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What Einstein Left Behind4/18/10

Albert Einstein, the genius physicist whose theories changed our ideas of how the universe works, died 55 years ago, on April 18, 1955, of heart failure. He was 76. His funeral and cremation were intensely private affairs, and only one photographer managed to capture the events of that extraordinary day: LIFE magazine's Ralph Morse. Armed with his camera and a case of scotch -- to open doors and loosen tongues -- Morse compiled a quietly intense record of an icon's passing. But aside from one now-famous image (above), the pictures Morse took that day were never published. At the request of Einstein's son, who asked that the family's privacy be respected while they mourned, LIFE decided not to run the full story, and for 55 years Morse's photographs lay unseen and forgotten.
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Earthquake Lifts Layer of Dust Off a Mountain Range4/7/10

Brothers traveling in Mexico during Sunday's deadly earthquake photographed a surreal sight: The power of the quake lifting a layer of dust off a mountain range.  The dramatic photographs were shot by Roberto and Adrian Marquez Marquez just after the 3:40 p.m magnitude 7.2 quake. The pictures show the area around La Rumorosa, the highest point in Tecate. 

"We felt the  truck shake and the roads cracking," Roberto wrote to NBCSanDiego. "We stopped and looked at the big hills, and the force of the quake shook the mountains and dust started to come up."
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STEREO - Solar Prominence4/13/10

The STEREO (Ahead) spacecraft caught this spectacular eruptive prominence in extreme UV light as it blasted away from the Sun (Apr. 12-13, 2010). This was certainly among the largest prominence eruptions seen by either the STEREO or SOHO missions. The length of the prominence appears to stretch almost halfway across the sun, about 500,000 miles. Prominences are cooler clouds of plasma that hover above the Sun's surface, tethered by magnetic forces. They are notoriously unstable and commonly erupt as this one did in a dramatic fashion. The video clip (follow link below) shows about 19 hours of activity.

By the way, there's an iPhone/iPod Touch App for the STEREO satellites (3D Sun).
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Mmmmm ....... Gravy Machine4/20/10

Bob Evans has been making Classic Sausage Gravy for more than 30 years. It is ready to eat and not a concentrate, so you’ll have consistent quality and flavor, batch after batch. Our Sausage Gravy Dispenser dispenses HOT Bob Evans Sausage Gravy at the touch of a button. You can use it in the Back of the House with your own Delicious Biscuits or with our Delicious Biscuit in a Bowl that fits right in our Biscuit Dispenser. Heat a Biscuit Bowl in the microwave for 25 seconds and add your Gravy!

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Don't Talk to Aliens4/25/10

The aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.  He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

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Damage To Apollo 134/25/10

After an oxygen tank exploded and crippled their service module, the Apollo 13 astronauts were forced to abandon plans to make the third manned lunar landing. The extent of the damage is revealed in this grainy, grim photo, taken as the service module was drifting away, jettisoned only hours prior to the command module's reentry and splashdown. An entire panel on the side of the service module has been blown away and extensive internal damage is apparent. Visible below the gutted compartment is a radio antenna and the large, bell-shaped nozzle of the service module's rocket engine. On April 17, 1970 the three astronauts returned safely to Earth.

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Investigating The World Below4/26/10

The thickness of the earth’s crust ranges from 50 miles in mountainous areas to just six miles beneath the ocean floor; the average around the world is 21 miles. The borehole, therefore, has already eaten its way through one-third of the earth’s surface.

While scientists probe the secrets of outer space, much about the world on which we stand remains mysterious. To expand our knowledge, the Russian started a deep borehole drilling program to investigate geological theories about the formation of the earth.

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We May Be Slowly Running Out of Rocks5/4/10

A coalition of geologists are challenging the way we look at global stone reserves, claiming that, unless smarter methods of preservation are developed, mankind will eventually run out of rocks."If we do not stop using them up at our current rate, rocks as we know them will be a thing of the past," renowned geologist Henry Kaiser said at a press conference Tuesday. "Igneous, metamorphic, even sedimentary: all of them could be gone in as little as 500,000 years."

"A rock can take millions of years to form, but it only takes a second for someone to skip a smooth pebble into a lake, and then it is gone." Dr. Kaiser said. "Perhaps these thoughtless rock-skippers don't care if they leave our planet completely devoid of rocks, but what about our children? Don't they deserve the chance to hold a rock and toss it up and down a few times?"

"This country was built on rocks," he added. "Remember that."

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Jupiter Loses One Of Its Belts5/12/10

The Southern Equatorial Belt is one of the most active areas on the planet for weather changes. Every 3-15 years, the belt, which is normally dark reddish-brown in color and typically divided in two by the south equatorial belt zone, fades from view. After some weeks or months a brilliant white spot forms within that zone and begins spouting dark blobs of material which get stretched into filaments and ovals by Jupiter's fierce winds into a new Southern Equatorial Belt. Within a few weeks (or longer) the belt is back and Jupiter presents its familiar dual "tire track" appearance through a telescope.

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Ten Amazing Antarctica Abandonments5/26/10

Antarctica – this huge, frozen continent is bitterly cold, inhospitable as Mars and as far from civilization as any place on the planet. Just getting there has been a struggle; staying there has been near impossible. These 10 amazing Antarctic abandonments, frozen in time as well as in place, bear mute testimony to mankind’s perseverance in mastering what is literally the last place on Earth.

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World's Oldest Known Leather Shoe    6/12/10

Perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung (who needs cedar closets?), the shoe, made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable, is about 5,500 years old, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, scientists say. Leather laces crisscross through numerous leather eyelets, and it was worn on the right foot; there is no word on the left shoe.

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Exploding H-Bombs in Space    7/4/10

The plan was to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth's atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb's radiation would make it harder to see what was up there (like incoming Russian missiles!); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to an earthly target (Moscow! for example); and — most peculiar — d) if a man-made explosion might "alter" the natural shape of the belts.

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Battleship Island in Japan    7/5/10

Crumbling plaster, broken and splintered lath, cracked cement, fractured concrete, gap-toothed brick walls, rusting iron, daggers of shattered glass... no argument about it: there's something hypnotically alluring, darkly fascinating, about a truly great ruin.  In the case of Hashima Island, or Battleship Island (Gunkanjima  in Japanese) as it's often called, hope and optimism became dust and decay because one black resource (coal) was replaced by a cheaper black resource (oil). Populated first in 1887, the island – which is 15 kilometers from Nagasaki – only began to really, and phenomenally, become populated much later, in 1959.

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Fort Jefferson National Park    7/12/10

Perhaps the most unusual national park in the national park system is Dry Tortugas. It's one of the smallest, one of the most remote, and one of the least visited. But it's nevertheless a wonderful park, comprising seven small islands, coral reefs and other undersea attractions, and nesting areas for a variety of wild birds. The park includes some 64,657 acres of land above and below the water line.  The most noteworthy attraction is the striking brick behemoth known as Ft. Jefferson. Built to protect the southern coastline of the United States, due to flaws in the foundation and obsolescence brought on by improvements in weapon technology, the fort never fulfilled its intended purpose.

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Fire Tornado Pictures    9/8/10

Also known as fire whirls, fire devils, or even firenados, these whirlwinds of flame are not really rare, just rarely documented, said Jason Forthofer, a mechanical engineer at the U.S. Forest Services's Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory in Montana.  For instance, fire tornadoes were recently reported in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, where a three-month long drought has also led to several brush fires.

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