Word: irregularities
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When Caltech Astronomer Charles Kowal first examined the photographic plate that he had exposed atop Mount Palomar last month, he was openly skeptical. At the edge of the small, irregular galaxy that he was studying in the constellation Centaurus, he saw a large burst of light brighter than the entire galaxy itself that had not been there before. Had a stray asteroid wandered into the telescope's field of view? Closer inspection quickly revealed that the light came not from a nearby asteroid, but from a far more awesome heavenly phenomenon: a supernova, the explosive death of a giant...
When pigeons trained by the consistent method were switched to irregular reward, "they went to pieces," hitting their heads against the walls, flapping their wings, and pecking wildly at everything in sight. By contrast, birds trained on the intermittent system did not go wild when a correct peck failed to produce food. Instead, they stayed calm, continued to peck only at red, and soon were rewarded with the "deserved" snack...
...oxide plastic containing seeds. Using a tractor mounted with a reel of tape, a farmer can plant a crop uniformly. The seeds are evenly spaced, and the tape dissolves when sprayed with water. This eliminates the costly problem of uneven planting, which often causes crops to mature at an irregular rate and forces farmers to reap several times. Seed tape has not only sold well to large corporate farmers but has also garnered about 6% of the home gardening market. Carbide is now testing tapes that contain fertilizer or herbicides as well as a single tape that will have both...
...Awards [April 24], I want to point out that, as spokesman for the three judges of children's books, I stated at the press conference that we had not been able to reach a unanimous decision, that the award was going to Donald Barthelme's The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine, and that we were not going to make our discussion public...
...stage, an irregular stack of three circular platforms, thrusts into the middle of the room. "I wanted a shape more than a stage, something with plenty of movement yet undefined. I wanted it to be out into the audience; when you have a proscenium at the end of a room, you have people looking at the show; you forget they're there." The platforms rest on steel pipe legs, specially cut and threaded because the usual machinery couldn't handle such short legs. Guy proudly shows off his banged-up finger, still recovering from his carpentry. "And I have...