Word: though
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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Scientists have begun to think of possible uses for adaptive, self- replicating machines -- cleaning up toxic wastes, perhaps, or exploring outer space. There is a danger, though, that such machines could multiply uncontrollably, like the viruses that have disrupted computer networks. Doyne Farmer, a physicist at the Los Alamos lab, points to a cautionary science- fiction tale by Stanislaw Lem. In Lem's Fiasco, space explorers discover a Saturn-like planet with a ring around it. On closer inspection, the ring turns out to be a swarm of attack satellites and killer robots, part of a "star wars" defense shield...
...whose chairman, Alfred Checchi, is a friend of Shugrue's. Will the indictment frighten him off? Not likely. "The die is cast. Eastern has a limited life," says analyst Robert McAdoo. "The indictment may even scare creditors enough to enable a company like Northwest to cut a sweeter deal." Though Eastern's absorption by a rival would increase airline concentration and reduce competition further, some travelers seem untroubled. Says Christopher Witkowski, director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, a group formed by Ralph Nader: "If the allegations are borne out, Eastern would no longer deserve the faith of the flying...
Mandela and De Klerk met to cool the crisis, but De Klerk wants communist Slovo dropped from the A.N.C. delegation. It will be difficult for Mandela to oblige. In the long run, though, the real danger may lie in the government's taking the threat of communism too seriously. Anglo-American Corp. director Bobby Godsell predicted that blacks in South Africa would reject socialism, just as East Europeans have. But this assumes that the government will resist any temptation to slap a new ban on the party. Says Godsell: "Communism has to be defeated in the minds of voting people...
...Japan and the countries of Western Europe, though big oil importers, are not especially worried. They will be cushioned against the increases because OPEC oil is paid for in U.S. dollars, which in recent months have depreciated against other major currencies. Japan can well absorb a price increase because of its enormous trade surplus, which it would like to whittle down anyway. Moreover, after the price shocks of 1973 and '79, Japan put the brakes on oil consumption, mainly through a serious conservation regimen, and did not release those brakes after the crises...
...begin to ask himself whether there is really any longer very much point in calling himself a Southerner." So the great Southern historian C. Vann Woodward began his seminal essay on "The Search for Southern Identity" in 1958. Woodward then and now answers his own question with a qualified, though brilliantly emphatic, yes. I can't and don't. The South as South, a living, ever regenerating mythic land of distinctive personality, is no more. At most, it is an artifact lovingly preserved in the museums of culture and the shops of tourist commerce precisely because it is so hard...