Word: smalling
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...laughing. He is probably the most feared--and elusive--man in Colombia. "Even in the jungle, I have the Internet and mobile phones. Why, the other night I watched a Kevin Costner movie, Message in a Bottle, on satellite TV." Since 1996 Castano has seized control of hundreds of small private armies recruited by Colombia's druglords, industrialists and owners of the big cattle ranches and emerald mines. These vigilantes were little better than death squads. Castano consolidated these armies into his United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), which today is pursuing its self-appointed mission: to exterminate...
...more lethal against the guerrillas than the Colombian army for one simple reason: Castano's men don't fret too much over human rights. "We copy the methods of our enemy," says Castano grimly. A government ombudsman says the AUC has massacred more than 794 people this year, mostly small farmers. Castano insists that nearly all were guerrilla spies...
...economy. "I know it's strange for me to say, but narcotics is a worse problem than the guerrillas. When guerrillas fought for social ideals, we all liked them, but when they got involved with the narcos, they lost their bearings, their popularity. They hit the middle class, the small farmers, and that's why we rose...
Sooner or later we all discover that our arms just aren't long enough to read anymore. You know the problem. You can't focus on the small type in books and magazines and on aspirin bottles at your normal reading distance, and so you start moving the print farther and farther away. If you haven't already experienced this trombone effect, don't worry, you will. Starting around age 40, the lenses in most people's eyes start to weaken. You begin to lose the ability to focus on things close up and have to resort to bifocals...
...also, as a result, a pretty heavy and bulky item to carry while prowling for birds. Kaufman's is light and fits easily into pocket or purse, but its compression comes at a cost: the necessity of filling each page to the maximum has produced sometimes uncomfortably small, though sharp, illustrations. Which one should birders buy? The answer for many will probably be both: Kaufman to have in hand for quick reference in the field, with Sibley waiting at home for post-trip analysis. No etymologist would be content to own just one dictionary. Why should birders be any less...