Word: earths
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...mysterious metallic balloon thought to be carrying a Colorado boy had scarcely returned to Earth last week when a new website launched, its domain name asking the question that much of the nation was wondering: WhereIsBalloonBoy.com. Inspired by the disappearance of 6-year-old Falcon Heene - which authorities now believe was a hoax - the playful site featured question marks next to a picture of a bird (a falcon, naturally) and was updated twice more as the story developed. It later depicted a falcon poking out from a cardboard box, where the boy was found hiding in the Heenes' attic. Within...
...past - like the Permian-Triassic event 250 million years ago, in which 70% of all terrestrial species were wiped out, probably because of an asteroid impact or a similar natural disaster - this time human beings are the cause. Hard numbers are difficult to find, but many scientists believe Earth's species are going extinct at a rate that is up to 1,000 times higher than before human beings came on the scene. (See how animals are under siege...
...tech skyscrapers designed to withstand the inevitable next earthquake, the West Sumatran capital of Padang - which scientists long predicted would be shaken by a killer quake because it sits astride one of the world's most active fault lines - was crowded with poorly built buildings that crumbled when the earth shuddered on Sept. 30. Similarly, in the Philippines, the vast flooding triggered by Ketsana was largely the result of insufficient drainage. In fact, the U.N. estimates that when equivalent populations in the Philippines and Japan endure the same number of tropical cyclones each year, 17 times more people perish...
...high (10 m) landslide, I met Amin Dullah, a 40-year-old fishmonger, who crouched under a tarp with his 5-year-old daughter. When the tremor struck, Dullah fled his house with his 2-year-old son Fajar. But he was soon inundated by two waves of earth and lost his grip on the boy. Two days later, Fajar's body was found. Only six of Dullah's 31 neighbors survived. Marooned in such an isolated place, they had no idea that tragedy extended far beyond their own community. Learning that thousands probably perished in the quake, Dullah hugged...
...surely be one of the strangest stories from the year, 6-year-old Falcon Heene from Fort Collins, Colo., was thought to have taken flight on Oct. 15 in a helium-filled homemade flying saucer that flew as high as 7,000 ft. (2,000 m) before returning to earth some 50 miles (80 km) from his home. Thankfully, Falcon was discovered hours later, reportedly hiding in a box in the family's attic. While his ill-advised adventure never really got off the ground, there is a rich history of do-it-yourself balloon travel - and many of these...