Arctic Mystery: Identifying the Great Blob of Alaska

A group of hunters aboard a small boat out of the tiny Alaska village of Wainwright were the first to spot what would eventually be called “the blob.” It was a dark, floating mass stretching for miles through the Chukchi Sea, a frigid and relatively shallow expanse of Arctic Ocean water between Alaska’s northwest coast and the Russian Far East. The goo was fibrous, hairy

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After walking on moon, astronauts trod various paths

It turns out going to the moon is a tough act to follow. For all their Buck Rogers, “Right Stuff,” history-making achievements, the question for many of the 12 astronauts who walked on the lunar surface starting four decades ago ultimately became “one giant leap to where, exactly” “You have your peak experience at 38 or 39,” says space historian Andrew Chaiken, summing up their collective experience, “and [they] have a hard time coming up with something to do for an encore.” Apollo 11 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on July 16, 1969. Four days later, the first two humans walked on the lunar surface; 10 more Americans followed by the end of 1972

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Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms

A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out." “We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes,” Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called “our baby … a good kid.” But time-out in the boy’s north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell — a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper. Called a seclusion room, it’s where in November 2004, Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants

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Mexico floods president’s home state with police

In response to a spate of attacks allegedly by a drug cartel, Mexico more than tripled the number of federal police officers patrolling the state of Michoacan, a government spokeswoman said. The government on Thursday dispatched 1,000 federal police officers to Michoacan state in southwest Mexico, increasing its presence to 1,300 total, Public Safety spokeswoman Veronica Penunuri told CNN.

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Estudiantes stuns Cruzeiro, claims Copa

Estudiantes de La Plata shocked Brazilian home side Cruzeiro on Wednesday to capture South American club football’s greatest prize, the Copa Libertadores. The 2-1 win by Estudiantes marked the first Copa trophy claimed by the Argentinean team in 39 years, as it came from behind in a tense match that saw all goals scored in the second half.

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12 slain in Mexico identified as federal officers

Twelve bodies with signs of torture found on the side of a remote highway in the state of Michoacan were federal police officers, an official with Mexico’s national security council said at a news conference Tuesday. The officers, 11 men and one woman, were “ambushed while they were off duty by an armed group,” said the security council’s Technical Secretary Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia.

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