After hurricane Katrina, engineers are contemplating whether or not to move the Mississippi. Meanwhile, researchers have found evidence that the world’s largest river basin, the Amazon, once flowed in the opposite direction.
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Global warming could cost the world’s governments up to 20% per cent of their economies in the near future, due to hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. What kind of world are we handing to the next generation?
Economist Nicholas Stern says that as things stand now, the world has to pay 1% of its annual gross national product to prevent future catastrophes and clean up after the ones that keep occurring. But doing nothing will cost 5 to 20 times as much. In the Independent, Andy McSmith and Colin Brown British quote him as saying, “Business-as-usual will derail growth.”
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Halloween comes halfway point between the autumnal equinox and winter solstice. Celts (as well as traditional Japanese culture) considered equinoxes and solstices to be the middle of a season. On the equinoxes, the sun rises due east and sets due west. During the summer solstices, the sun rises the furthest to the northeast and sets furthest in the northwest, whereas in winter it rises the furthest southeast and sets in the southwest. This has to do with how the earth tilts on its axis. But how did this ever get to be a day to celebrate the dead?
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African-Americans are searching for their roots. However, the researchers have found that only one in 10 African Americans may be able to find clues about their ancestral origins if mitochondrial DNA is tested. Mitochondrial DNA is the portion of the body’s genetic code that is inherited from the mother. In recent years, mitochondrial DNA has become a popular way for tracing maternal ancestry and often is used by companies hired by African Americans to help them trace their ancestry in Africa.
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