Word: thingness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...perfect fable for our time: HAL recast as a billion tiny bugs, his omnipotent malevolence replaced by our own innocent oversight. Technology had become so all-encompassing and incomprehensible, the fable began, that we had unwittingly lost control of it. So the smallest thing, our human habit of hiply referring to years by the last two digits, was going to topple this electronic pack of cards, sending planes crashing to the ground, nukes leaping from their silos, electricity to a standstill and all of humanity back to a time much earlier than the 1900 our computers would believe...
...confidently sent its chief, Jane Garvey, flying from Washington to Dallas during the key hour of midnight Greenwich Mean Time. The only surprising thing about the flight was that the FAA chief had to fly coach. Joining her were 36 passengers, including one brave TIME reporter, Washington Senator Slade Gorton and Janet Rhodes, 63, whose life's goal was to fly during midnight of the millennium. Rhodes booked the trip months in advance, had her flight canceled twice owing to lack of passengers and eventually got a ticket on the flight Garvey was taking, figuring American couldn't cancel that...
Their appeal has registered in some powerful ears. To date, 22 states have passed legislation requiring at least partial screening programs. And last November the U.S. Congress okayed some federal funds for hearing campaigns. Part of the push stems from advances in technology that, among other things, allow children as young as two months to be fitted with hearing aids. But there are limits to the technology. One thing parents should realize before they start is that the screening tests are far from foolproof. A bad result doesn't necessarily indicate a problem...
...thing is clear. Whether or not their children were tested at birth, all parents should be on the alert for possible hearing loss. Does your three-month-old daughter smile when you speak to her? Does your five-month-old like rattles? Being startled by loud noises doesn't necessarily prove anything, since babies also pick up on vibrations...