Crop circles are not a modern phenomenon. Text by Freddy Silva
"They are mentioned in academic texts of the late 17th Century, and almost 200 cases- some with eyewitness accounts- have been reported prior to 1970. Since then some eighty eyewitnesses from as far away as British Columbia have reported crop circles forming in under twenty seconds; cases are often accompanied by sightings of incandescent or brightly-coloured balls of light, shafts of light or structured flying craft."
...
"If you happen to buy the story that all crop circles were originated by two sexagenarians with planks of wood, string and a weegie board, you are not in the minority. Once in a while, governments like to control public interest in unexplained phenomena by generating a disinformation method called 'debunking', a technique invented during the Cold War for the sad purpose of controlling mass opinion in the face of unexplainable phenomena (this was the prime motive of the 1953 Robertson Panel, details of which are obtained under the US Freedom of Information Act). The method is very effective because the media provides little or no scientific or factual data with which the public can form an educated opinion on the subject. This absence of evidence is then replaced by ridiculing the subject through association with other 'fringe' topics; so-called experts are brought-in to explain away all the events as freak weather conditions or the work, general pranksters, even sexually excited animals!"

"According to TV documentaries, all crop circles up to 1992 were made by two simple, elderly men called Doug and Dave. It has since been discovered by researchers such as George Wingfield and Armen Victorian that the D&D story was tied to the British Ministry of Defense- in collusion with the CIA, among others. Evidence supplied by a high-ranking informant in the British Ministry of Defence suggested that the government had every intent to discredit the phenomenon by putting forward two hoaxers in an effort to quell growing public interest in crop circles (for a fuller story see Crop Circles History 1991). When confronted to provide evidence on certain claimed formations, Doug and Dave changed their story, even reversing previous claims; or they simply remained silent when asked to explain the list of features found in the genuine phenomenon. When they claimed making all the formations around the English county of Hampshire, for example, it was pointed out that half the known formations had actually occurred in another county- "Er, no, we didn't do those either," they replied. In the end, not even Doug and Dave knew which ones they had made. And although they claim to have made hoaxes since 1978- at the time the published date of the first design- evidence withheld confirmed crop circles dating back into the 1930s. The public has never heard these retractions, nor been given the opportunity to compare the mess created by D&D with the mathematical symmetry of the real phenomenon."

    In order to entice you to read my research consider not only the formidable nature of the evidence but also note the significance of the reference sources (see below).  I’ve discovered that if you divide the geological time scale by our orbit of the Galaxy (220 million years) and accept ‘increasing’ inaccuracy for older dates (using U-238), you will find major geological events occur at the beginning/end of galactic ‘years’.  You should also note the first several verses of Genesis in the Bible metaphorically refer to these as days.  A day could be considered the return of our sun (and solar system) to the same position once every 220 million years.

al·le·go·ry    n. pl. al·le·go·ries
1.a.  The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.

Revelation 20
¹ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
⁷   And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
⁸   And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
⁹   And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Gog Magog and the Angel.
Charles Mallet reports on a crop circle that appeared near Cambridge in 2001
During 2001 the area surrounding the Gog and Magog hills in Cambridgeshire became something of a hot spot for crop circles. A number of technically amazing designs arrived there that caused quite a stir in the crop circle research community. But one that appeared last summer struck a deep chord with me. In fact I was so drawn to it that I easily overcame any reluctance to drive the 200 hundred miles in sweltering July heat to reach the site.

With its overtly feminine, angelic form it quickly became known as the “Angel”, and after a few hours drive and a climb up the low Gog-Magog hill it became still more obvious why. Even from a distance I felt that I was looking at something distinctively different. There was a marked sense of purity and honesty about this formation that I had not experienced for some years in crop circle research.

Dr. Condoleezza Rice's Opening Remarks to Commission on Terrorist Attacks
April 8, 2004
The threat reporting that we received in the Spring and Summer of 2001 was not specific as to time, nor place, nor manner of attack. Almost all of the reports focused on al-Qaida activities outside the United States, especially in the Middle East and North Africa. In fact, the information that was specific enough to be actionable referred to terrorist operations overseas. More often, it was frustratingly vague. Let me read you some of the actual chatter that we picked up that Spring and Summer:

* "Unbelievable news in coming weeks" * "Big event ... there will be a very, very, very, very big uproar" * "There will be attacks in the near future"
 

    The significance of it's appearance in July 2001 when combined with Revelation 20:7-8 to an impending global battle I contend relates to revelation 13:3-5 because of the reference to forty and two months.  As of July 2001, George W. Bush had 42 months remaining in his first term of office as president of the United States.  Also in July 2001 there was apparently an intelligence briefing to senior White House officials that Osama bin Laden, "would launch a spectacular terrorist attack against U.S. or Israeli interests."  The wounds of the 'beast' I contend correspond to the events of September 11, 2001 and Revelation 18.  My interpretation of those verses can be found on this page.  In the links below you can clearly see the paradoxical correlations between the words I indicate in bold text by color.    On another level I contend the significance of the angel and its location are intended to signify there are relationships between biblical 'miracles' and advanced science.  I think this formation is intended to inspire others to look for and find such relationships.

#TL12: HOW TO ACHIEVE EMOTIONAL CONTROL
By Mark Lindsay (The Triune Brain)
"In The Dragons of Eden, after describing the characteristic behaviors of the reptile brain which I’ve just listed above, Carl Sagan says, "This seems to me to characterize a great deal of modern human bureaucratic and political behavior." Bureaucratic behavior is "controlled at its core" by the reptilian brain, hence we observe coercion and physical violence, territorial and jurisdictional claims, political rituals such as the presidential motorcade, and the social hierarchies for which bureaucratic organizations are notorious."

Revelation 13
³   And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
⁴   And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
⁵   And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.

International Law Seen at Risk in U.S. Fight with Security Council
Fri Jul 5, 2:39 PM ET
"The real reason behind Washington's blackmail [in the Security Council] is the most troubling," according to Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), writing in the Financial Times this week. "An increasingly influential faction in the Bush administration believes that U.S. military and economic power is so dominant that the U.S. is no longer served by international law."

"We're not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies.”
- President Bush's address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday night, September 20, 2001

Clamor Magazine - Heir to the Holocaust
Prescott Bush, 1.5 Million Dollars, and Auschwitz: How the Bush Family Wealth is linked to the Jewish Holocaust
By Toby Rogers, Clamor Magazine
“But while President Bush publicly embraced the community of holocaust survivors in Washington last spring, he and his family have been keeping a secret from them for over 50 years about Prescott Bush, the president's grandfather. According to classified documents from Dutch intelligence and US government archives, President George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush made considerable profits off Auschwitz slave labor. In fact, President Bush himself is an heir to these profits from the holocaust which were placed in a blind trust in 1980 by his father, former president George Herbert Walker Bush.”

(more at "From Hitler to the Carlyle Group". For my analysis of George Bush's personality type.)

"The American people know this about me and my national security team and my administration: Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people,"
- George Bush, 2001. Bush on Defensive

Ashcroft Flying High
CBS News, WASHINGTON, July 26, 2001
Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

Asked if he knew anything about the threat or who might have made it, the attorney general replied, "Frankly, I don't. That's the answer."

Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders
By DONNA DE LA CRUZ, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005
A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday.

The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa.
...
Weldon has said that Atta, the mastermind of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and three other hijackers were identified in 1999 by a classified military intelligence unit known as "Able Danger," which determined they could be members of an al-Qaida cell.
...
Pentagon officials said this month they had found three more people who recall an intelligence chart identifying Atta as a terrorist prior to the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two military officers, Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer and Navy Capt. Scott Phillpott, have come forward to support Weldon's claims.

'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes'
Whistleblower the White House wants to silence speaks to The Independent
By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
02 April 2004
A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened.

She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".

Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".

Probe: U.S. Knew of Jet Terror Plots
Wed Sep 18, 2002
By KEN GUGGENHEIM, Associated Press Writer
Congressional investigators also said that an intelligence briefing two months before the Sept. 11 attack warned that Osama bin Laden would launch a spectacular terrorist attack against U.S. or Israeli interests.

The July 2001 briefing for senior government officials said that based on a review of intelligence information over five months "we believe that (bin Laden) will launch a significant terrorist attack against U.S. and/or Israeli interests in the coming weeks."

Hill's report notes CIA Director George J. Tenet has declined to declassify information on two key issues being looked at by the inquiry: References to intelligence agencies supplying information to the White House, and details of an al-Qaida leader involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

9/11 Report Cites Many Warnings About Hijackings
By ERIC LICHTBLAU, New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9, 2005 - In the months before the Sept. 11 attacks, federal aviation officials reviewed dozens of intelligence reports that warned about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, some of which specifically discussed airline hijackings and suicide operations, according to a previously undisclosed report from the 9/11 commission.

Transcript of Rice's Testimony
April 8, 2004
ROEMER: Let me ask you a question. You just said that the intelligence coming in indicated a big, big, big threat. Something was going to happen very soon and be potentially catastrophic.

I don't understand, given the big threat, why the big principals don't get together. The principals meet 33 times in seven months, on Iraq, on the Middle East, on missile defense, China, on Russia. Not once do the principals ever sit down -- you, in your job description as the national security adviser, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the president of the United States -- and meet solely on terrorism to discuss in the spring and the summer, when these threats are coming in, when you've known since the transition that al-Qaida cells are in the United States, when, as the PDB said on August, bin Laden determined to attack the United States.

Why don't the principals at that point say, Let's all talk about this, let's get the biggest people together in our government and discuss what this threat is and try to get our bureaucracies responding to it?

FBI AND US SPY AGENTS SAY BUSH SPIKED BIN LADEN PROBES BEFORE 11 SEPTEMBER
The Guardian (London)
Wednesday, November 7, 2001
Officials told to 'back off' on Saudis before September 11
by Greg Palast and David Pallister
“FBI and military intelligence officials in Washington say they were prevented for political reasons from carrying out full investigations into members of the Bin Laden family in the US before the terrorist attacks of September 11.”

“US intelligence agencies have come under criticism for their wholesale failure to predict the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre. But some are complaining that their hands were tied.”
…
“But the FBI files were closed in 1996 apparently before any conclusions could be reached on either the Bin Laden brothers or the organisation itself. High-placed intelligence sources in Washington told the Guardian this week: "There were always constraints on investigating the Saudis".”

“They said the restrictions became worse after the Bush administration took over this year. The intelligence agencies had been told to "back off" from investigations involving other members of the Bin Laden family, the Saudi royals, and possible Saudi links to the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Pakistan.”

WALL STREET JOURNAL: BUSH SR. IN BUSINESS WITH BIN LADEN FAMILY CONGLOMERATE THROUGH CARLYLE GROUP
 “(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, reacted with disbelief to The Wall Street Journal report of yesterday that George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm. The senior Bush had met with the bin Laden family at least twice."

Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but Baltimore Sun ignores it
“All told, Carlyle has about 420 partners all over the globe, from Saudi princes to the former president of the Philippines. Its investments run heavily in the defense sector; they make money from military conflicts and weapons spending.”

JUDICIAL WATCH TO FILE FOIA LAWSUIT TODAY OVER CARLYLE GROUP DOCUMENTS
“And documents recently uncovered through Judicial Watch’s FOIA to the Department of Defense shows that the Carlyle Group has high-level access to the U.S. government."

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography --- by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin
Chapter - II - The Hitler Project

The Secrets of September 11 or here
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Wednesday 30 April 2003
The report was completed last December; only a bare-bones list of “findings” with virtually no details was made public. But nearly six months later, a “working group” of Bush administration intelligence officials assigned to review the document has taken a hard line against further public disclosure. By refusing to declassify many of its most significant conclusions, the administration has essentially thwarted congressional plans to release the report by the end of this month, congressional and administration sources tell NEWSWEEK. In some cases, these sources say, the administration has even sought to “reclassify” some material that was already discussed in public testimony-a move one Senate staffer described as “ludicrous.” The administration’s stand has infuriated the two members of Congress who oversaw the report-Democratic Sen. Bob Graham and Republican Rep. Porter Goss.

Some sources who have read the still-secret congressional report say some sections would not play quite so neatly into White House plans. One portion deals extensively with the stream of U.S. intelligence-agency reports in the summer of 2001 suggesting that Al Qaeda was planning an upcoming attack against the United States-and implicitly raises questions about how Bush and his top aides responded. One such CIA briefing, in July 2001, was particularly chilling and prophetic. It predicted that Osama bin Laden was about to launch a terrorist strike “in the coming weeks,” the congressional investigators found. The intelligence briefing went on to say: “The attack will be spectacular and designed to inflict mass casualties against U.S. facilities or interests. Attack preparations have been made. Attack will occur with little or no warning.”

The substance of that intelligence report was first disclosed at a public hearing last September by staff director Hill. But at the last minute, Hill was blocked from saying precisely who within the Bush White House got the briefing when CIA director Tenet classified the names of the recipients. (One source says the recipients of the briefing included Bush himself.) As a result, Hill was only able to say the briefing was given to “senior government officials.”

That issue is now being refought in the context over the full report. The report names names, gives dates and provides a body of new information about the handling of many other crucial intelligence briefings-including one in early August 2001 given to national-security adviser Rice that discussed Al Qaeda operations within the United States and the possibility that the group’s members might seek to hijack airplanes. The administration “working group” is still refusing to declassify information about the briefings, sources said, and has even expressed regret that some of the material was ever provided to congressional investigators in the first place.

    In addition their were two crop formations produced in a field in England, the 'Face' appeared the next day on August 14th 2001 and a pictogram a week later on August 20th, the same day that Sir Fred Hoyle died.  Hoyle was an underappreciated astronomer who spent his life seeking answers to the most difficult questions and endured professional ridicule because he steadfastly defied conventional theoretical dogma.  His most well respected work concerns Nucleosynthesis, the physics that explains how all the chemical elements are synthesized by stars.  Here are links to what I believe are the last two books he published.   A Different Approach to Cosmology : From a Static Universe Through the Big Bang Towards Reality and  'Mathematics of Evolution'.

Fred Hoyle Dies at 86; Opposed 'Big Bang' but Named It
New York Times, August 22, 2001
Sir Fred Hoyle, one of the most creative and provocative astrophysicists of the last half century, who helped explain how the heavier elements were formed and gave the name Big Bang, meant to be derisive, to the theory of cosmic origin he vehemently opposed, died on Monday in Bournemouth, England.

Dr. Virginia Trimble, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Irvine, said that Dr. Hoyle's opposition to the Big Bang, while considered a mistake, "was significant in that it went a long way toward making cosmology a true science" in which competing theories were tested by observations.

A versatile scientist brimming with ideas and a lifelong rebel eager for intellectual combat, Dr. Hoyle was most widely known as an author of the cosmological theory, which now has few adherents, that the universe exists in a steady state. The theory, published in 1948, contends that matter is constantly being created, so the expanding universe remains roughly the same at all times and has no beginning or end.

The problem Dr. Hoyle and colleagues faced was how slightly larger elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen were formed by stars. An element called beryllium-8, which was an intermediate stage in the process of element formation, stood in the way. It did not survive long enough for the fusion process to reach carbon-12, the next stage in the element building process.

Dr. Hoyle solved the problem: he pressed nuclear physicists to look for a special state of carbon-12, that was stable enough for the fusion of heavier elements to occur.

Then, working with three other scientists, Dr. Hoyle figured out how all the heavier elements could have been formed. Their historic paper was published in 1957 in Reviews of Modern Physics. In addition to Dr. Hoyle, the scientists were Dr. William A. Fowler, ofCalifornia Institute of Technology; Dr. Burbidge and Dr. Margaret Burbidge, his wife.

While the formation of the lighter elements, up to iron, could be explained by processes inside stars, extremely high temperatures and violent events were needed. The answer proposed by the four was the supernova, in which a giant star collapses to extreme density, then cataclysmically rebounds.

Big bang' astronomer dies
BBC News, 22 August, 2001
The English astronomer who coined the term "Big Bang" to describe an academic theory on the creation of the cosmos, has died at the age of 86.
Despite popularising the theory by giving it a name, Professor Sir Fred Hoyle challenged the belief that the cosmos was caused by a huge explosion about 12,000 million years ago.

He advocated the "steady state" theory - that the cosmos had no beginning but new galaxies were formed as others moved apart.

Sir Fred also put forward the so-called Panspermia Theory, which suggests that life, or the building blocks of life, could be carried to planets by comets or drifting interstellar dust particles.

He believed it had all been arranged by a super-intelligent civilisation who wished to seed our planet.

Are We All Aliens? The New Case for Panspermia
By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 09:00 am ET 30 October 2000
“In interviews with more than a half dozen respected scientists in diverse fields, it's clear that panspermia, or at least some aspects of the theory, is poised to jump to the forefront of study among scientists who seek to understand where and how life began. While the prevailing theory holds that life arose spontaneously out of a terrestrial, chemical soup, panspermia's defenders argue that such a miracle could happen almost anywhere.”

The Chilbolton 'Arecibo message' Formation

"Face" in the wheat field near Chilbolton Observatory, Wherwell, Hampshire, first noticed on Tuesday, August 14, 2001. The "transmission code" that followed was first noticed on Monday, August 20, 2001 by observatory employees. Aerial photograph © 2001 by Steve Alexander.

    The image in the center is a visual of the original Arecibo message and the one on the right is the response found in the field.  I assert the nine planets in the response are our planets (I think there is some evidence there may be 10).  In the original message the third planet (Earth) is raised.  In the response the third, fourth and fifth planets and three of the fifth's moons are raised.  I believe this is meant to convey a near term message that we should pay attention not only to events on Earth but also on Mars, Jupiter and it's moons.  To support that contention please consider the recent scientific discoveries discussed in the research I site below regarding Mars and Jupiter.

    Another mistaken assumption I believe is that the large head in the response is meant to suggest that the aliens have physically large heads again like the grays.  I propose instead that the larger head is meant to signify that they, like myself are using more of our cognitive potential than most people.  I propose the face is intended to be interpreted subjectively.  Those who wish to see a "gray" alien will see one.  Those who wish to see a human face can see one.  What do you wish to see?

    (09/18/02) Well it's now a year later and a far more interesting face formation has appeared.  It's been referred to as the Crabwood formation and the Winchester, Hampshire Circular Code.  Not only is this a more descriptive image but the formation contains a coded message.  With this additional information there is added weight for the possibility or likelihood that an extraterrestrial population contains a variety of sentient species.  The image at right obviously looks like the typical large eyed, large skull gray alien.  I find this possibility quite exciting as I would find a galaxy or universe filled only with homo sapiens extremely boring.  Contemporary understanding of DNA and gene sequencing indicates that homo sapiens share a large number of genes with species who are physically very different than us and that we are about 98% genetically identical to Chimpanzees (See new study for distinguishing gene).  It seems to me that making small changes in gene expression could allow most any animal to develop cognitive capabilities identical to ours.  Think Planet of the Apes or talking bears or cats.  A life spent with such beings would be much more interesting then one spent only with homo sapiens.

    For additional support for a variety of species including ones with atypically large craniums please see the 2000-8000 year old 'Holy Ghost' formation in Utah whose features match the textual description made by John of Patmos in the Book of Revelation.

    It took a little while but someone who says his job involves cryptology and code deciphering has translated the message in the formation.  The translation was submitted to Linda Moulton Howe at the Earthfiles site.  In confirming that interpretation, Jack Sullivan at SwirledNews attempts to clarify problems identified by Richard Brain's efforts.  The content of the message is not dissimilar to the overall message of my site, "Time Enough For Love".

“Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge.”

    There have been several films in the past few years concerning mars; Ghosts of Mars, Mission to Mars, Red Planet).  The one I watched recently was Red Planet.  The plot entailed scientific mysteries concerning breathable air and previously undiscovered life on Mars.  There have also been several articles on Space.com concerning water and increasingly convincing evidence of life on Mars. 

Mars Rock Formations May Contain Fossilized Life
PASADENA, Calif. – The layers upon layers of rock formations seen in newly unveiled images of Mars may contain beds of fossilized Martian life ripe for the picking by future missions to the Red Planet, scientists said.

Mars Home to Ancient Lakes
New pictures released today show outcroppings on Mars that may represent sedimentary layers formed by ancient lakes, further adding to the expectation that Mars was once wet and might have harbored life.

INTRODUCTION: MORE THAN PANSPERMIA
Cosmic Ancestry is a new theory of evolution and the origin of life on Earth. It holds that life on Earth was seeded from space, and that life's evolution to higher forms depends on genetic programs that come from space. It is a wholly scientific, testable theory for which evidence is accumulating.

    The significance of water and life on Mars again refers to Hoyle and his support for the evolutionary theory of Panspermia and Cosmic Ancestry.  If you choose to believe that the Chilbolton crop formation that occurred upon his death was only a coincidence or perhaps it was staged to associate the event with his death then consider that those staging it would have need prior knowledge of both when Hoyle would die and the material I present below regarding recent discoveries on Jupiter and Mars.  If you think it through I'm confident you will find as I do, that there are just too many significant coincidences to support the view that these events could be planned and executed by people on Earth.

Mars

    There has also been a nearly unprecedented series of dust storms on Mars in 2001.  These storms began two months earlier than expected.  The Mars Odyssey Orbiter arrived at Mars on the 23rd of October, 2001.  Despite some problems and NASA warning people not to get their hopes up, not surprisingly  Odyssey's insertion in orbit around Mars went exceedingly well.  As of February 2002 it has begun making a series of remarkable discoveries.

Massive Mars Dust Storm Has Odyssey Mission Managers Watching
posted: 05:30 pm ET 11 October 2001
"A global dust storm of massive proportions, unlike any seen since the early 1970s, now rages across Mars. The already on-duty spacecraft, Mars Global Surveyor, as well as the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, are giving scientists front row seats to the churning storm."

Mars Odyssey Swings Around the Red Planet
Updated at 12:10 a.m. ET, Oct. 24
The Mars Odyssey spacecraft succeeded Tuesday night in one of the most tricky and critical parts of its mission by slipping into orbit around the Red Planet.

Odyssey Discovers Abundant Water Ice on Mars
Robert Roy Britt, 01 March 2002
Mars holds vast stores of water ice right near the surface and away from the permanently frozen south polar ice cap, scientists said today in announcing first major science findings from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft.  The discovery makes it all the more possible that life may have once existed on Mars or could still be supported.

First Ever Night Images of Mars Released
posted: 03:35 pm ET 01 March 2002
The first ever night image of Mars was released by NASA today during a press conference that marked a promising new era of discovery at the Red Planet.

While also announcing fresh evidence of water ice near the surface of Mars, scientists were surprised by the quality of Odyssey's new images and by what they're seeing on the surface of Mars.

"We had no idea what to expect," said Phillip Christensen of Arizona State University. "We're startled by the diversity."
 

    For the Sun to be the principle cause for the increase in Earth’s global temperature one should expect to find evidence of its effects on other planets or moons in our solar system. On Dec. 7, 2001 NASA reported just such evidence on Mars thanks to the Mars Global Surveyor. Earth is not the only planet whose ice caps are melting at an accelerating rate.
 

Mars climate may be changing - Study suggests permanent carbon dioxide ice caps are eroding
PAUL RECER, December 6, 2001
“WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vast fields of carbon dioxide ice are eroding from the poles of Mars, suggesting that the climate of the Red Planet is warming and the atmosphere is becoming slightly more dense.”

“Caplinger is co-author of a study appearing in the journal Science that analyzes photos of Mars taken by an orbiting spacecraft. The photos were taken in 1999 and in 2001, a period of time that represents one Martian year. Mars is farther from the sun than the Earth and it takes the Red Planet about 23 months to complete one year, a single solar orbit.”

"It is eroding away at a rapid pace and is going to continue to do that," said Caplinger. "This is not a seasonal change."

Red Planet Warming, Images Show Mars' Ice Caps Are Melting Fast
Amanda Onion, Dec. 7, 2001
"High-resolution images snapped by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor show that levels of frozen water and carbon dioxide at the Red Planet's poles have dwindled dramatically — by more than 10 feet — over a single Martian year (equivalent to 687 days or about two Earth years)."

"We weren't expecting to see something nearly this large," said Caplinger.

Mars ice could flood planet
BBC,Tuesday, 28 May, 2002, 15:56 GMT 16:56 UK
Scientists have revealed the full technical details of their discovery of vast reservoirs of ice beneath the Martian surface.

So much ice has been found in the polar regions that if it were to melt it would deluge the planet.

The underground ice solves one of the deepest and longstanding mysteries about the Red Planet: where did the water go?

All over its surface there is evidence that in the distant past copious amounts of water flowed. We can see dried up river lakes, ancient shorelines, and vast, empty canyons.

If Mars were to become much warmer for some reason and the ice melted, it would drench the planet to an average depth of between half and one kilometre.

Water 'flows' on Mars
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Thursday, 13 March, 2003, 13:30 GMT
Dark streaks on crater and valley walls may indicate that brackish water currently flows across the surface of Mars.

The images show streaks on the surface of Mars
New images and analysis suggest the slopes around the Red Planet's largest extinct volcano, Olympus Mons, contain dark stains caused by brine flowing down hill.

The discovery indicates that the substantial underground ice deposits on Mars can sometimes melt and flow across the surface.

It is bound to increase speculation that life may exist near to the surface of the planet.

Images taken of the Mangala Valles region show that the dark streaks are being formed at the present time.

Two images taken a few months apart show new streaks have appeared.

"This demonstrates the existence of a currently active, short-term process of surface change on Mars," the researcher said

Mars to Get Closer than Ever in Recorded History in 2003
Fri Nov 8, 8:50 AM ET
Mars recently emerged into the morning sky and has begun an orbital dance with Earth that will, over the next several months, lead to the best viewing opportunity since Neanderthals looked skyward.
...
However, this is only the beginning of what will turn out to be the most dramatic and spectacular Mars apparition you or any of your ancestors has ever had a chance to see.

The Red Planet is getting progressively closer to Earth with each passing night, and consequently it will slowly appear to grow larger and brighter. By late August 2003, when it will be about 191 million miles closer, the reddish point of light in our night sky will appear more than six times larger and shine some 85 times brighter than it appears now.

At 5:51 a.m. EDT on Aug. 27, 2003, Mars will be within 34,646,488 miles (55,746,199 kilometers) of Earth. This will be the closest that Mars has come to our planet in about 73,000 years, based on detailed computations by Jean Meeus of Belgium.

Jupiter

    In addition, the Cassini and Galileo spacecraft have been exploring Jupiter and its moons.  Below is a little info about Galileo's visit to IO on Oct. 16th.

Galileo to Swing Even Closer to Io
The flyby at 0123 Universal Time on Oct. 16 (6:23 p.m. Oct. 15, Pacific Daylight Time), is taking the Jupiter-orbiting spacecraft back inside the hazardous environment of Jupiter's intense radiation belts. Io is the innermost of the giant planet's four major moons.

    I don't know what to expect regarding Jupiter but if we combine the significance of Jupiter and its moons in the film 2001: a space odyssey, the 2010 film, the Chilbolton image of four raised images for Jupiter and the proximity of the probes then I'm going to guess it will be something involving both the planet and a few of its moons.  (Addendum 03/04/02) Note the following coincidental and remarkable findings concerning Jupiter.  Considering the unusual circumstances allowing this research to take place and the fact that it involved Jupiter and three of its moons I propose this is the evidence we are to consider as indicated by the Chilbolton pictograph.

Spacecraft rendezvous at Jupiter - Two space probes lift the lid on Jupiter's magnetosphere., TOM CLARKE, 28 February 2002
Even Stanley Kubrick couldn't have directed it better. In the first days of 2001, two spacecraft, Cassini and Galileo, met at Jupiter 400 million kilometres from Earth, to study the mysterious forces emanating from the giant planet.

Apparently, gusts of solar wind cause Jupiter's magnetosphere to expand and contract like a giant balloon3. Simultaneous observations from the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes show that these compressions brighten the planet's giant aurora. The aurora, which is like Earth's northern and southern lights, dims as the pressure lessens.

The probes also spotted electrons propelled by the planet's magnetic field, whipping through Jupiter's radiation belts at close to the speed of light. Only a Jupiter-sized planet can generate magnetic fields strong enough to do this.

Perhaps the most beautiful finding was of bright arcs of light traced through Jupiter's aurora. The circling sprites arise when Jupiter's moons, Io, Ganymede and Europa, emit giant tubes of charged particles. Jupiter's magnetic fields suck these particles from the moons' atmospheres down to the planet's poles where they interact with one another, emitting an ethereal glow.

The cosmic conjunction wasn't planned. Cassini was waltzing past Jupiter, using the giant's gravitational energy to send it on to its final destination, Saturn. Galileo, an ageing probe that had been closely orbiting Jupiter and was thought to have stopped working, was found to be still going strong.

    Here is some more fun concerning the Author C. Clark 2001 and 2010 films. NASA just announced that an unexplained dark spot the size of Earth appeared on Jupiter.

Mysterious Dark Spot Seen Near Jupiter's Pole
posted: 05:00 pm ET, 13 March 2002
"In catching up with Cassini spacecraft imagery that had not been fully studied, researchers have spotted a mysterious dark spot near Jupiter's north pole and watched it develop over the course of more than two months."

"They don't know what it is. But they released an animation of the phenomenon Wednesday."

Cassini Imaging Diary: Jupiter
"Unexpected dynamics in Jupiter's upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, including the birth and motion of a dark vortex wider than Earth, appear in a movie clip shown here spanning 11 weeks of ultraviolet imaging by the Cassini narrow-angle camera."

Dark Spot on Jupiter Bigger than Famed Great Red Spot
By Tony Phillips, Science.NASA.gov
13 March 2003
For more than a century astronomers thought that the Great Red Spot was the biggest thing on Jupiter. Not anymore. Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed something at least as large.

The Great Dark Spot.

"I was totally blown away when I saw it--a dark cloud twice as big as Earth swirling around Jupiter's north pole," says Bob West, a planetary scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

West has been chasing this cloud for some time. He first saw it -- "just a glimpse," says West -- in an ultraviolet (UV) picture of Jupiter taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1997. But it only appeared in one image out of many spanning a period of years. "I didn't know what to make of it," he recalls.

Now he knows. "The Cassini spacecraft was en route to Saturn in 2000 when it passed by Jupiter and had a good view of the planet's north pole," says West. "At first there was nothing unusual--just ordinary polar clouds. Then the Dark Spot emerged." For weeks Cassini's UV-sensitive cameras watched as the cloud grew into an oval the size of the Great Red Spot itself. It swirled, darkened and changed shape until, as Cassini was departing, it began to fade again. (See the entire movie.)

"The Dark Spot is ephemeral," says West. That's probably why Hubble saw it only once. And if Cassini had arrived a month or two later, it might not have seen the Dark Spot at all. Instead, Cassini's cameras monitored the cloud for 11 straight weeks, and those data have allowed West to draw some conclusions:

"The Great Dark Spot and the Great Red Spot are entirely different," he says. The Great Red Spot is deep. "It's a high-pressure storm system rooted in Jupiter's troposphere far below the cloudtops. The Great Dark Spot is apparently shallow and confined to Jupiter's high stratosphere."

West believes the Dark Spot is a curious side-effect of auroras on Jupiter.
…
His idea fits the facts, but West remains puzzled: "There was no strong auroral display when the Great Dark Spot intensified in late 2000. What caused it to appear when Cassini was flying by? We don't know. This shows us that Jupiter's stratosphere is a more interesting place than we once thought."

    In my efforts to comprehend the significance of these and other astronomical electromagnetic phenomenon, I've uncovered an entirely rational and scientifically valid explanation.  Just as my Pleistocene Mass Extinction theory relies largely on gravitational and relativistic theory to explain cosmological phenomena this appears to be an all too common practice for the majority of astrophysicists.  This is of course changing as more relevant evidence is collected and analyzed, and unanswered questions remain unresolved.  I need to read more on this subject in order to incorporate it into my theory.  I think it is likely fundamental in explaining and testing numerous phenomenon I identify. 

Electrical Plasma - The Electric Cosmos
Donald E. Scott, Oro Valley, AZ
Why Do Astrophysicists Ignore Electrical Phenomena?
When such a firm foundation has been laid for continued work in the electrical properties of the universe, why do "mainstream" astrophysicists continue to ignore this field of study and, instead, patch up their failing "gravity only" models with more and more arcane, invented theoretical fictions? Why do conventional astronomers and cosmologists systematically exclude electric fields and currents from not only their consideration, but fromtheir curricula? Why do they intentionally ignore the fact that many here-to-fore "unexplained" phenomena are quite simply explained by recognizing the existence of electric fields and currents in solar and galactic plasma?

The answer is this:

Magnetism was known to exist in the middle ages. They knew, even back then, that a piece of iron could act on another - at a distance.

But, the early astronomers (like their modern brethern) were simply unaware of electrical phenomena. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) had already mathematically explained the shape of the orbits of the planets when Isaac Newton published his treatise on gravity in 1687. Once that occurred, nothing more was needed to explain and predict the planetary motions that could be observed in those days. Everything was solved.

This, of course, was all long before Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) flew his kite in a thunder storm or James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) developed his equations relating magnetic and electric fields. But, electric fields were difficult to measure. And astronomers didn't know they needed to know about them. So, they never got included in the "accepted" model of how the solar system or the cosmos works.

That is why, to this day, most astrophysicists have never taken courses in electromagnetic field theory or experimental plasma discharges. They attempt to describe the actions of plasma by means of equations that are applicable only to fluids like water - and magnetic effects. This is what Alfven called "magneto-hydrodynamics". They do not realize, as he did, that the prefix "magneto" implies "electro". And that, in turn, explains why astrophysicists blithely talk about stellar "winds", "vortex trails", and "bow shocks" instead of electrical currents in plasmas, electrical fields, z-pinches, and double layers. It also explains why they make wrong claims about how magnetic fields must "pile-up", "merge", and "recombine" - they are simply uneducated in, and therefore "mystified" by, this now well known area of engineering science.

Recent Development!
The American Institute of Physics has just recently announced that they will now officially recognize the Plasma Universe as an official field of study in physics! Eighty years late! But better late than never.

Welcome to the Electric Universe™ : based on all the 4 forces of physics!
©1999, by Dr. László Körtvélyessy
In plasma-stars the heat motion pushes the light electrons faster outwards than inwards. The much slower ions remain in and near the core. The photon-pressure and the neutrinos also make the core positive and the surface negative. Find out more of the 4th force inside this website!

The Plasma Universe
Physics of the Plasma Universe," A. Peratt, Springer-Verlag, 1992

Astrophysicists Denigrate Outsiders - Then Quietly Adopt their New Ideas
Donald E. Scott, Oro Valley, AZ
There have been several instances in the past when the astronomical mainstream has long rejected an idea that is later accepted. There is usually no public disgrace for the in-group who were on the wrong side of the issue. When, after being viciously denigrated, the validity of a new idea becomes inescapably obvious, a few years go by, and then we quietly hear: "Well, Everyone has known for a Long Time that this (the new idea) was always true." An example of this is Hannes Alfvén's discovery of plasma waves. This relatively recently discovered property of plasmas is now being wrongly used by astrophysicists to explain away all sorts of "enigmatic" phenomena - such as the temperature inversion in the Sun's lower corona.
The Future

In a few years, perhaps we will hear: "Well, Everyone has known for a Long Time that quasars are not extremely distant, and red shift is more a measure of the youth of an object than its recessional velocity and distance. No one said for sure there ever was a Big Bang. It was just another false theory. Everyone has known for a Long Time that electric currents flowing in plasmas produce many of the mysterious observed solar and cosmic phenomena." And we will not hear of "machos", "wimps", "neutronium", "dark energy", and "broken magnetic field lines" from any serious scientist ever again.

Time will tell.

    Here is another coincidence regarding Clark's 'prophecies'.  It’s fun to speculate on the significance between the ‘unexplained’ low albedo of the comet Borrelly and the monolith in the film 2001 a Space Odyssey. Particularly when you consider that the monolith in the film ‘altered’ the primates and the theory of Panspermia shows how genetic programming can be delivered to planets by way of comets.

Comet Borrelly Puzzle: Darkest Object in the Solar System
29 November 2001
"I'm not sure how you get an albedo that low," said Donald Yeomans, an expert on comets and asteroids at JPL. "It must have to do with texture -- it can't all be color."

COMETS: THE DELIVERY SYSTEM
“The objection that life can't survive in space needs examination. A serious problem for Svante Arrhenius's theory in 1908 was that spores in empty space would be subject to radiation damage, especially in the vicinity of a star. In 1978, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe observe in Lifecloud (1) that if a cloud of bacterial matter were dense enough, the inner contents would be protected from radiation by the outer layers. Other scientists have recently observed that a coating of dust only half a micrometer thick would adequately protect a bacterium in space (2-4).”

“Hoyle and Wickramasinghe also discuss another means of space travel which solves the radiation problem: comets. The idea that comets could bring to Earth the ingredients for life is not completely new. Among others, Isaac Newton endorsed it. "Newton considered the continual arrival of cometary material to be essential for life on Earth" (5).”

“Comets are like cats. They have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
— David Levy, co-discoverer of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9

What a wondrous universe we are a part of.