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'Worse than one thousand pukes': fetid corpse flower overwhelms New York
One of the world’s largest flowers, Amorphophallus titanum takes around a decade to bloom and promptly dies two days later in a foul-smelling crescendo
Visitors crowded the New York botanical garden in the Bronx and began to sniff. On a rainy Friday morning, they traveled en masse to witness one of the world’s largest and smelliest flowers – Amorphophallus titanum, also known as the corpse flower. It’s the first time the flower, which takes around a decade to bloom and then dies after 24-36 hours, has appeared in the city since 1939.
“It smells like lettuce when you take it out of the bag,” a woman yelled from the crowd of onlookers in the Enid A Haupt conservatory. “It smells like the aquarium. Like the penguin enclosure,” another added. The odor came in waves as onlookers jostled for the best spot to take photos and selfies with the giant flower. Some left holding their noses.
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Lava pictures from 'smiling' Hawaiian Kilauea volcano eruption
Chernobyl could be reinvented as a solar farm, says Ukraine
Ministers create presentation to show how idle land around nuclear disaster site can be used to produce renewable energy
The contaminated nuclear wasteland around Chernobyl could be turned into one of the world’s largest solar farms, producing nearly a third of the electricity that the stricken plant generated at its height 30 years ago, according to the Ukrainian government.
In a presentation sent to major banks and seen by the Guardian, 6,000 hectares of “idle” land in Chernobyl’s 1,000 square km exclusion zone, which is considered too dangerous for people to live in or farm, could be turned to solar, biogas and heat and power generation.
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Civic pride 'can help sustain urban biodiversity'
Large Abelisaurus Dinosaur dinosaur footprint found in Bolivia
Thorn tree tangle of pagans and poets
Langley Bush, Cambridgeshire A bronze age grave, Roman shrine, gibbet mound, parish marker, gypsy haunt - centuries of decisions and deaths right here
Odd, the durable significance of some places. You can understand a mountain or cliff or sprawling forest – places that awe the eye on the ground, horizon or map. More enigmatic are the little places. Slid away, unremarkable but exquisite in appearance or legacy, for reasons frequently forgotten but strangely lingering.
This one, historically, a bronze age grave, then Roman shrine, then outdoor court, place of execution, parish marker, gypsy haunt, poet’s muse. Today, the name of a road and the title of a plaque. This is Langley Bush, lost in a field near Peterborough.
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Scientists endure extreme Antarctic temperatures to extract ice cores – video
This footage from the Antarctic summer of 2007-08 shows how Australian scientists endure extreme conditions to drill ice cores from Antarctica’s Law Dome area. Law Dome is a spot in eastern Antarctica where scientists have been drilling to gather historic climate datat. New research using Law Dome ice cores suggests the world might be able to burn less fossil fuels than previously thought
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Plunging cost of big solar in Australia
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Infigen revenue jumps sharply on more wind, higher electricity prices
What the Earth's frozen burps tell us about global warming
Analysis of bubbles trapped in ancient Antarctic ice suggests that as the planet heats up, plants and soils will add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
“When the earth burps, Law Dome records it,” says Australian climate scientist Dr David Etheridge.
Law Dome is a special spot in eastern Antarctica where scientists have been drilling down into the continent’s long-frozen surface to pull out cores of ice.
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