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New Scientist – Physicist Mark Hadley of the University of Warwick claims that he has solved the problem of quantum weirdness. Particles at the subatomic level remain in a fuzzy state called “superposition” until something affects them, whereupon they instantly focus into a definite form. They may also be ‘entangled’ or connected in some way that causes particles separated over long distances to change either other’s condition at speeds faster than light.

It has been theorized that the change in a particle from the fuzzy uncertain state to certainty could be caused by the application of a measuring tool, or even by the simple fact that it has been noticed by a conscious, aware mind.
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From Oklahoma through Kansas and into Missouri, a storm system of unprecedented ferocity marched through the night of May 3-4, 1999. Storms like these had not been seen since April 3-4, 1974 when more than 300 people were killed during an outbreak of at least 148 tornadoes that crossed 11 midwestern states. The 1999 storm system was unusual because more than one F-5 tornado apparently developed. On average, only one F- 5 tornado strikes the U.S. in a year. The scale, developed by Tetsuya Theodore Fujita of the University of Chicago, runs from F-1 a moderate tornado with winds up to 72 miles per hour, to F-5, with winds up to 318 mph. At least 45 people lost their lives in this deadly storm system, and thousands were left homeless.
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An area of ice the size of Rhode Island disappeared from ice shelves surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula in 1998. This ice holds back the many glaciers that feed into the area, and its loss threatens to destabilize the continental ice sheets that cover the Antarctic continent.

Satellite photos show that 1,200 square miles of ice disappeared from the Larsen-B Ice Shelf during the last Antarctic summer. The Wilkins Ice Shelf on the other side of the peninsula lost 900 square miles of ice. It is considered probable by scientists that the entire Larsen-B ice shelf will disintegrate during the next Antarctic summer.
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A massive forest fire is burning the West Kalimantan province of Indonesian Borneo. The fire, outside the provincial capital of Palankaraya, was started during a land-clearing operation. The fire has become huge, and a vast cloud of haze is spreading across the region, causing health problems and complicating air operations in surrounding countries. This firestorm threatens to become as devastating as the storms that erupted in 1998, covering the whole region in a pall of smoke.
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