Word: pile
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Janet Flockhart had explored the woods near her home trying to track down a putrid smell that had long bothered her family. She eventually found the source-a decaying, fly-covered pile of garbage on the banks of Sims Bayou. Now, she said, she knew why fish had never been able to live in the bayou...
...Listening to the clang and roar of machinery out in the blazing night, skeptics railed at the whole fantastic scene. Many were convinced that there would be small use for the dam's electricity, that only one generator -a little one-would be installed, and that the vast pile would be left, peeping away to itself down through the ages, like a stranded whale with a peanut whistle in its nose...
...hydrogen bomb's necessary ingredients (a principal one, Dr. Bacher implies) is tritium, the heavy form of hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. Tritium must be made in a chain-reacting pile by a reaction that costs one free neutron for every atom of tritium produced. There are plenty of free neutrons in a pile, but they originate in fissioning atoms of uranium-235 and are normally used to form plutonium (for atom bombs) out of nonfissionable U-238. Each neutron that is used to form an atom of tritium means less plutonium...
...radio's money-splurging quiz shows threaten the U.S. with "intellectual destruction," and sets out to strike a blow for intellectual salvation. An expert who can't be stumped, he appears on Soap Manufacturer Vincent Price's double-ornothing program week after week, letting his winnings pile up with the plan of taking over the whole $40-million soap company. When the alarmed hucksters try to give him what he has already won and get rid of him, a hero-loving public refuses to buy any soap unless he keeps going...
Taking a last look at the pile of books and the untouched assignments, he decides on the path of least resistance and slumps into his chair...