Word: gum
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...only known evidence of earlier supernovas in the Milky Way are the pulsars they left behind. One of the closest to be detected is in the Gum nebula, which is in the constellation Vela and only 1,500 light years away. Thus, when the star that formed Gum exploded-some 10,000 to 20,000 years ago (an estimate derived from the current signal rate of the pulsar)-it probably flared up briefly in the sky as bright as a quarter-moon. It also may have showered the earth with enough dangerous radiation to have produced significant mutations in terrestrial...
...great event-markings that could be archaeologically dated to determine more precisely when the Vela supernova occurred-NASA Astronomers John C. Brandt, Stephen P. Maran and Theodore Stecher last year issued an appeal. They asked archaeologists to be on the lookout, especially in the Southern hemisphere-where the Gum nebula can be best observed-for any unidentified ancient symbols that might have been painted or carved to represent the supernova...
Returning to the site of the markings in Bolivia, Michanowsky noted that the region of the sky in which the Gum nebula lies does not look remarkable to the naked eye. Nonetheless, it has long been called Lakha Manta (The Gateway to Hell) by the Indians, for reasons they are unable to explain. More tantalizing still, Michanowsky found that among some lowland tribes this humdrum part of the sky is known as the Region of the Chase of the Celestial Ostrich, a bird revered in Indian mythology. According to Indian lore, the ostrich was driven across...
...first sports heros I had were named Mantle, Maris and Ford. I know if I still have them stuffed away in a drawer, but at one point I had twelve different Mickey Mantle baseball cards. You know, the kind that came with the crappy tasting gum that you gave away and the multi-colored fact card that you kept...
...factories turned out 442,000 refrigerators last year, for example, compared with only 191,500 ten years ago. But quality has remained at a low level. Except for optical goods and such choice export items as fiber-glass boats and camper iceboxes, nearly every East German product, from chewing gum to paint, is inferior to its Western equivalent. Distribution is bad, and shortages of even items like toilet paper are chronic. People still line up for such things as fruit-grapefruits are sold only to diabetics. Shoppers often return home emptyhanded. "You always walk around with a pocketful of money...