A devastating disease caused by airborne fungal spores is colonizing the Southwest in what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls “a silent epidemic.” The disease, coccidioidomycosis, or valley fever, strikes more than 20,000 people per year in the region, 10 times the number it did 15 years ago. The spores live in the soil until wind lifts them […]
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The $9 billion, 1,000-ft. (305 m) Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory—now the tallest structure in South America—recently entered the final stages of construction. It will be inaugurated in August and fully operational by 2017. Here’s what Brazil and Germany, which co-funded the project, are hoping it will accomplish: Gather data The tower’s height and state-of-the- art instruments will enable scientists to […]
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A California man has paid off a $14,000 property-tax bill using only dollar bills and loose change. Larry Gasper says he wasn’t deliberately trying to inconvenience county officials with the unorthodox payment, which he transported to county offices in a wheelbarrow—causing the clerks’ jaws to drop. It’s just that he’s very short of money, and had to scrape up the […]
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“Personally, I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.” – Winston Churchill
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IN THE LONG RUN (By Joseph Cavera) Run to get the endorphins flowing Run away from the catastrophes you’ve created Run over all the bases in the game Run off on a tangent Run out of ideas, think once more Run far far away like a psycho killer, or Forrest Gump Run till your heart’s content, and your legs […]
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“Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”- Helen Keller
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