Word: bird
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...likened flying the contraption to "standing on a beach ball bobbing in the middle of a swimming pool." But Suitor mastered the technique, and during the opening ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, he cemented his place atop jetpack history: "He swooped out over the field, half-bird, half-man. So many cameras clicked at once that it felt like an unnatural bolt of lightning...
...middle-aged men who keep the flame of jetpack obsession alight are a quirky, entertaining bunch, united by their "heart-wrenchingly beautiful dream" to fly "like a twisted bird, for a wingless, breathless twenty-two second orgasm in the air." Montandon paints funny, faintly sad portraits of this group. "These are the anonymous, doughy faces of obsession," he writes. Among them is Jeremy McGrane, a 32-year-old New Hampshire resident who built his own "beautifully sleek, blue-corseted rocket belt," and who speaks candidly about the all-consuming nature of his pursuit: "Most guys are dreaming of alcohol...
...hours tinkering with a technology that hasn't improved much in decades. They've also spurred some twisted behavior. In a vivid, detailed account of the "blood-soaked disaster" that was the American Rocketbelt Corporation, Montandon reveals the underbelly of this single-minded quest. Brawls and lawsuits over "Pretty Bird" - a "cherry red" belt whose "silver tanks shone so brightly you could comb your hair in their reflection" - spiral into a sordid tale of murder, kidnapping and torture. After being sentenced to life imprisonment, one of the perpetrators, Larry Stanley - "paunchy, graying, defeated, and washed-up at fifty-seven" - tallies...
...found that both practices increased the population and variety of bird species living in the area in subsequent years...
Wilcove then discussed the harmful effects of oil palm cultivation on bird and butterfly populations in Borneo. His studies found that the conversion of forestland into plantations caused huge drops in biodiversity...