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The damage from a major natural disaster can be harrowing – loss to life and limb combined with property damage, environmental, economic and psychological impact make picking up the pieces difficult. But long after the crisis ebbs, the damage lingers, becoming ever more pernicious and difficult to discern. Mold inside walls, unseen weakened structures… they all get covered up with fresh coats of paint. So, too, it is with the automobiles affected.

We first told you about these cars yesterday, but now professional photographer Doug Kuntz has agreed to share his incredible aerial images with Autoblog so we can pass them on to you, the reader. Going one better, Kuntz has given us more than twice as many images than what you saw on the Weather.com link yesterday.

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.Click link below for article and more images of thousands of water damaged cars:

http://www.autoblog.com/2013/01/04/even-more-images-of-the-airport-full-of-15-000-flood-damaged-san/?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl2|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D253171

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There’s a push to have the president create a special weapon to avert another debt ceiling crisis. That special weapon is a trillion-dollar platinum coin, and it’s a proposition the Obama administration may be forced to soon consider.

The movement is gaining steam, and the latest indication is a new White House petition calling for the measure. Created on Thursday, the petition already has gained 2,067 signatures as of 1:17 p.m. Friday. Any petition that garners 25,000 signatures requires a White House response.

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.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/04/trillion-dollar-coin-petition_n_2409704.html?utm_hp_ref=business&icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl1|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D253105

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Everything was supposed to be “on the table” in the crafting of deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. But in the end, congressional Democrats and Republicans skipped over some of the most glaring tax perks and giveaways. Case in point: Congress didn’t touch billions of dollars a year in freebies to the oil and gas industry that pad the profit margins of companies such as ExxonMobil and BP.

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.Click link below for article:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/big-oil-tax-subsidy-fiscal-cliff

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CARACAS, Jan 3 (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still suffering a “severe” respiratory infection that has hindered his breathing as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery in Cuba, the government said on Thursday.

The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in more than three weeks. Officials say he is in delicate condition after his fourth operation in just 18 months for an undisclosed form of cancer in his pelvic area.

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is suffering a “severe”

respiratory infection while recovering from cancer

surgery in Cuba. (AP Photo/Sharon Steinmann, file)

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.Click link below for story, slideshow, and video:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/hugo-chavez-venezuela-severe-respiratory-problem_n_2406394.html?icid=maing-grid7|myaol|dl2|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D252617

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An excerpt from xkcd’s newest feature What if.

How much physical space does the internet take up?
—Max L

There are a lot of ways to estimate the amount of information stored on the internet, but we can put an interesting upper bound on the number just by looking at how much storage space we (as a species) have purchased.

The storage industry produces in the neighborhood of 650 million hard drives per year. If most of them are 3.5” drives, then that’s eight liters (two gallons) of hard drive per second.

This means the last few years of hard drive production—which, thanks to increasing size, represent a large chunk of global storage capacity—would just about fill an oil tanker. So, by that measure, the internet is smaller than an oil tanker.

This piece is part of Short Answer Section II, What If is produced every Tuesday.

xkcd…

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In the New Mexico desert lies an allegedly secret Scientology installation that includes a huge message for extraterrestrials — a crop circle-type design that can only easily be seen from high above the ground.

That’s among the allegations set forth by BBC Panorama reporter John Sweeney in a new book, “Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology,” reports the New York Daily News.

The controversial Church of Scientology — which boasts celebrity members Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Juliette Lewis — was founded in 1952 by writer L. Ron Hubbard, and promotes the concept that humans are immortal beings with reincarnated souls.

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.Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/01/scientology-alien-space-cathedral_n_2388833.html#s322816

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On Monday, the world’s oldest living identical twins celebrated their 103 birthday!

Charlotte Eisgrou and Ann Primack of South Florida and Daytona Beach, Fla. are still in the best of health, despite their age. Neither uses a hearing aide or reading glasses, reported the Daily Mail.

“I feel wonderful. I have all my faculties,” Eisgrou told the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Although the pair was unable to spend their birthday together since they are both recovering from recent falls, they still consider each other best friends.

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.Click link below for story and slideshow:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/30/oldest-living-identical-t_n_2377822.html

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From Associated Press in the USA:

Scientist: Ancient Mushroom Has Parasites

Mushroom found in amber 100 million years old

Jun 5, 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. – A mushroom found embedded in a 100-million-year-old piece of amber is about 20 million years older than other known mushroom fossils, an Oregon scientist says.

The ancient mushroom is especially interesting because it contains two parasites, one feeding on the mushroom and the other feeding on its fellow parasite.

“I was amazed enough with the mushroom,” said George Poinar, a retired entomology professor in Corvallis.

“But then seeing the parasites was astonishing. No one has ever seen this three-tier association before.”

Poinar, formerly of the University of California at Berkeley, said the mushroom was spotted about a year ago in Burma by Ron Buckley, a registered nurse, photographer and collector of amber fossils from Florence, Ky.

Amber is fossilized tree resin, a sticky…

Today I am going to share with you one of my absolute favourite recipes. I discovered this delight whilst visiting friends in South Africa and although I don’t know how to say it in the Afrikaans language, in English we simply call it Balsamic Barbecue Chicken! The ingredients for this dish are neither difficult to find or expensive and by my calculations you should easily be able to feed about six people.