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e5cc292
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Your grandmother sent me to church every day, and it did me no harm. It was in church that I was converted to atheism. Also, it's a wise hedge. I myself might take it up on my deathbed, just in case.
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Douglas Preston |
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5c6d794
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America. What a wonderful country. Too bad it was doomed to fail.
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Douglas Preston |
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192bd4e
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There can be no doubt: life is a miraculous thing, and even more miraculous is human intelligence. Our world, this earth, is a surpassingly beautiful place, perfectly suited to our needs. It is as if the world were created for us, so perfect is it. But this is an illusion; in fact, we were created for the world. The world is just right for us because we've been adapting to it for millions of years.
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Douglas Preston |
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faea896
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So, after half a million, what did the chimps say?" Well, not much, when you really analyze it. That wasn't the point, for God's sake! And the scientists who supported us were afraid to object. They didn't want to attract Proxmire's attention. Cowards, every one."
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Douglas Preston |
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a68aa2d
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Evolution extracts a price. What is the price? Sickness, old age, and death; tragedy, hunger, sorrow, pain, and suffering--all these must exist in order for evolution to operate. Without death there can be no evolution.
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Douglas Preston |
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c2c17fc
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All living things must pay dearly for the miracle of their existence. We human beings must pay the highest price of all, because evolution has given us a brain capable of understanding death. And death lies across all our lives like some hideous, vulgar joke.
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Douglas Preston |
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8307f26
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It encourages us to develop evolution's greatest gift to us: our intellects. It instructs us to appreciate this life as fully as possible, because we will never have another. This, then, is my religion.
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Douglas Preston |
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ecc1846
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If this sounds like strange talk from a scientist--so be it. If there is one thing I have learned from a lifetime study of science, it is that the world is not a place we human beings will ever comprehend. Understand, yes; comprehend, no.
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Douglas Preston |
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5567afa
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our brains did not evolve to help us comprehend the true meaning of things, only to understand their mechanical workings. Knowing the true meaning of reality does not contribute to one's ability to survive, and thus this kind of understanding was not addressed by evolution.
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Douglas Preston |
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1a1c068
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To most people, Metcalf had discovered, silence was even more unbearable than pointed questioning.
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Douglas Preston |
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c60aa7d
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This genetic resistance, by the way, should not be confused with acquired immunity. Acquired immunity is when a body gets rid of a pathogen and afterward maintains a state of high alert for that same microbe. It's why people don't normally get the same illness twice. Genetic resistance is something deeper and more mysterious. It is not acquired through exposure--you are born with it.
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Douglas Preston |
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c91ef9f
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complex farming societies were able to thrive in even the toughest rainforest areas. Human ingenuity is boundless.
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Douglas Preston |
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eca150f
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Our modes of speech are bred in the bone, madam. We cannot escape them any more than we can the colour of our eyes.
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Douglas Preston |
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21c0916
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The Maya created a vibrant and brilliant society that, in the end, failed to adjust to a changing environment and the needs of its people;
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Douglas Preston |
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4c6ed68
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Finally she spoke."We don't have much time." She paused, looking at him steadily. "I need to tell you something, Tom." "What?" "It seems I've fallen in love with you." Reality returned with sudden clarity. Tom couldn't quite speak. She went on briskly. "Anyway, there--now it's said." "But what about--?" "Julian?"
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Douglas Preston |
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f9105d3
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make sure we wealthy are not allowed to use our money as a tool of oppression and subversion of democracy.
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Douglas Preston |
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93f3dca
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You see, between me and life there is a mist of words always.
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Douglas Preston |
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a4a794c
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I'm never better than when I'm alone.
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Douglas Preston |
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82e771b
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Do you know, I've always believed there's no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written or badly written--that's all.
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Douglas Preston |
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922596d
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The best way to not think of something is to possess it fully, and then cultivate indifference.
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Douglas Preston |
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d8ab918
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Mary and Joseph," he said, "turned a very embarrassing situation into one of the greatest coups in history. Clever, clever, clever!"
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Douglas Preston |
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9157295
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Most "science reporters" for newspapers and magazines did not have the scientific background to understand the ramifications of the story. Those involved with the story of Jennie's life were anxious to correct the record."
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Douglas Preston |
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683936b
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In Lake's experience, even eccentric and unconventional people carefully curated their persona. Very few truly didn't give a goddamn what others thought.
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Douglas Preston |
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2cf7bb4
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He was lying on his back, eating peanuts, and gazing straight up with binoculars at the troop of spider monkeys. They in turn were lined up on a limb fifty feet above, staring down at him and eating leaves. It was a funny sight, two curious primate species observing each other with fascination.
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Douglas Preston |
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563fe92
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The act of living causes brain damage.
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Douglas Preston |
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5455d09
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There are four biosafety levels, BSL-1 to BSL-4.)
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Douglas Preston |
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1069291
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In AD 426, a ruler named K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' (Sun-Eyed Resplendent Quetzal Macaw) came down from the Maya city of Tikal, in Guatemala, and seized control of the settlement of Copan in a coup or invasion. He became Copan's first "Holy Lord" and launched a dynasty of sixteen lords that would elevate Copan into a glorious city dominating the area for centuries."
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Douglas Preston |
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b05ad57
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From many bragging inscriptions of glorious combat and deeds, we know the Maya city-states were belligerent and engaged in frequent battles with each other and with their neighbors. These conflicts only intensified as the wealth and populations of the Maya city-states increased, swelling their hunger for resources.
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Douglas Preston |
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26ef977
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But now I feel rather like Br'er Rabbit being thrown into the briar patch, because I have found you here, in charge. Just like when we first met, back at the Natural History Museum.
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Douglas Preston |
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a1871cf
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Even with the intense excitement and high spirits, the hike back to camp was grueling, as the steep hillsides were impossible to descend except in a semi-controlled sort of falling slide.
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Douglas Preston |
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d58b84e
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increasingly parasitic role of the elite.
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Douglas Preston |
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417ceda
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A series of droughts between AD 760 and 800 seem to have been the trigger for famine that hit the common people disproportionately hard. It was the last straw for a society teetering on the edge of alienation and conflict.
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Douglas Preston |
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7abe54d
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He stepped back to let Pendergast do his thing, but he was surprised to see the agent not going through his usual rigmarole, with the test tubes and tweezers and loupes appearing out of nowhere and interminable fussing around.
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Douglas Preston |
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54e36b6
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The survivors are deprived of that vital human connection to their past; they are robbed of their stories, their music and dance, their spiritual practices and beliefs--they are stripped of their very identity.
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Douglas Preston |
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20b9e5f
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Bending over the severed neck, his face less than an inch from the wound, he maneuvered his tweezers under the loupe, dug them into the neck--D'Agosta almost had to turn away--and stretched out what looked like a rubber band but was obviously a large vein. He snipped off a short piece and dropped it in a test tube, dug around some more, pulled out another vein, snipped and stored it, as well. And then he spent another several minutes examin..
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Douglas Preston |
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aaa5a8e
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There are many essential police skills they don't teach you at the Academy," said Pendergast. "Ass covering, as it is so charmingly termed, being the most important."
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Douglas Preston |
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23bd967
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints identified the Maya as one of the lost tribes of Israel, the Lamanites, as chronicled in The Book of Mormon, published in 1830.
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Douglas Preston |
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00e39bb
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You," he began. "You bastards." Silence. "Where was the FBI these past four days? This was your fault--your fault!" His voice, starting out in a whisper, crescendoed by the end into a roar, spittle flecking his lips."
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Douglas Preston |
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f544471
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Global warming has opened the southern door of the United States not just to leish but to many other diseases. The big ones now entering our country include Zika, West Nile virus, chikungunya, and dengue fever. Even diseases like cholera, Ebola, Lyme, babesiosis, and bubonic plague will potentially infect more people as global warming accelerates
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Douglas Preston |
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324c5ff
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News of the murder had her all in a tizzy.
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Douglas Preston |
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f8ff348
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The British geographer Linda Newson produced a magisterial study of the demographic catastrophe in Honduras during the Spanish period, entitled The Cost of Conquest: Indian Decline in Honduras Under Spanish Rule.
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Douglas Preston |
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9a8bbad
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The people of Honduras don't have a clear cultural identity. We have to start learning more about our past in order to create a brighter future.
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Douglas Preston |
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8628677
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He was refreshingly, even alarmingly, direct
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Douglas Preston |
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b2a648e
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And what was he like? Did he have three heads?" "If he did, two must have been successfully removed in infancy."
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Douglas Preston |