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By TIMES WIRES
Published August 5, 2006

Trade school supplies for a ticket

It's school time and the Devils Rays hope their fans will help some vulnerable kids. The team is offering a reward as an inducement. Take some school supplies to the Devil Rays-Red Sox game at 7:15 tonight and you'll receive a free voucher for a lower reserve seat to a game against the Texas Rangers or Minnesota Twins. The school supplies will go to foster children through the Safe Children Coalition, a Pinellas-Pasco non-profit agency. The teams suggests new items such as backpacks, binders, folders, paper, pencils, pens, glue sticks, erasers, crayons, pencil cases, lunch boxes and calculators. Take them to Tropicana Field gates 1, 4 or 5. Gates open at 4:45 p.m.

Florida geologist solves Sicilian riddle

A University of Florida geologist working with a team studying cracks in the ocean floor near an underwater volcano off Italy recently made a disturbing discovery: lead deposits that didn't come from any natural source. It was traced to an Australian mine thousands of miles away. "I guess we can speculate that this is yet another piece of evidence of how widespread our disturbance in the environment is: the fact that we can influence natural hydrothermal systems," said UF geologist George Kamenov. "The story is sort of 'nothing gets lost.'" How did it get into an underwater geyser near Sicily? Kamenov said the lead was probably shipped to Europe, where it was added to gasoline, burned by cars and emitted into the air. When the pollution settled into the sea, it migrated with water into the earth and re-emerged via the vents. It really is a small world.

Plan to vote? Get registered

If you want to vote in the Sept. 5 primary, Monday is your last day to register. It's also the last chance to change your party affiliation. To register, contact your local Supervisor of Elections Office for locations. Registration is also available at libraries, driver's license offices and some other government offices. The deadline to register in the general election is Oct. 10.

[Last modified August 5, 2006, 01:08:27]