Click on the following links from Dan Brown for Pictures
The Da Vinci Code
Angels & Demons
Author Research Trips
___________________________________
ABOUT DAN BROWN
Dan Brown is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Da Vinci Code -- one of the best selling novels of all time. In early 2004, all four of Dan Brown's novels held spots on the New York Times bestseller list du
ring the same week.
Recently named one of the World's 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine, Dan Brown has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and others. His novels have been translated and published in more than 40 languages around the world,Dan is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to writing. In 1996, his interest in code-breaking and covert government agencies led him to write his first novel, Digital Fortress, which quickly became a #1 national bestselling eBook. Set within the clandestine National Security Agency, the novel explores the fine line between civilian privacy and national security. Brown’s follow-up techno-thriller, Deception Point, centered on similar issues of morality in politics, national security, and classified technology.
----------------------------------------------------------Angels & Demons
Author Research Trips
___________________________________
ABOUT DAN BROWN
Dan Brown is the author of numerous bestselling novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller, The Da Vinci Code -- one of the best selling novels of all time. In early 2004, all four of Dan Brown's novels held spots on the New York Times bestseller list du
ring the same week.Recently named one of the World's 100 Most Influential People by TIME Magazine, Dan Brown has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and others. His novels have been translated and published in more than 40 languages around the world,Dan is a graduate of Amherst College and Phillips Exeter Academy, where he spent time as an English teacher before turning his efforts fully to writing. In 1996, his interest in code-breaking and covert government agencies led him to write his first novel, Digital Fortress, which quickly became a #1 national bestselling eBook. Set within the clandestine National Security Agency, the novel explores the fine line between civilian privacy and national security. Brown’s follow-up techno-thriller, Deception Point, centered on similar issues of morality in politics, national security, and classified technology.
GALILEO'S MIDDLE FINGER
Galileo's middle finger (photo on left) was detached from his right hand in 1737 by scientist Anton Gori and the "Cult of Galileo." Many historians now believe these "fanatical and cult-like" scientists swore a vendetta against the Catholic Church in retribution for the Vatican's crimes against the great astronomer. Although the Church actively hunted these men, few were found, and it is now believed that many took refuge deep within the secret brotherhood of the Illuminati.
PROJECT AURORA Overhead at 3,000 Miles Per Hour.. (Right Now)
The Aurora is one of those secret aircraft that nobody is supposed to know exists, but everyone does. Even the Discovery Channel has covered Aurora and its testing out at Groom Lake in Nevada. Whether the security leaks have come from the repeated “skyquakes” heard as far away as Los Angeles, or the unfortunate eyewitness sighting by a North Sea oil rig driller, or the administrative gaffe that left a description of Aurora in a public copy of the Pentagon budget, nobody will ever know. It hardly matters. The word is out: The U.S. military has an aircraft capable of Mach 6 flight, and it is no longer on the drawing board. It is in the skies overhead.
Built by Lockheed, the Aurora looks like a flattened American football. It is 110 feet long, 60 feet wide, smoothly contoured with a crystalline patina of thermal tiles much like the space shuttle. The speed is primarily the result of an exotic new propulsion system known as a Pulse Detonation Wave Engine, which burns a clean misted, liquid hydrogen and leaves a tell-tale pulse contrail in the sky. For this reason, the Aurora only flies at night.
NEW YORK TO TOKYO IN AN HOUR
The United States now has an aircraft that can travel at Mach 15 (over 10,000 mph.) The X-33 space plane cruises at an altitude of almost 100 miles high, on the edge of space. Although the X-33 is no longer classified, specifications of the X-34 (pictured to the left) remain secret. Aerospace specialists predict civilian passengers will be riding in planes like this by 2006.
THE "ALL-SEEING EYE" CONSPIRACY?
Much has been written about the origins of the Great Seal of the United States on the back of the one dollar bill.
* Why a pyramid... an arguably un-American symbol?* Why a Latin reference to a "new secular order" (in stark contrast to "In God We Trust.")
* And what about that eerie floating eyeball?
ANTIMATTER...
THE MOST VOLATILE SUBSTANCE KNOWN TO MAN
A single droplet of antimatter contains the explosive power of a ten kiloton bomb (Hiroshima.) Antimatter is extremely unstable and explodes when it comes in contact with absolutely anything (even air.) Nonetheless, antimatter is now being produced at CERN in Switzerland, where anti-particles are accelerated around a 27-mile-long circular tunnel... traveling so fast that they complete the enormous circle over 11,000 times per second
Some facts about the birthplace of antimatter... European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN)
Antimatter is routinely produced at CERN (more than 10 million particles per second.)
The World-wide Web was invented at CERN. The world's largest magnet, weighing more than the Eiffel tower, is at CERN. CERN's biggest accelerator is 27 kilometers around, and particles travelling near the speed of light lap it over 11,000 times each second.
PRESS RELEASE European scientists create first antimatter atoms GENEVA (Jan 4, 1996 7:04 p.m. EST) - European scientists have managed to create fleeting atoms of antimatter for the first time, bringing a dream of science fiction a step closer to fact.
The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) said Thursday nine anti-hydrogen atoms were created in experiments last September, although each lasted only about 40 billionths of a second before being annihilated by ordinary matter.
"If you watch 'Star Trek', you'll know the USS Enterprise was driven by antimatter power," said CERN spokesman Neil Calder in a reference to the U.S. cult television series. "We're not there yet, but this is a major step."
Physicists have known about or suspected the existence of antimatter for more than 60 years and the first anti-particles were created in laboratories in the 1950s.
But they had never been able to bring those particles together to form actual atoms of antimatter.
The experiments at CERN, which straddles the Franco-Swiss border by Geneva, were conducted by a team led by German Professor Walter Oelert of Nuremberg University and including scientists from the University of Genoa in Italy.
Since the gas hydrogen has the simplest atom of all, consisting of a proton and a single electron, they set out to create anti-hydrogen by combining an antiproton with an anti-electron or positron.
The team whirled previously created antiprotons through a underground circular atom smasher, passing them through a xenon gas jet every time they passed around -- about three million times a second.
Very occasionally, CERN said in a communiqué, an antiproton converted a small part of its energy into an electron and positron while passing through a xenon atom.
"In even rarer cases, the positron's velocity was sufficiently close to the velocity of the antiproton for the two particles to join -- creating an atom of anti-hydrogen," it added.
During a three-week period, nine anti-hydrogen atoms were created in collisions between antiprotons and xenon atoms. Each one existed for only 40 billionths of a second, traveling at nearly the speed of light for about 33 feet before being annihilated or canceled out by ordinary matter.
The only sign the scientists had that the anti-atoms had ever existed was the energy produced by the annihilation. Science fiction writers have long considered the explosion of matter and antimatter to be the energy source of the future.
Calder said CERN had not wanted to release Oelert's findings until they had been "checked, double-checked and triple-checked" by other scientists and accepted for publication in a respected physics journal.CERN specialists say the next step is to develop techniques to store antimatter for seconds, minutes or weeks. They could then compare anti-hydrogen atoms with ordinary hydrogen atoms,Because antimatter technology is changing so rapidly, links provided here would become outdated almost overnight. For the most recent information on this topic, enter "antimatter" into your favorite search engine.
The Secret Life of Leonardo da Vinci
A prankster and genius, Leonardo da Vinci is widely believed to have hidden secret messages within much of his artwork. Most scholars agree that even Da Vinci's most famous pieces—works like The Mona Lisa, The Last Supper, and Madonna of the Rocks—contain startling anomalies that all seem to be whispering the same cryptic message…a message that hints at a shocking historical secret which allegedly has been guarded since 1099 by a European secret society known as the Priory of Sion. In 1975, Paris's Bibliothèque Nationale discovered parchments known as Les Dossiers Secrets, identifying numerous members of the Priory of Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci. French President, Francois Mitterrand, is rumored to have been a member, although there exists no proof of this.
An Unbroken Code
There exists a chapel in Great Britain that contains a ceiling from which hundreds of stone blocks protrude, jutting down to form a bizarre multi-faceted surface. Each block is carved with a symbol, seemingly at random, creating a cipher of unfathomable proportion. Modern cryptographers have never been able to break this code, and a generous reward is offered to anyone who can decipher the baffling message. In recent years, geological ultrasounds have revealed the startling presence of an enormous subterranean vault hidden beneath the chapel. This vault appears to have no entrance and no exit. To this day, the curators of the chapel have permitted no excavation.
243 Lexington Avenue, New York
The Vatican prelature known as Opus Dei is a deeply devout Catholic sect that has become controversial recently due to allegations of brainwashing, coercion, and a dangerous practice known as "corporal mortification." Opus Dei has recently completed construction of a $47 million, 133,000-square-foot American Headquarters at 243 Lexington Avenue in New York City.
NRO: More Secretive Than The National Security Agency
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) encompasses six U.S. installations, employs over 10,000 agents, and has operating costs of over ten billion dollars per year. The NRO maintains an astonishing arsenal of cutting-edge spy technologies—worldwide electronic intercepts, spy satellites, silent embedded relay chips in telecomm products, even a global naval-recon network known as Classic Wizard…a secret web of 1456 hydrophones mounted on seafloors around the world, capable of monitoring ship movement anywhere on the globe.
Sea Shadow: Stealth Ships
Built by Lockheed in total secrecy inside the famous Hughes Mining Barge, the Sea Shadow is the nautical equivalent of the F-117 "stealth fighter". The Sea Shadow is a SWATH (Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull) vessel with all above-water surface sloped radically inward. She is 160 feet long, 70 feet in beam, 14 feet in draft, displaces 560 tons and her diesel-electric propulsion gives her a top speed of 13 knots. She is invisible to shipboard radar, even at close range.
Special Ops Forces That Answer To No One
The U.S. Delta Force is made up of three 150-man squadrons and is the sole fighting squad whose actions are granted complete presidential immunity from the law. Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD 25) grants Delta Forces “freedom from all legal accountability,” including exception from the 1876 Posse Comitatus Act—a statute imposing criminal penalties for anyone using the military for personal gain, domestic law enforcement, or unsanctioned covert operations. Delta Force members are handpicked from the CAG (Combat Applications Group) — a classified organization within the Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Delta Force soldiers are trained killers—experts in SWAT operations, rescuing hostages, surprise raids, and elimination of covert enemy forces.
Someone is watching you...or are they?
The Louvre Museum in Paris is one of the longest buildings on earth. Walking around the entire perimeter of this horseshoe-shaped edifice is a three-mile journey. Even so, the Louvre's collection of art is so vast that only a fraction of its works can be displayed on the walls. Inside the galleries, a multitude of security cameras watch over visitors. The number of cameras is so great that a staff of several hundred wardens would be required to monitor all of them. In fact, most of the cameras are fake.
Da Vinci's slap on the wrist.
Da Vinci's original commission for his famous Madonna of the Rocks came from an organization known as the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception, which needed a painting for the centerpiece of an altar triptych in their church of San Francesco Grand in Milan. The nuns gave Leonardo specific dimensions and a desired theme—the Virgin Mary, baby John The Baptist, Uriel, and Baby Jesus sheltering in a cave. Although Da Vinci did as they requested, when he delivered the work, the group reacted with horror. The painting contained several disturbing "un-Christian" anomalies, which seemed to convey a hidden message and alternative meaning. Da Vinci eventually mollified the confraternity by painting them a second version of Madonna of the Rocks, which now hangs in London's National Gallery under the name Virgin of the Rocks. Da Vinci's original hangs at the Louvre in Paris.
