Word: phosphorus
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...were used by both antiquity's weak and strong. In 332 B.C., the citizens of the doomed port of Tyre catapulted basins of burning sand at Alexander the Great's advancing army. Falling from the sky, the sand, says Mayor, "would have had the same ghastly effect as white phosphorus," the chemical agent allegedly used during Israel's recent bombardment of Gaza, not far to the south of ancient Tyre. A Chinese ruler in A.D. 178 put down a peasant revolt by encircling the rebels with chariots heaped with limestone powder. Accompanied by a cacophonous troupe of drummers, the charioteers...
...Among the allegations being probed are claims that Israel targeted ambulances and medical crews, improperly used incendiary bombs such as white phosphorus in dense civilian areas (a claim also being internally investigated by the Israeli military), prevented the evacuation of wounded carrying white flags, and targeted schools, hospitals, supply convoys and a U.N. compound where over 1,000 civilians had taken shelter. Although Israel dropped thousands of leaflets and made phone calls to targeted buildings warning of impending bombardments, Palestinians argue that they had no safe places in which to take refuge amid Israel's fierce bombardment...
...large and too dim," says James Russill, a lighting specialist at Energy Saving Trust, a British nonprofit consumer advisory group. That's finally starting to change, for three reasons. The first is that the technology has improved immeasurably thanks to LED, which consists essentially of semiconductors coated with phosphorus. Second, prices have come down to the point where a high-tech lamp doesn't need to be much more expensive than a traditional incandescent one. Perhaps most significantly, governments are now getting involved in energy-saving efforts. Last year, Australia became the first country to announce it is banning incandescent...
...Administration has also ruled that the more than 15,000 factory farms across the nation can avoid oversight by the Clean Water Act as long as they claim they don't discharge animal waste into streams or rivers. Environmentalists say that self-regulation will lead to worsening nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, which can poison drinking water and worsen dead zones in coastal areas...
...American Midwest is essentially the granary of the world, supplying corn, wheat and other crops to markets from Chile to China. But all that food doesn't grow by itself. In 2006 U.S. farmers used more than 21 million tons of nitrogen, phosphorus and other fertilizers to boost their crops, and all those chemicals have consequences far beyond the immediate area. When the spring rains come, fertilizer from Midwestern farms drains into the Mississippi river system and down to Louisiana, where the agricultural sewage pours into the Gulf of Mexico. Just as fertilizer speeds the growth of plants on land...