Word: exert
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...This is not the first time the United States has boycotted a conference. We seem to have a history of ridiculous attempts to exert influence by not being present, as in our refusal to join the League of Nations and our boycott of the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. And, in 2001, the U.S. and Israel walked out on the first conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, because certain parts of its final resolution explicitly alluded to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as being driven by racism. Though these references were actually removed from later drafts...
...climate and energy bill now (rather than in a year), for no one stands to benefit concretely from EPA regulation. Industry groups, Republicans, and coal-state Democrats would much rather have regulation of carbon emissions come as the result of congressional legislation, a process over which they can exert some influence. Environmentalists would also prefer to have federal legislation that puts in place permanent rules governing the emission of carbon rather than leaving that decision up to whoever is in the White House. (It so happens that the current occupant is sympathetic to the position that we should limit emissions...
...great deal of research in the past decade has shown how this process works. In 2000, psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister published an influential paper in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens after you use it. For example, say you exert self-control by avoiding strawberry shortcake and opting for asparagus instead. Now your self-control is enfeebled, so rather than turning to that Tolstoy novel you vowed to finish, you watch a Simpsons rerun instead. Your self-regulatory resources can also be expended by, for instance, taking a test or enduring...
There may be a physiological as well as a psychological process at work here. A leading theory is that exercising self-control is so hard on your brain that, like physical exercise, it depletes glucose levels, making you feel weaker. It's possible that imagining someone who has to exert self-control, and feeling their misery, tricks your brain into believing that your own glucose levels have declined. As the study says, this trick would, "in effect, set one's internal fuel gauge to 'low' [even if] there is still plenty of fuel left in the tank...
...night Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso left for this week's G-20 summit in London, he said at a news conference that he "intended to exert leadership" to bring about concrete, coordinated international efforts to fight the global economic crisis. Now that the summit is being heralded as a success - consensus was reached on plans to clean up banking systems and world leaders pledged more than $1 trillion to support impoverished countries - there's evidence that Japan's embattled Prime Minister may have had an impact...