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But good luck breathing in the bone-crushing gravity.A newly discovered star is unlike any ever found. With an outermost layer of 99.9 percent pure oxygen, its atmosphere is the most oxygen-rich in the known universe. Heck, it makes Earth's meager 21 percent look downright suffocating. The strange stellar oddity is a radically new type of white dwarf star, and was discovered by a team of Brazilian astronomers led by Kepler de Souza Oliveira at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The star is unique in the known pool of 32,000 white dwarf stars, and is the...

Falling in and out of Love/Amie by Pure Prairie League.

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Michigan's second visit of the year and its getting down to the end of the rope for some teams and a shot at the Cup Chase.. Here's to clear blue skies and a fast track.

The pure white snow atop the Andes Mountains may not be so pure after all. Scientists have found traces of toxic pollutants called PCBs in snow samples taken from Aconcagua Mountain, the highest peak in the Americas. While the overall PCB levels were quite low, the results show that these long-lasting contaminants, notorious for causing myriad health problems, can end up at altitudes as high as 20,340 feet (6,200 meters), making their way through the atmosphere to these remote areas. PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, break down slowly, and as a result, can last for many years in the environment. They...

Spc. Rachael Potts and an Iraqi engineer prepare to run dirty water through a solar-powered water filtration system at Forward Operating Base Hammer, Sept. 5. Photo by Pvt. Jared N. Gehmann, 82nd Airborne Division. BAGHDAD — In an effort to provide a better quality of life for the citizens of Iraq's Ma'dain region, U.S. paratroopers here put their time and energy into learning how to set up and operate a solar-powered water filtration system, Sept. 5. Paratroopers assigned to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Multi-National Division- Baghdad implemented a self-powered, energy efficient water filtration system to provide the...

In a move to preserve religious and moral values in cyberspace, a group of unidentified Saudis have launched a "clean" Islamic alternative to the leading video-sharing site YouTube. Naqa means "pure" in Arabic. The website offers a collection of edited and Islamically "clean" clips from YouTube under the banner, “Participate with us in a clean website." Site administrators censor video clips that express critical views of the government, Islamic scholars and members of the Saudi royal family.

VANCOUVER -- A transient arrested Tuesday for shooting and killing a Vancouver police dog could go to prison for life under the state's three-strikes law if convicted. Ronald James Chenette, 38, appeared Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court, accused of harming a police dog and unlawful possession of a firearm in the shooting of Dakota, a 5-year-old German shepherd. The mood at the Vancouver Police Department's canine unit Wednesday was subdued, but the agency gratefully acknowledged the public outpouring of support. Officer Roger Evans, Dakota's handler, spent the day at home. "It's been very tough," said Kim Kapp, a police...

ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a license to Louisiana Energy Services to build and operate a $1.4 billion uranium enrichment plant near Eunice in southeastern New Mexico. The license was issued Friday. The National Enrichment Facility, under review for the past two years, would enrich uranium for fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. The plant would hire 210 permanent employees and use between 400 and 800 construction workers. Officials have said construction could begin in August, with the first facilities for production of enriched uranium scheduled for completion by December 2008.

I picked up a CD by Alan Jackson at a Christian bookstore. I saw he was doing some of the old hymns and Gospel songs. I expected he was going to play in the Alan Jackson "country style". Instead it was a simple, pure versions of these songs using an acoustic guitar, piano, and organ. His family joined in on some of the songs. I learned on Amazon from a review that the songs were originally intended for his mother but he allows us to in a sense sit quietly in the room for this special moment. Anyway, for those...

Hey Kids! Want Good Sex? Try Abstinence.Warren ThrockmortonAs a mental health counselor, I am really troubled by the numbers of adolescents that I have counseled who cried for days and hurt for years because they engaged in "safer sex" within dead end, unfulfilling relationships. Sadly, they learned that “safer sex” can be hazardous to their emotional health. I think the current political debate concerning abstinence vs. contraceptive based sexual education has failed to include an important variable in the discussion of what to teach in school: sexual well being. In many contemporary sexual education curricula, young boys and girls who...

Historic find is pure gold! Jan 14 2004 By Tony Collins, Evening Mail City archaeologists have struck gold - with a major Bronze Age discovery in eastern Europe. A team of experts from the University of Birmingham has discovered what may be one of the most important archaeological sites of the last 50 years, in a riverbed in Croatia. Items recovered from the river include more than 90 swords, a Roman legionnaire's dagger complete with sheath, more than 30 Greco-Illyrian helmets, plus numerous items of jewellery, axes and spearheads. It is believed a large number of objects were thrown into...

<p>The consensus among the Golden State's political elite is that the recall of Gov. Gray Davis is a catastrophe. It's easy to understand why the Democrats hate the recall; their man is being ousted. But conservative Republicans hate the recall, too. The national Republican Party has been surprisingly silent, fueling speculation that they'd prefer to watch Davis twist in the wind, buffeted about by a lackluster economy, record budget deficits and Draconian cuts in public services. Conservative columnist William Safire, a gleeful Davis critic, opined that Californians should behave like adults and live with their gubernatorial mistake until his natural term expires. Even Jay Leno, who knows a joke when he sees one, jibed, ``How dumb is California? People in Florida are laughing.''</p>