Word: benign
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...second common complaint was that some seemingly benign items were confiscated. We do not doubt that tea-kettles or rice cookers might be fatal in the hands of the wrong students. One solution would be to offer a course on fire safety; students who pass could earn the right to operate a hot plate...
...both men independently undertake a harmless deception, their "bunburying" turns into a major misunderstanding and leads to a first-rate satire of the English class structure. However, as valiantly as the performers try to do Wilde's words justice, the overall acting can often best be described as benign. Not only do several of the actors stumble over their lines and articulation, they also often seem to go into fits of carefully choreographed overacting...
...Miss Prism (Ruth Markind) and Chasuble (Robert Astyk) seem less intent to explore their capacity to amuse, so their characterizations remain more conventional and far less boldly interpreted, though not to the point that they detract from the overall style of the ensemble effort. We almost welcome the benign and believable sense of normalcy they add in counterpoint to the wild posturing that takes place in nearly every other nook and cranny of the stage area, as designed by Kevin Lair. Lair's ambitious but simple set adds an attractive visual component to the plot. The play itself seems...
Americans are an increasingly diverse population, one that in many ways defies definition. And that is exactly why the census is so important. Even the most "intrusive" questions about race, primary language and ethnicity serve a benign, even benevolent purpose: Those statistics allow the government to provide populations with voting materials in the appropriate language, can ensure equitable employment practices under the Civil Rights Act, and can track health care and disease disparities. Despite what you may hear at your local bar or from your U.S. senator, the Census Bureau is not out to rob us of our privacy...
That kind of redesign isn't possible today, but it may not be far off. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School have already developed a way to equip a benign virus with genetic material that codes for muscle growth, and they have injected the virus into mice. The animals quickly bulk up by as much as 20%, becoming not just bigger but stronger. The researchers have developed other techniques to block cellular signals that would otherwise cause muscles to atrophy, allowing the new mass to be retained even without exercise...