Word: buffer
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...news: across a big swath of the globe, the sea is still rising, eroding what for low-lying places was already a slim margin of safety. Making the problem even worse is the loss of what Florida International University coastal expert Stephen Leatherman calls "living landforms," which would otherwise buffer that rise. Consider the wetlands that are an integral part of all river deltas, he says. Plants trap sediment from floodwaters flowing downriver, and the more they trap, the higher these wetlands grow. The problem is, people don't much like floods, so they build levees, which keep sediments from...
Although Gorbachev, 54, was the youngest man sitting at the round conference table (Bulgaria's President Todor Zhivkov, 74, was the oldest), he was clearly first among equals in a group that exists largely to endorse Moscow's foreign policy and buffer the Soviet Union's western flank. The military bands and effusive bear hugs, however, could not mask the fact that the Sofia summit resulted in little more than Kremlin posturing in advance of Gorbachev's November meeting with Ronald Reagan in Geneva. A 15-page declaration blamed the U.S. for aggravating the arms race and piously declared that...
...hospital, he will be living with tubes: the one inserted through his nose into his stomach at the beginning of the operation, and an in travenous tube in his left arm through which he will receive nourishment in the form of dextrose, a sugar, and Ringer's lactate, a buffer solution. Both tubes will remain in place for several days until he resumes normal bowel movements, after which he can begin eating solid food again. The President is also receiving antibiotics to guard against the possibility of infection, which occurs in 2% or 3% of those who undergo the operation...
...similar feelings about the Israeli settlers who lived nearby: Why on earth were they doing this? There was a cockeyed rationale for the Jewish settlements in the West Bank: Judea and Samaria were the heart of ancient Israel, and a modern Jewish presence there was a defensive buffer against the Arab hordes...
...What keeps Zimbabwe from total economic collapse is the Zimbabwean diaspora," says Elinor Sisulu, who is a co-ordinator of the Zimbabwe Crisis Coalition, an advocacy group for the expat community in Johannesburg. "Mugabe's investment in education is paying off now. The diaspora is providing something of a buffer against the real anger of the people, because they are being kept from total poverty...