Word: controller
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...next three days are a kind of Outward Bound for driving. At the speeds required (70 to 80 m.p.h.), students at first have no sense of how to control the car-or whether they have it in control at all. Many Americans are defensive drivers, quite content to putt around in an underpowered, six-year-old sedan, carefully navigating the maniacal freeway traffic that surrounds many cities. And every sensible and safe reflex built up for that kind of driving must be violated in Scott's course...
...Skid control comes first, performed by going through a slalom course on an inch of loose gravel. The trick is to accelerate and brake and countersteer the car as the rear end skids violently. You must use the skid. It's like driving on ice. The best way to stop a car is to brake steadily and very hard, not pump the brakes as many people believe. Next comes emergency braking and swerving to avoid objects at high speeds. Each student is ordered to drive absolutely flat out toward a sharp curve until the last possible second. Just when...
...pattern the student drives at 30 m.p.h., with two cars following. Over a hill and 50 yards ahead a barricade looms. At the same time one of the cars behind passes, distracting the student driver. He grows breathless, loses control, can't think. Can't do anything, in fact. Finally he just stops the car. "All you learned just dropped out of your head," Scott chides. The next try is much better. He spins the car into a good J turn, evading a sudden roadblock, and escapes. When Scott concedes that the move was a "reasonable reaction...
...want to stay neutral, and all the evidence so far was that they were. But the U.S.S.R. could profit handsomely from a long war by gaining new influence over Iran as well as Iraq. A badly beaten Iran might dissolve into chaos, allowing a left-wing faction to gain control in Tehran. The Soviets could offer to guarantee Iran's security. Or they might pose as mediators and win a major role at a peace conference called to end the war Says one well-informed analyst: "If the Soviet Union can worm its way in as guarantor...
...weeks ahead, Carter will step up his attack on Reagan's economic plan and try to brand him as antilabor and against women's rights. But the President's best bet may well lie in events be yond his control. As long as the war be tween Iraq and Iran continues, his ratings are likely to improve whatever he does. Says Jim Baker: "Carter can respond to events, and that helps him." Reagan and George Bush, on the other hand, could do little more than accept an Administration invitation to be briefed...