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NOAA has now confirmed what anyone living in the mid-western and southwestern USA already knew. It's hot-- very hot!
Nearly 60% of the nation experienced above normal to much above normal temperatures in July and counties in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and elsewhere measured their record warmest temperatures ever. August is approaching comparable conditions but that NOAA map isn't complete yet. Adverse impacts from the heat and drought on people, animals, forests, and agriculture ...
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In 1920, Robert Frost wrote his classic poem, Fire & Ice:
Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great and would suffice.
The astronomer Harlow Shapley wrote in a 1960 "Science and the Arts" presentation that he inspired the poem.
According to a Wikipedia anecdote, Shapley describes an encounter ...