Word: extinct
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...jump ship. While the worlds of visual media, publishing, and finance were still thriving, he said, the “literary” intellectualism of the Trilling-Sontag variety (definition: “a dinner party can become acrimonious over such issues as Freudian analysis”) was extinct, or at least highly endangered. Kristol personally decided to head to Washington, D.C., the nation’s go-to location for public policy. But he argued that, “if you want an animated discussion of ‘large ideas’ about God, human destiny, Western civilization...
...planet is in the middle of an extinction crisis, the sixth great wave in its history. But unlike major extinction events of the 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...
...carrying things while walking on two legs. Her wrist, hand and shoulder bones show that she wasn't a knuckle walker and didn't spend much time hanging or swinging ape-style in trees. Rather, she moved along branches using a primitive method of palm-walking typical of extinct apes. "[Ardi is] a lovely Darwinian creature," says Penn State paleoanthropologist Alan Walker, who was not involved in the discovery. "It has features that are intermediate between the last common ancestor and australopithecines...
...contrast, was most likely a primary weapon - like that of its distant descendant Tyrannosaurus. But that alone wasn't enough of an advantage to let it evolve into the predator that would ultimately dominate North America and Asia. That probably didn't happen until larger predatory dinosaurs went extinct for other reasons, say the scientists, allowing Raptorex-like creatures to begin growing. Once they started to get into the league of the big predators, though, where speed and bone-crushing jaw strength would let them range farther and crunch the bones of the biggest prey, there was no competition...
...same for climate-change policy. If we fail to act now, there is substantial scientific evidence that we may not get another chance. Estimates suggest that if we surpass the two-degree Centigrade limit adapted by the G-8 this summer, 20-30 percent of species could go extinct and more than 1.5 billion people worldwide could face major water shortages. While health care is important, it cannot be the only priority of the Obama administration. A superb health-care system counts for little if the world is no longer livable because of dramatic environmental effects brought on by climate...