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The world’s biggest and sinkiest flower has burst into flower at London’s Kew gardens. The huge crimson-colored plant, known as Amorphophallus titanium, smells like a mixture of excrement and rotting flesh. It also has a distinctive look, with giant red petals bursting out of a tall, phallic-like stem.

The vast A. titanium is currently growing at a rate of four inches per day. Its foul smell has earned it the nickname “corpse flower” at the Royal Botanic Gardens. Nigel Taylor, head of horticulture there, says, “It does smell just like a dead carcass of an animal.” Fortunately, the plant’s smell is only emitted every few hours. It is given off to attract carrion flies, while the vivid colored petals attract bees.
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David Ruppe writes in abcnews.com that in the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders drafted plans to stage acts of terrorism in the U.S. in order to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans included the possible assassination of Cuban

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Jerry Bowen and Jim Axelrod write in cbsnews.com that more than a third of America is now affected by months of drought and the worst is yet to come. While the government believes there will be improvement in the East and parts of the West by the end of July, conditions in the Southwest and High Plains are likely to remain as bad as any seen since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.

Bowen reports on the West, where drought conditions range from mild to extreme and cover a wide area. In the parts of the West where the drought is worst, so is the wildfire danger. Americans from Arizona north to Colorado have received a signal that the fire season’s come early.
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There have been conflicting reports about whether Antarctica is warming up or cooling down. Now scientists have discovered that this has been caused by the ozone hole.

Changing wind patterns triggered by the ozone hole are causing some areas to warm while others cool, according to a new study by David Thompson of Colorado State University. Thompson says that the ozone hole has become “the largest and most significant” cause of climate change on the ice continent.

The climate around Antarctica is dominated by strong westerly winds that swirl around a giant vortex of cold air that forms over the continent for much of the year. This polar vortex stretches from the ground into the stratosphere.
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