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Lessons Drawn
The ancient Nazca of Peru were terrific artists, best remembered now for creating their complex line drawings of animals and geometric objects that can only be fully appreciated from the air. Nazca knowledge of their environment, however, seems to …Read more.
Man-eaters Not So Much
For more than 80 years, the man-eating Tsavo lions have been a fabulous story and crowd-pleaser. The two lions reportedly killed and ate as many as 135 people in the Tsavo River region of Kenya before being shot and killed in 1898. Their skinned and …Read more.
Counting Cardsharps Out
In the 1988 film "Rain Man," the lead characters hope to strike it rich gambling by "counting cards" at blackjack. That is, by precisely remembering which cards have been played, they would have a better of idea of which cards …Read more.
Cleaning Up, Using Ammonia
When Archaea, an ancient line of bacteria, were first discovered 30 years ago, it was thought they existed only in extreme environments like deep-sea hydrothermal vents or hot springs like the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park (…Read more.
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Of Beaks and BitesStowaway mosquitoes, arriving in the Galapagos Islands aboard aircrafts carrying workers and tourists, have the potential of introducing fatal viruses to the native finch species of the islands, birds made famous by the evolutionary studies of Charles Darwin and others. Scientists have captured mosquitoes surviving in the holds of arriving planes. Though none of the insects found so far has carried a lethal virus, such as West Nile, they have the potential to do so. The finches lack natural immunological protection from many viruses, due to their island isolation far from the mainland. Conservationists are recommending that planes leaving mainland Ecuador for the Galapagos be sprayed with insecticide before departure. VERBATIM Finding so much plastic there was shocking. How could there be this much plastic floating in a random patch of ocean — a thousand miles from land? — Miriam Goldstein, chief scientist of the SEAPLEX expedition, which recently concluded a survey of the "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch," a Texas-sized swath of plastic debris 1,000 miles off the California coast BRAIN SWEAT A rooster lays an egg at the very top of a slanted roof. On which side is the egg going to roll off? PRIME NUMBERS 4 — Estimated number of square meters of rain forest destroyed to produce 1 gram of cocaine Source: Government of Columbia BRAIN SWEAT ANSWER Neither. Roosters don't lay eggs. 'TRUE FACTS' European environmentalists are blaming intensive farming for the recent death of a horse and the collapse of its rider on a beach in Brittany, France, according to New Scientist magazine. Fertilizer runoff from nearby farms, they say, created a mat of algae on the beach, which releases toxic hydrogen sulfide gas as it rots. QUIRKS OF NATURE Australian scientists report that climate change is causing some indigenous bird species to shrink. WHERE IN THE WORLD? ANSWER The Vredefort dome in the Free State of South Africa. This is the largest and oldest of 174 characterized impact structures on Earth, places where large cosmic objects have struck the planet. It is 100 miles in diameter and estimated to be 2 billion years old. By comparison, the Barringer crater, a tourist attraction 43 miles east of Flagstaff, Ariz., is less than a mile across and estimated to be just 49,000 years old. THE GEEK ATLAS The Escher Museum The Hague, Netherlands 52 degrees, 5 minutes, 0 degrees N; 4 degrees, 18 minutes, 52 seconds E M.C. Escher (1898-1972) is perhaps the world's best known optical illusionist, and this museum contains almost all of his creations, from infinite staircases to hands drawing themselves to fish turning into birds and other metamorphosing animals.
To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS.COM   
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