making nuclear weapons.
| -- page 407, "Israel", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Second Edition, 1989, Columbia University Press |
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1,964 AD- 1,981 AD: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises by just one-tenth of one percent; US GNP grows by 373%; Interest rates on long term government bonds stand at 13.65% by the end of 1981| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,982 AD: Due to government pressures AT&T agrees to divest itself of its regional "Baby Bells"; 55,000 patents are issued in the USA this year|
-- Antitrust Law Intended to Maintain Competition, Tech Headlines, Yahoo/Reuters, June 7, 2000
In 1982 55,000 patents were granted. In 1992, 110,000. -- Patently absurd? The Economist; July 6th 2001 and Jun 21st 2001 are both dates associated with this piece. |
USAmerican political party dominance immediately before and during this noteworthy time
Contemporary/short term party precedence in power regarding this period (in power during noted events and/or during the 4-6 years preceding same events):
President: Republican, Ronald Reagan, contemporary; 1981-1989
Jimmy Carter, Democrat, preceding term
| -- The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews & McMeel, pages 70-91, and other sources |
Senate: Republican majority, contemporary (97th Congress)
Democrat controlled 94th, 95th, 96th during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- >U.S. Senate Statistics: Majority and Minority Parties ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_13.html"] and Senate Statistics Vice Presidents ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_statistics.html"] |
House of Representatives: Democrat majority, contemporary (97th House)
Democratically controlled 94th, 95th, 96th, during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- Political Divisions of the House of Representatives (1789 to Present) ["http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/divisionh.htm"], Source: Committee on House Administration. Charlie Rose, Chairman. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. History of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1994 Washington: 1994 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,984 AD: William Gibson foresees people fighting for power and influence inside computer networks; USAmerica possesses 90% of the email accounts on the global net; Wind-generated electricity costs 38 cents per kilowatt-hourGibson's tale is told in his novel Neuromancer, which helps spark a whole new science fiction sub-genre termed 'cyberpunk'.
|
-- Science Fiction Prophecies ["http://www.sfcanada.ca/fall99/prophecies.htm"] By Edward Willett, SF Canada, ARTICLES Fall 1999, Posted September 2, 1999
In 1984 90% of the world's e-mail accounts reside in USAmerica. -- UC Berkeley Professors Measure Exploding World Production Of New Information ["http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/10/001018214317.htm"], Source: University Of California, Berkeley (http://www.berkeley.edu); 10/19/2000, http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2000/10/18_info.html The cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated via wind stands at 38 cents, circa the early 1980s. -- There's Something in the Wind by Lester R. Brown, 08.21.00, Earth Day Network, http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/imho/imho082100.stm |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,984 AD: The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 is passed in the US, as part of its 'war on drugs'In many cases cash will be seized from innocent citizens simply because the law enforcement officers present deem it unusual for anyone to carry large amounts on their person (even on long trips), or keep such quantities in their home.
Rather than being 'innocent until proven guilty', victims will be presumed 'guilty until proven innocent', and have to somehow prove to the government that their money or other confiscated property has no links to drug trafficking, in order to regain it. Substantial financial barriers will be put into place to discourage legal challenges to such seizures, as well. Many innocent victims thus will be unable to afford the legal costs necessary to get their property returned.
-- Republican Congressman Henry Hyde, on his first reaction to learning about the excesses taking place.
| -- frontline: drug wars: special reports: Reining in Forfeiture: Common Sense Reform in the War on Drugs ["http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/special/forfeiture.html"] by Kyla Dunn; pbs online and wgbh/frontline; found on or about 11-27-01 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,985 AD: The Nevado del Ruiz volcanic eruption occurs in Colombia; Guaranteed pensions are available to employees of 114,000 US companies
|
-- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon: Grim Statistics, 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/stats.html
Guaranteed pensions were available to employees of 114,000 US companies in 1985. That number dropped to 38,000 by 2000. -- You're On Your Own, Baby By DANIEL KADLEC; You're On Your Own, A Consumer Survival Guide ["http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020128/intro.html"]; time.com; found on or about 1-21-02; Jan. 28, 2002 - Feb. 3, 2002 issue of TIME |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other human construct..."| -- The Rising Costs of Software Complexity By Shannon Cochran; Dr. Dobb's Journal, April 2001, citing No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering ["http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/SoftwareEngineering/BrooksNoSilverBullet.html"] |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,987 AD: Total human population on Earth reaches five billion| -- Counting down by Fred Pearce From New Scientist ["http://www.newscientist.com"], 2 October 1999 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
250,000,000 BC through the Present: A regular 26 to 34 million year cycle of catastrophe for the Solar System may be in effectSupporting evidence for such periodic events include massive basaltic lava flows on average every 32 million years, and a cycle of 33 million years between geomagnetic field reversals.
| -- COLLISION/ERUPTION/EXTINCTION/ MAGNETIC REVERSAL From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #60, NOV-DEC 1988 by William R. Corliss, citing "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988 |
A cosmic dust fall or asteroid/comet impact may also initiate a climate change which sufficiently rapidly (in geological terms) redistributes the weight of water on the Earth (by ice formation) that the rotation rates of crust and mantle are effected, and eventually lead to geomagnetic reversals, or the more common excursions (wandering of the poles).
| -- GEOMAGNETIC REVERSALS FROM IMPACTS ON THE EARTH From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #49, JAN-FEB 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Richard A. Muller, and Donald E. Morris; "Geomagnetic Reversals from Impacts on the Earth," Geophysical Re search Letters, 13:1177, 1986 |
There may be a time lag from initiating event to actual field reversal of many thousands of years. During part of the interim the field may be measurably weakening down to a certain plateau. Then, after perhaps more thousands of years have passed at or near the plateau, a relatively sudden reversal may take place.
| -- METEOR-IMPACT WINTERS, MAGNETIC FIELD REVERSALS AND TEKTITES From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #53, SEP-OCT 1987 by William R. Corliss, citing Bertram Schwartzschild; "Do Asteroid Impacts Trigger Geomagnetic Reversals?" Physics Today, 40:17, February 1987 |
Other possibilities include an extension of the Gaia Hypothesis: that the Earth itself qualifies as an enormous living organism, and regularly reverses its geomagnetic field as one consequence of internal life-related electrochemical processes.
|
-- GEOCORROSION? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #48, NOV-DEC 1986 by William R. Corliss, citing I. Peterson; "Tracing Corrosion's Magnetic Field," Science News, 130:132, 1986
Polarity reversals in the Earth's geomagnetic field can occur over a period of one thousand years or less. Such reversals punctuate long periods of stability in the field. Reversals seem dependent only on the internal dynamics of the Earth-- they do not seem to be initiated by external influences or events. -- Computer simulations reveal the workings of the dynamo behind earth's magnetic field, EurekAlert! Contact: Tim Stephens stephens@cats.ucsc.edu 831-459-2495 University of California, Santa Cruz, 20 FEBRUARY 2000 |
There have been some indications that geomagnetic reversals may occur astonishingly fast-- such as within only a matter of months, according to one location of 16 million year old lava flows.
|
-- "ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE" CHANGES IN THE GEOMAGNETIC FIELD From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #101 Sep-Oct 1995 by William R. Corliss, citing R.S. Coe, et al; "New Evidence for Extraordinarily Rapid Change of the Geomagnetic Field during a Reversal," Nature, 374:687, 1995. Ronald T. Merrill; "Principle of Least Astonishment," Nature, 374:674, 1995
Extinction rates rose significantly about every 26 million years during the last 250 million years. -- WANTED: DISASTERS WITH A 26-MILLION-YEAR PERIOD From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #31, JAN-FEB 1984 by William R. Corliss, citing C. Simon; "Pattern in Mass Extinctions," Science News, 124:212, 1983 Over the past 250 million years the intensity of extinction rates has increased significantly in intervals of around 26-28 million years. Nine such events have happened in the 250 million year time frame, including the Triassic and Cretaceous instances. -- WRI Article: "A History of Extinction" ["http://www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/b03-koa.html"] The Earth's geomagnetic field helps protect the biosphere from cosmic radiation, as well as enable compasses to work. The field has been in operation in one form or another for at least three billion years, although it has fluctuated in strength and at times reversed in polarity. When the field strength drops too low, life on Earth may be imperiled by radiation. Substantial changes in the field look to happen as quickly as within only a thousand years at times, although periods of stability of hundreds of thousands of years also occur. Research indicates the temperature patterns within the lower mantle can influence both the stability and intensity of the field. Complete geomagnetic reversals on average occur every 200 thousand years-- but the last one happened 780,000 years back. -- Modeling Earth: Why the force is with us By Robert Roy Britt, explorezone.com NEWS, http://www.flycast.com, 10.27.99 Japanese researchers say they have found evidence that Earth suffers from 30 million year cycles of mass extinctions, which parallel large asteroid/comet strikes. -- U.K. Guardian, found on or about 11-14-96. Statistically, substantial changes in or on the Earth seem to follow a 26.6 million to 30 million year cycle-- at least based on the known scientific research gathered about the last 250 million years. Note that the solar system crosses the relatively dense galactic plane every 30 million years. -- WHENCE THE EARTH'S PULSE? From Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #87, MAY-JUN 1993 by William R. Corliss, citing Michael R. Rampino, and Ken Caldeira; "Major Episodes of Geologic Change: Correlations, Time Structure and Possible Causes," Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 114:215, 1993 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
10,000 BC-1,990 AD: Legends and myths from the ancient past of a rare and mysterious humanoid race sharing Earth with mankind continue to endure-- with the help of periodic reports of sightings and bits of intriguing (but inconclusive) evidence for the matterSignposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,989 AD: Patent laws in the developed nations have for the most part become tools of large corporations; The sophistocated Russian Mars Phobos probes fail, with the last disappearing under puzzling circumstancesPatents were originally granted only to individuals in medieval times. Today, large corporations tend to own the most important patents.
| -- page 629, "patent", The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (2nd edition), Columbia University press, 1983, 1989 |
USAmerican political party dominance immediately before and during this noteworthy time
Contemporary/short term party precedence in power regarding this period (in power during noted events and/or during the 4-6 years preceding same events):
President: Republicans Ronald Reagan, 1981-1989, and George Bush, 1989-1993, contemporaries
Jimmy Carter, Democrat, preceding term
| -- The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews & McMeel, pages 70-91, and other sources |
Senate: Democrat majority, contemporary (100th, 101st Congresses)
Republican controlled 97th, 98th, 99th during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- U.S. Senate Statistics: Majority and Minority Parties ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_13.html"] and Senate Statistics Vice Presidents ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_statistics.html"] |
House of Representatives: Democrat majority, contemporary (100th, 101st Houses)
Democrat controlled 97th, 98th, 99th, during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- Political Divisions of the House of Representatives (1789 to Present) ["http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/divisionh.htm"], Source: Committee on House Administration. Charlie Rose, Chairman. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. History of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1994 Washington: 1994 |
The Russian Mars Phobos probes are of a completely new design compared to earlier efforts. They also possess their own 'daughter' satellites for various missions to the Mars moon of Phobos. Both Phobos missions suffer disasterous failures. Phobos-2 does manage to limp through a fraction of its original mission, though it soon disappears. The last two months of photos it sends back to Earth seem to display various anomalous images. The very last one apparently taken two days before the probe disappears seems to show a huge, smooth object approaching the probe.
Many years later scientists will explain the strange images were essentially caused by something similar to long exposures performed with cameras on Earth, smearing or lengthening some images into weird geometries, or else by other flaws in the transmission. They also will say the Phobos missions were plagued with many sorts of problems which made them likely to fail or return erroneous results.
| -- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,980 AD- 1,990 AD: In constant dollars, US GNP growth per capita is 24% through this period| -- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,990 AD: A major earthquake (about 7.5 on the Richter Scale) shakes northwestern Iran
| -- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon: Grim Statistics, 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/stats.html |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,990 AD: Roughly seven to eight percent of all human beings ever born are alive now...
|
-- Why Are There So Many of Us? Description and Diagnosis of
a Planetary Ecopathological Process by Warren M. Hern, University of Colorado, Why Are There So Many of Us? (http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html), found on or about 1-17-2000.
A total past and present population of 40 billion human beings was apparently estimated before or during 1997, in the article cited below. -- DOOM SOON ["http://www.linguafranca.com/9710/9710hyp.html"] by Jim Holt, Lingua Franca,Inc., 1997 [A total past and present population of 105 billion, counting from 50,000 BC, resulting in 5.5% of all people who ever lived being alive today, comes from How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth? ["http://www.spiritone.com/~orsierra/rogue/popco/data/everlivd.htm"] By Carl Haub, found on or about 5-31-2000 |
Note that if some 5,250,000,000 people populate the Earth at present, then it would appear something like 66 billion total human beings have been born on the planet up through 1990 (based on the first citation above).
AUTHOR'S NOTE #1: The article cited above does not disclose the author's criteria for exactly what constitutes a human being. That is, the author did not specify at what point they considered apes to have ended and human beings to have begun. END NOTE.
AUTHOR'S NOTE #2: The concept that there is a transcendental number (100 billion) relevant to significant 'phase changes' in the medium of life and/or intelligence which might incur quantum leaps in complexity and capacities (as espoused by Marshall Savage of The Millennial Project; Little, Brown and Company, 1992, 1994) might be speculatively combined with the widely believed possibility of an afterlife or some other medium by which sentient biologicals might maintain or produce some perceiveable effect beyond the grave, to produce some intriguing possibilities for the near future.
That is, assuming 66 billion 'souls' have already graced our world by 1990 AD, and current population growth trends which indicate we might add another 34 billion to the total over the next couple centuries or so, the Earth might theoretically achieve the transcendental 100 billion number sometime during the 22nd or 23rd centuries-- or by the 24th most certainly (if no major changes in population trends occur).
At that point, when the total number of living and dead human beings surpass 100 billion, something extraordinary might occur (again, assuming that we possess immortal souls which in some fashion may still interact with the living after our death).
However, again, the definition of what constitutes a human being for this calculation may throw a monkey wrench into estimates relating to the moment the magical number might be reached.
My own opinion? Only the living count towards the transcendental number (and even they must be thoroughly networked together to empower the phenomena), unless and until a meta-technological vision along the lines of that described by Spider Robinson in his science fiction novel Time Pressure (Ace Books, 1987) might be realized. END NOTE.
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
Late 1,990 AD: Tim Berners-Lee at CERN invents the World Wide Web
| -- The World Wide Web ["http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/ACHIEVEMENTS/web.html"] |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,991 AD: The Soviet Union collapses, taking the Cold War down with it; The American public doesn't know the Soviet Union may have planted numerous small nuclear bombs at various sites in America in previous years
| -- Strange Science: Timeline ["http://www.strangescience.net/"], narrative text and graphic design by Michon Scott, found on or about 9-16-2000 |
USAmerican political party dominance immediately before and during this noteworthy time
Contemporary/short term party precedence in power regarding this period (in power during noted events and/or during the 4-6 years preceding same events):
President: Republican, George Bush, contemporary; 1989-1993
Ronald Reagan, Republican, preceding executive
| -- The Universal Almanac 1996, Andrews & McMeel, pages 70-91, and other sources |
Senate: Democrat majority, contemporary (101st, 102nd Congresses)
Republican controlled 98th, 99th Congresses, Democrat 100th Congress, during the preceding 4-6 years
| -- U.S. Senate Statistics: Majority and Minority Parties ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/stat_13.html"] and Senate Statistics Vice Presidents ["http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history_statistics.html"] |
House of Representatives: Democrat majority, contemporary (101st, 102nd Houses)
Democratically controlled 98th, 99th, 100th, during the preceding 4-6 years
|
-- Political Divisions of the House of Representatives (1789 to Present) ["http://clerkweb.house.gov/histrecs/househis/lists/divisionh.htm"], Source: Committee on House Administration. Charlie Rose, Chairman. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. History of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1994 Washington: 1994
Does Russia possess an array of small nuclear bombs buried at strategic sites about the USA? Some believe it true. Possibly 84 such 10-kiloton devices of Russian make are currently unaccounted for. Some of the possible locations include the states of Texas, New York, California, Minnesota and Montana. -- POL FEARS SOVIETS HID A-BOMBS ACROSS U.S. BY VINCENT MORRIS; New York Post; found on or about 11-12-99 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today."| -- Profit© vs. innovation© By Douglas McGray; The Christian Science Monitor; November 01, 2001; http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1101/p19s1-bogn.html |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,992 AD: About 33% of US households own equities of some kind; 110,000 patents are issued in the USA this year.|
In 1982 55,000 patents were granted. In 1992, 110,000.
-- Patently absurd? The Economist; July 6th 2001 and Jun 21st 2001 are both dates associated with this piece. Around 1992 roughly 33% of US households own some equities. -- The Problem with Pension Plans By Christopher Farrell; JANUARY 11, 2002; SOUND MONEY; BusinessWeek; Edited by Beth Belton; The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,993 AD: CERN gives away the World Wide Web technology to all humanity for free; the Web begins to boom; another human spacecraft is lost on a mission to MarsApril 30, 1993: CERN's directors announce that WWW technology will be freely usable by anyone, for free.
September 1993: Mark Andreeson and associates at NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) release the Mosaic browser for the Windows PC, Mac, and X platforms.
| -- A Little History of the World Wide Web ["http://www.w3.org/History.html"] and Saving Bits and Bytes for History By ASHLEY DUNN, August 7, 2000, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/news/front/20000807/t000073831.html |
Without Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, and CERN, this timeline would likely not exist, and/or you may never have gotten the chance to read it.
NASA's Mars Observer is lost as it approaches Mars.
| -- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"...I have as much power as the president has..."| -- Gates: 'more powerful than Clinton' ["http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/1/14214.html"] By Graham Lea, The Register, 25/10/2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,994 AD: Not one but two possible aquatic Pellucidars foundNow it appears two enormous ancient oceans were dragged deep towards the core of the Earth (hundreds of kilometers down) by the subduction of their floors under the continents. They may host quantities of seawater comparable to the surface oceans of 20th century Earth.
One of these bizzare realms may now exist some 900 km underneath Europe. The other looks to be almost 3,000 km below Indonesia.
These regions were revealed by seismic tomography.
| -- TWO REALLY DEEP OCEANS from Science Frontiers Digest of Scientific Anomalies ["http://www.knowledge.co.uk/frontiers/"] #96, NOV-DEC 1994 by William R. Corliss, citing Carl Zimmer; "The Ocean Within," Discover, 15:20, October 1994, and Martin Redfern; "Lost Ocean Found Deep in the Earth," New Scientist, p. 16, September 3, 1994 |
Between 750 million BC and 2,000 AD the Earth's surface sea level will have dropped some 1,968 feet due to loss of water to subterranean regions..
| -- "The world's oceans seem to be draining away" by Peter Hadfield, Tokyo, New Scientist issue 11th September 99, http://www.newscientist.com, 8 SEPTEMBER 1999, EurekAlert! ["http://www.eurekalert.org/"] |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1990's AD: Of every dollar of US business profits after taxes, 85 cents is paid out in dividends to shareholders; There's an average annual turn over of 40% in the portfolios of American institutional investors, who control the majority of shares traded in the US markets
| -- What Europe can teach Uncle Sam ["http://books.guardian.co.uk/extracts/story/0,6761,707051,00.html"] by Will Hutton; April 29, 2002; The Guardian; excerpts from book The World We're In; Little, Brown [apparently to be published in 2002] |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,972 AD-1,995 AD: Total-factor productivity increases annually at an average rate of only about 0.02%
|
It appears the total-factor productivity figure given above relates to the USAmerican economy alone.
-- The slowing pace of progress ["http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/001225/change.htm"] By Phillip J. Longman, US News & World Report, found on or about 12-30-2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,988 AD- 1,995 AD: 50% to 90% of all significant prehistoric and ancient relics may be discovered by dedicated amateurs today; Russia loses a Mars probe before it ever escapes the Earth's gravityOutright illegal search and seizures of artifacts by thieves are not included in the estimates above. As of 1995 only a relative handful of successful persecutions against such thieves had taken place.
These estimates and analysis come from events documented in Britain, a developed country of the time. Similar activity could be reasonably expected to be taking place in other developed nations of the period. Some significant differences in such activity might exist between developed and less developed nations.
Note that such massive losses of relics and their local context to scientific studies puts severe restrictions on what humanity may learn about its past. Facts like these prove that it's not a question of IF we are missing something in regards to humanity's past, but HOW MUCH.
|
-- Finders, keepers and losers by Simon Denison, British Archaeology, 1995, http://www.britarch.ac.uk/
In 1995 Russia lost a Mars probe during launch in the vicinity of the Andes mountains. -- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,948 AD - 1,997 AD: Soviet intelligence and security agencies take up the baton from the Nazis regarding the life extension project-- eventually selling much of the results to a wealthy USAmerican code-named "Pane"A fresh supply of enslaved test subjects, megalomaniacal ambitions, and national wealth once again takes up where others have left off in what has become an on-again off-again life extension project spanning millennia.
While the USAmericans managed to get the bulk of Hitler's rocket scientists, the USSR obtained the lion's share of Hitler's immortality specialists, along with the blueprints to the unfinished south american refuge and related matters.
The matter attracts the attentions of a highly placed KGB official, who decides to funnel Soviet resources into his own updated version of the plan. Not only is the official impressed by the life extension possibilities; his experts inform him the research offers vast potential in biological weapons, enhanced-sensory perception, advanced genetics engineering, and more.
The updated and expanded Soviet variant of the Nazi refuge comes to be built in a natural grotto located among a remote Arctic archipelago. However, it is slow going as materials for construction may only be delivered by submarine and unloaded only when it is verified no USAmerican planes or satellites or other observation means are applicable to the area.
The KGB official plans for the project to be his own private refuge for eventual nuclear war with USAmerica, and manages to keep almost all references to it out of Soviet records. However, over the decades the secret changes hands and control, and after the fall of the USSR another Russian 'sells' the complex to an unimaginably wealthy USAmerican computer industrialist, whom for the most part enjoys a close relationship with the Russian mafia and other Russian elite (as well as possesses ties to the USAmerican NSA). However, the sensitive nature of the relationship and the refuge means most Russians with some idea of the complex and deal know the industrialist only by a code name: "Pane".
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"...no country, other than the major declared nuclear powers, will develop or otherwise acquire a ballistic missile in the next 15 years that could threaten the contiguous 48 states and Canada...." | -- How Politics Helped Redefine Threat By Michael Dobbs; The Washington Post; January 14, 2002; Page A01 [Article two of two]and other sources |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,995 AD: 66% of educational achievement in the US is determined solely by family income|
Some 66% of personal educational achievement in the US at this time is determined solely by family income.
-- Log cabin to White House? Not any more ["http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,706484,00.html"] by Will Hutton; April 28, 2002; The Observer; Guardian Newspapers Limited |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
"I never knew of any instance where it was proven that any sort of vehicle had come from outer space to our country and either lived here or left"
-- Former Democratic US President Jimmy Carter; 1,996 Relating to a desperate search to locate a downed US aircraft possibly incorporating sensitive technologies or intelligence elements (for which all coventional search measures had failed), Carter had this to say about a psychic brought in by the CIA to locate the craft:
"I have to say that without my knowledge, the head of the CIA asked her to come in...she went into a trance. And while she was in the trance, she gave some latitude and longitude figures. We focused our satellite cameras on that point and the plane was there."
-- Former US President Jimmy Carter, 1996
| -- Former President Carter Details Psychic Encounter; ParaScope, Inc., found on or about 3-30-2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,998 AD: A major tsunami (about 50 feet or 15 meters tall) strikes Papua New Guinea; Hurricane Mitch essentially destroys fully 50% of everything in two entire nations; A Japanese Mars probe fails during launchHurricane Mitch essentially destroys over half of everything man-made in the countries of Nicaragua and Honduras in Central America. 11,000 people are killed, over two million made homeless.
|
-- Godzilla's Attacking Babylon: Grim Statistics, 1999, the Archaeological Institute of America, http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/godzilla/stats.html
-- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
At the behest of the powerful entertainment industry, the USAmerican Congress enacts a radical new law that robs individual US citizens of many of their previous rights by giving corporate copyright owners unprecedented new powers. That law is called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
|
The US Constitution directs Congress to give authors the exclusive right to their writings for a limited time to promote progress. That time in 1790 was 28 years, including any renewal. During the 20th century, and up through 1998, Congress has been persuaded to repeatedly lengthen the period of exclusivity, so that now corporation copyrights extend for 95 years, and individuals the author's life plus an additional 75 years.
-- Copyright laws out of balance ["http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/dgillmor/dg040801.htm"]; Silicon Valley Technology; found on or about 4-8-01 |
Note that essentially this act reduces the incentive for corporations to develop new material, encouraging them instead to milk old material for every cent they can, into perpetuity. This means fewer opportunities for new talent to break into the market too, among other things; as corporations simply won't need them as badly as they would under shorter copyright terms. It also encourages more litigation, as corporations relentlessly pursue any and all parties whose efforts might be seen to infringe even in the slightest on the original works, for decades to come, thereby maintaining their existing market monopolies and possibly extending them into new areas. With their deep pockets and legal resources, mega-corporations could effectively censor many media sources with this clout alone, as well or better than any government.
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,998 AD: The average cost of a complete patent infringement lawsuit, with appeal, is roughly one and a half million dollars for each side of the dispute in USAmerica; Likely a negligible percentage (0%) of the Global 2500 IT companies are using open source software|
-- Would You Buy a Patent License From This Man? By Ian Mount; April 2001; eCompany Now
-- The coming "open monopoly" in software By Petr Hrebejk and Tim Boudreau; October 24, 2001; CNET Networks, Inc. |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,981 AD- 1,998 AD: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rises by almost 1000%; US GNP grows by 177%; Interest rates on long term government bonds stand at 5.09% by the end of 1998|
-- INVESTOR'S GUIDE 2002 Warren Buffett on the Stock Market ["http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml?channel=artcol.jhtml&doc_id=205324"] By Carol Loomis; FORTUNE; December 10, 2001
AUTHOR'S NOTE: There was apparently a typo in the article at one point, with "1988" where "1998" should have been in the statistics, according to the statements attributed to Buffet himself in the piece. I have ignored the typo here. END NOTE. |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,977 AD-1,999 AD: The wealthiest one percent of USAmericans enjoys a 115% rise in income| -- Parallels Between the 1990s and the 1920s Is History Repeating Itself? ["http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/3431"] (apparently by Robert S. McElvaine); Aug 08 2000; www.tompaine.com |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1,999 AD: Human science has identified 1.4 million different species of life forms on Earth; 10 to 100 million more species are estimated to remain as yet undiscovered/undescribed; NASA suffers the failure of two more separate missions to Mars
|
-- XVI International Botanical Congress
Team of 200 scientists presents new research that reveals full 'tree of life' for plants, EurekAlert!, 4 AUGUST 1999,
Contact: Ellen Wilson, Dennis Kelly, or Eileen Kugler
ewilson@burnessc.com
301-652-1558
Contact the IBC press office at 314-611-3961 or 314-621-4827
-- The Strange Case of Fobos-2 ["http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/fobos_mystery_000630.html"] By Jim Oberg, Special to SPACE.com, 30 June 2000 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
1999 AD: In terms of unit cost, computing speed is doubling each and every year now; The real costs of most consumer goods has fallen since 1899, while real average wages have risen|
-- The Web Within Us By Ray Kurzweil, raymond@kurzweiltech.com, Business 2.0: WEB FUTURE, December 1999: The Next 1000 Years, http://www.business2.com/
Real prices of most goods fell between 1899 and 1999 in Great Britain, while average real income rose 44%. Beer and sports event tickets were among the few items which had increased in real cost since 1899. -- Business: The Economy Prices' 100-year fall; BBC News; June 11, 1999 |
Signposts 1,951 AD-1,990s AD Contents
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