Word: blotch
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Like Jupiter and Saturn, but unlike its near-twin next-door neighbor, Uranus, Neptune appears to have distinct weather patterns. The probe's cameras have glimpsed a streak of white that may be an atmospheric jet stream, longitudinal bands that could mark prevailing winds, and a dark blotch, perhaps similar to Jupiter's ancient high-pressure system known as the Great Red Spot. Neptune, Jupiter and Saturn all generate more heat than they receive from the sun, while Uranus does not; the excess heat may be the source of the turbulence...
...fiery surface. Just as astronomers were turning their attention to the mottled region, a bright spot suddenly appeared in its midst. It spread like a prairie wildfire, glowing white hot on the sun's yellow face and quickly expanding to cover hundreds of thousands of square miles. The monster blotch was an unusually large solar flare, a stupendous explosion that belched radiation and billions of tons of matter far into space...
...technically not homeless people, but their living quarters make a mockery of the sentiment that there is no place like home. For the past two months Yolanda Gonzales, her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter have resided in a dilapidated two-car garage in Lynwood, Calif. Patches of dirt blotch the linoleum floor, electrical wires snake along bare walls, a door opens to a reeking kitchen dominated by a blackened stove. At $300 a month it is, alas, almost a bargain. "Nothing is affordable," says Gonzales, 42, whose daughter is on welfare and whose son-in-law lost...
...Lowell built with his own money at clear-aired Flagstaff, Ariz., have been pointing their telescopes to the path in the skies where he had said his planet would be moving. The night of last Jan. 21, Clyde W. Tombaugh, 24, an assistant at the observatory, saw a strange blotch of light on a new plate. He hastily took the photograph to Vesto Melvin Slipher, director of the observatory. They were quite excited. Here visibly was Percival Lowell's proof. Night after night they rephotographed the planet. Pictures showed that it moved slightly in the same direction...
...many of the people who stress Washington's tax evasion are the same ones who stood silently for decades, blithely watching the infamous Chicago political machine commit every conceivable brand of corruption and electoral fraud. Washington's 30 days should definitely be remembered by voters--they are an ugly blotch on his record--but the sudden "civic concern" of his otherwise quiet attackers should be seen as nothing more than fakery...