Free Republic

RIO DE JANEIRO — President Biden missed a group photo of world leaders at the G20 summit on Monday — as a perplexed pool reporter could be heard telling colleagues that the commander in chief was “behind the palm tree!” Biden, 81, skipped the family picture after buzz ahead of time that he would do so to avoid being seen smiling alongside Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov during the ongoing Ukraine war. The White House blamed “logistical issues” afterward and said it was simply a matter of bad timing that Biden missed the photo. “Oh my God… they took it!”...

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar - A self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, botanists said Thursday. The name of the giant palm and its remarkable life cycle will be detailed in a study by Kew Gardens scientists in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published Thursday. "It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm," said Mijoro Rakotoarinivo, who works for the London botanical gardens in Madagascar. "But then a large...

Histories: Fruits of the tomb 03 June 2006 NewScientist.com news service Stephanie Pain When Giuseppe Passalacqua went to Egypt in the 1820s his plan was to do a bit of horse-trading. He soon discovered a more lucrative line of work - excavating ancient tombs and selling off their contents. While Passalacqua found many priceless treasures, unlike most tomb-robbers he also made off with the more mundane. If something could be carried off, it was - right down to the dried-up offerings left to feed the ancients in the afterlife. Among these were some strange shrivelled fruits that have posed a...

Proba provides a close-up view from 600 kilometres away in space of the massive artificial Palm Island Jumeirah, currently taking shape in the Gulf of Arabia just off Dubai. Designed as a prestige residential and relaxation area, the reef-like complex is built in the shape of a palm tree: it has a 17-frond crown around which is arranged a crescent, the back of which serves as a breakwater. The crown is connected to the mainland by a 300-metre bridge. Owners are due to begin occupying their properties by the end of 2005. The Jumeirah has been built from 80 million...