Word: basin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...remember the accomplishments of the annual Pacific Basin apec economic summits. But the clothes! Last week Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien chose for his guests a brown elk leather, $400 Roots flight jacket, each personalized with the summiteer's name, title and apec logo, and cut to size (Clinton's: XXXL, tall). Such outfits--a Philippine barong tagalog in 1996 and an Indonesian batik shirt in 1994--are now high on the agenda. Host countries "check out the President's size pretty carefully," says the White House...
...future could be even brighter. Only 30% of Brazil's proven oil reserves are developed, and Petrobras has first call on much of the rest. The volume of those reserves is expected to grow substantially as the company explores the vast Amazon Basin and oil pools off the Atlantic coast. Petrobras has become a leader in drilling deepwater, offshore wells in the so-called Campos Basin off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. Now the company is looking into joint ventures with 56 potential foreign partners, including Exxon, Shell and British Gas, which would allow expanded exploration around the country...
Though Sojourner won't get anywhere fast, where it does go should hold a lot of secrets. Ares Vallis was chosen as the landing site in the first place because the now dusty basin was once the largest known floodplain in the solar system. Water rushed into the valley at up to 170 m.p.h., carrying a giant spelunker's bag of rocks with it. Without venturing very far from where the lander set down, the rover could thus use its cameras and X-ray spectrometer to sample geology from all over the planet. Sojourner is scheduled to conduct these studies...
Sociology repeats geography. The Great Basin does not just trap precipitation; it is also a sinkhole for curious ideas. In the Salt Wells brothel outside Fallon, a group of buzz-cut Navy buddies are swigging tequila around a blazing fireplace. They narrate the day's maneuvers with swooping hand gestures while a giggling, shirtless young prostitute looks on. She seems unimpressed by the flyboys' classified briefing. At the bar, a middle-aged cowboy quietly raves about a plot to swamp Nevada in methamphetamine ("crank"). The cowboy doesn't want his name used (few people do out here), but he does...
...about indications of past life on the Red Planet. But the agency is releasing a stream of striking panoramic shots taken by the rover and Pathfinder that provide convincing evidence that the planet was inundated by ancient floods, some the size of the massive deluge that filled the Mediterranean basin. Today's Martian forecast: dry, with a temperature at dawn of minus 76 degrees Fahrenheit...