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These are the events held in most present-day alpine competitions: Downhill features the longest course and is the fastest of the alpine events. Skiers can reach speeds of more than 90 miles per hour as they race down the slope. Downhill racing includes turns, jumps and gliding stages. In the slalom, the shortest race, single poles, called gates, are placed closely together on the course. It’s the most technically challenging event as skiers speed down the hill making quick, sharp turns through the gates....

Hundreds of thousands of birds of many species are caught in the wild for the pet trade. Never buy wild-caught birds. Buying such birds means supporting an industry that causes great suffering and needless death and threatens the very survival of some bird species. Up to 80 percent of birds who are caught in the wild die just in the course of capture and shipment. After purchase wild-caught birds suffer from stress and the inability to adapt to life in captivity, making them prone to medical and behavioral problems....

When the Soviet threat withered, the B-52 soldiered on, morphing into whatever role the Air Force demanded of it: high-altitude carpet bomber, low-altitude stealth bomber, cruise-missile launch platform, you name it. Incredibly, 50 years after its first flight in 1952, the B-52 was flying bombing missions over Afghanistan. No other combat aircraft has even come close to that record of longevity. “Big Ugly Fellow” The B-52’s basic layout was hatched in 1948 by a small team of Boeing engineers during a frantic weekend design binge in a motel room in Dayton, Ohio....

Barnyard Smells White researched every detail that went into his three books for children: Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte’s Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). For Charlotte’s Web the research was close to home—at White’s own farm in Maine. As a result, the barnyard of Charlotte’s Web seems real in every detail, and so do the habits of its animals. Despite Charlotte’s sophisticated vocabulary, she is still a spider who traps flies in her web and sucks their blood....

Are all fossil animals dinosaurs? Did people and dinosaurs live at the same time? Where did dinosaurs live? Did all the dinosaurs live together, and at the same time? How are dinosaurs named? What was the biggest dinosaur? What was the smallest? How many types of dinosaurs are known? Were dinosaurs warm-blooded? What did dinosaurs eat? How fast could dinosaurs walk or run? Did dinosaurs communicate? Which was the smartest dinosaur?...

Related Links Recorded Weather ExtremesGreatest SnowfallsLargest U.S. StormsStorm of the Century? People outside Buenos Aires were not so welcoming of the harsh conditions, however. Major roadways in Bolivia were blocked by the snow and airports were forced to close. The stretch of cold weather is unprecedented for most South American countries, and a number of deaths have been reported as a result. National governments have encouraged residents to conserve energy to reduce the strain on utilities....

Infoplease World AtlasFull-sized maps of hundreds of countries in the world and all the U.S. statesLibrary of Printable MapsState outline maps, state maps with physiography, state maps with capitols, U.S. regions, and contintents—all in PDF formatWhere Is It? Longitude and Latitude Finder New!Find coordinates for cities/towns, land features, and more.How Far Is It? Distance Calculator New!Find distances between cities/towns, land features, and more.Geography GlossaryFrom the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of CapricornNew Nations GuideFledgling countries that have emerged since the 1990sU....

The sound of carriages and carts passing on cobblestone streets outside the Pennsylvania State House distracted the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, who were busy writing the Constitution. They solved the problem by hiring people to shovel dirt onto the street to muffle the noise. The youngest people working in Congress are pages. These high school juniors carry legislative documents between the House of Representatives and the Senate. They also help answer phones in the party cloakrooms and deliver phone messages to Congress members....

Other notably succinct inaugural speeches were given by Zachary Taylor (March 5, 1849; 995 words), and Abraham Lincoln, whose famous second inaugural (March 4, 1865; 698 words) is generally considered to be the finest of all inaugural addresses. Lincoln himself believed his second inaugural surpassed the quality of his other famously concise oration, the Gettysburg Address. The longest inaugural speech was William Henry Harrison’s. At 8,445 words, it is nearly twice the length of any other president’s....