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The airburst "in an instant, devastated approximately 500 km2 [about 200 square miles] immediately north of the Dead Sea, not only wiping out 100 percent of the [cities] and towns, but also stripping agricultural soils from once-fertile fields and covering the eastern Middle Ghor with a super-heated brine of Dead Sea anhydride salts pushed over the landscape by the event's frontal shock waves," the researchers wrote in the abstract for a paper that was presented at the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting held in Denver Nov. 14 to 17. Anhydride salts are a mix of salt and sulfates....

It’s beginning to seem like Marty McFly may have been onto something. The Cubs sure are an interesting team to watch. Nothing demonstrates that point more effectively than mad-hatter manager Joe Maddon calling for two suicide squeezes in the second inning on Saturday, en route to a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. Now, if you’re like me, you wonder why this isn’t always the play with a runner on third and fewer than two outs. I’ve almost never seen it played correctly by opposing defenses, and isn’t it more reliable than a fly ball to the outfield? But...

At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history strikes the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, leveling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. The earthquake and tsunami it caused killed an estimated 100,000 people.Sicily and Calabria are known as la terra ballerina--"the dancing land"--for the periodic seismic activity that strikes the region. In 1693, 60,000 people were killed in southern Sicily by an earthquake, and in 1783 most of the Tyrrenian coast of Calabria was razed by a massive earthquake that killed 50,000. The quake of 1908 was particularly...

Discovered remains of an extraterrestrial vessel in Siberia (scientists) Russian scientists affirmed to have discovered the remains of an extraterrestrial spaceship fallen in 1908 on the site from Toungouska, in Siberia, brings back Wednesday evening the Russian agency Interfax. The scientists, who belong to the Fund of the space phenomenon of Toungouska, also on the spot found a stone of 50 kg which they sent for analysis to Krasnoyarsk, town of Siberia. The cataclysm of Toungouska, which has occurred in a desert area of Siberia, constitutes one of the greatest scientific mysteries of the 20th century. June 30, 1908,...

Another Bone-Headed Play The Cubs owe their last World Series victory to a fluke. Friday, October 17, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT We doubt that it will be any consolation to Steve Bartman, the hapless Chicago man who did what any fan would do when a ball was hit his way: try to catch it. But for the embittered Cubs fans who chanted profanities at him during Game 6 and are now blaming him for blowing their chance for a World Series berth, we've got some news: You wouldn't even have been in the 1908 World Series--the last time you won--without...

Play Ball!

Pennant fever is sweeping the area. With both the White Sox and Cubs in first place or close to it, fans are dreaming of a Windy City Series. Using the suitable clinical terminology, this is just plain nuts. The Sox, well, maybe. It’s been dry on the South Side for a long time, but there is a genuine possibility. Not a great possibility in all likelihood, but one nonetheless. The story on the North Side is different. The Cubs have a long tradition of defeat. And not just being beaten, but losing in the most ignominious ways. Assorted explanations have...