Word: processing
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...idea of an adrenaline junkie in the commander's chair was understandably nervousmaking in the volatile Middle East. In Washington there were worries that Hizballah or Palestinian extremists might somehow jeopardize the peace process by provoking Barak to retaliate. At the United Nations--which now has to police the Lebanese peace--there was some alarm that Barak had moved unilaterally, but that was followed by cautious optimism. The move was textbook Barak: surprising (his last name means "lightning" in Hebrew), courageous and smart...
...This goes way beyond an inability to carry a tune," observes psychologist Isabelle Peretz of the University of Montreal. "They can't dance, and they can't tell the difference between consonance [harmony] and dissonance either. They all appear to have been born without the wiring necessary to process music." Intriguingly, people with amusia show no overt signs of brain damage or short-term-memory impairment, and magnetic-resonance-imaging scans of their brains look normal...
Somehow, though, they seem so to their parents at the time. Fathers, I think, are particularly enthusiastic about showing newborn pictures, maybe because taking pictures is one of the few things fathers can do during the birth process that makes them feel even marginally useful. (When my daughters were born, I should say on my behalf, I also sang along with the Muzak in the labor room in what I thought was a rather entertaining manner and occasionally asked my wife to dance.) I suspect that it's quite common for a father to come across a picture...
...once in a while you buy something online that doesn't quite live up to your expectations. That's why Mail Boxes Etc., the postal-services chain, is launching Return.com a website designed to make it easier to send back those disappointing products. Return.com will not only expedite the process and track the progress of your package online; if you bought the product from a participating retailer, it will refund your money on the spot, electronically...
...assassination. In his grief, Schlesinger portrayed Kennedy as saint and martyr: "He was a Harvard man, a naval hero, an Irishman, a politician, a bon vivant, a man of unusual intelligence, charm, wit and ambition, 'debonair and brilliant and brave,' but his deeper meaning was still in process of crystallization." In recent decades, a more thorough and honest parsing of Kennedy has edited a lot of the hagiology out of his memory...