Word: tinkering
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...jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will - to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun's manifesto against the death penalty - no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens...
Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun aptly described this endless activity as "tinker[ing] with the machinery of death." He spoke as a veteran tinkerer, having helped cook up an abstruse set of requirements for calculating the aggravating and mitigating factors in a prisoner's life and crimes--a concept that continues to bog down juries and judges a generation later. Other veterans of the Supreme Court's long struggle with capital punishment have also soured on the experiment. Justice Lewis Powell told a biographer that the vote he most regretted was the one he cast in 1987 to save capital...
...certainly didn’t look like the Harvard of old on the ice this weekend, as the lines reflected an effort to mix experienced veterans with talented newcomers. Twenty-three different players logged ice time during the two-game series, which gave Stone an opportunity to tinker with the lineup. Fortunately for the Crimson, all lines seemed to gel relatively well this weekend. Given that most teams outside of the Ivy League are already in the midst of their regular-seasons schedules, finding the right line combinations is always a bit of an expedited process for Harvard...
...just as in Formula One, there's "a black art to getting it all set up," says Smith. Depending on the weather or track conditions, mechanics will tinker with the transmission, or slide the wheels in or out along the axle to adjust a kart's handling. They can soften the ride with torsion bars, support the driver's seat to alter the load going into a corner, and switch between slick and treaded tires. Early exposure to those details "explains why people like [Hamilton] are that good," says Martin Hines, boss of the Hertfordshire-based Zip Kart Young Guns...
...action or just agitation? He is running hard, but to where? Sarkozy utters all the right words, such as "globalization" and "liberalization." But when it comes to tackling France's sclerotic labor market, he talks of "assouplissement" - softening. He wants to tinker with the 35-hour workweek, not scratch it. To encourage workers, he wants to cut taxes on overtime. How to push growth? Let's have a commission first...