Word: rivers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Scientific skeptics have assigned them myriad natural explanations, including a comet and a volcanic eruption on the Mediterranean island of Santorini. The most ingenious effort is an ecological domino theory proposed in the 1950s by a scholar named Greta Hort: the Nile's many tributaries flood, infesting the great river with blood-red soil from the high plateaus and reddish micro-organisms usually confined to up-country lakes. These micro-organisms poison the fish, whose rotting bodies pollute the frogs' habitats, forcing them to hop onto dry land. Insects (gnats, flies) feeding on the dead fish proliferate and convey...
When Gurule was found dead on Thursday in a river a mile from the prison by two off-duty prison guards who were fishing, I was relieved, because if he had made it out of the woods and killed people, this column would have made me feel really bad. But I mostly felt stupid for picturing him hunting squirrels with sharp rocks when he couldn't even cross a river. Then again, how dumb were those 500 officers not to look there? Were they still investigating the pillows...
Later, we head back to base camp and go for a swim in the river, where Mittermeier proves that scientists are different from you and me. He remembers to warn me to stay clear of the rocks where electric eels play, but he neglects to mention that piranhas are sharing the water with us. When this finally occurs to him, he adds, "Not to worry. Piranhas only go after open wounds." I hold up my hand with the cut on it. "Oh, yeah," he says...
Then we are off again, to fly farther south and east to the Maroon Saramaccan village of Asindopo in the region of the Upper Suriname River. Asindopo means "sit down and hope"--a welcome thought to its original settlers, runaway slaves from Dutch plantations in the 18th century. We go by corjal to visit their descendants. Some are swimming; some are washing clothes in the river; some are staring at us. The faces of the children are a cross between innocence and gravity. On a far bank, a glorious ceiba rises to the sky. It is called the "house...
Lankard took his fight all the way to Washington, where lawmakers would oversee the land deals. He became a familiar sight in the Capitol with his battered leather backpack, laptop computer and a small, smooth stone from his beloved Copper River that he always carried. The chief of the Eyak tribe renamed him Jamachakih. Translation: "little bird that screams really loud and won't shut...