Dead-end road it clings to the Andes,a winding dirt path about ten feet wide and 22 miles long,descending 6500 feet.

Cliff loom,chasms gape.Few guardrails.Lots of landslides.Welcome to what some call the world's most dangerous road.Built in the 1930s by Paraguayan pows,Bolivia's Nor Yungas Road was once the only way from La Paz to Coroico.Drivers poured brooze on their tires to appease the goddess Pachamama,chewed coca leaves to stay alert.But prayers went unanswered,corss dot ledges where hundreds have perished.The worst accident,the 1983 crash of a produce truck carrying socres of people.Most died.My lord.I regret even takin a peek.I still have nightmares.Since 2006 a new road has offered safe passage.The old way now draws mostly bikers and tourists-but is still not safe.with cyclists dying this year. Says biking-company owner Alistair Matthew.People were more cautions when there were more cars.A truck negotiation Bolivia's Road of Death,from high plains to cloud forest.




How bees wing it.Don't tell the bees,but they aren't fit for flight.At least that's what a French mathematician concluded in 1934,so one story goes.of course.Bees fly just fine.early researchers simply had no way to gague the insects complex wing movements.Caltech biologist Michael Dickinson and colleagues report that while honeybee don't have it easy-their small wing to small size ratio means they must work harder to fly than other insects.Their unorthodox flapping method lets them hover,fight wind,evade predators,and get lift even when loaded up with nectar or pollen.Beat generation Studies show that many inspects move their wings in long,sweeping strokes 145 to 165 degrees at roughly 200 beats a second.But honeybees flap in short arcs about 90 degrees,so they have to compensate with speed.How much?Up to 240 beats a second-nearly twice what you'd expect given their size.Wind beneath and above their wings.To beat gravity,you need to generate an upward force.Fast flapping plus wing flipping does the trick for honeybees.Wings flap forward,creating a vortex above the bee and generating lift.Wings begin to rotate and slow down in preparation for the backward stroke.Wings finish rotating and start sweeping backward,utilizing the previous stroke's wake.Wings flap backward,creating a new vortex in the process.The cycle then repeats.







The shard war blame it on plastic.Sea glass-the bright bits of old bottles scoured by sand and salt water-is getting increasingly difficult to find.We're at the end of the sea glass window.Notes Mary Beth Beuke,president of the North American Sea glass association.There is less glass packaging now and more recycling.Much of the glass consigned to the waves decades ago,she says,is tumbled so tiny it's almost not worth picking up.Of course.it started out as something not worth keeping.Trash tossed off ships or washed from dumps must spend years in the water to become good sea glass.Wave churn,shore terrain,water acidity,and composition of the glass itself all play a part in creating the smoothed shards characteristic matte texture.Beuke,who finds sea glass all over the world,offers these tips for fellow beachcombers.Search at low tide and after a storm.Rocky shores are better than sandy.And leave clear,jagged pieces where they lie,she says.They are not finished yet.Sea glass is found worldwide.Red and orange are rare.White-which once was clear glass-is most common.