Word: abstracts
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...eloquence is all the more remarkable because migraines are a sinkhole for language. They're shapeless and abstract, they bar the sufferer from reading and writing, and when they subside, they often erase our memories of them on the way out. Nevertheless, a literature of migraines has formed over the centuries. The founding father of migraine theory is a Victorian physician named Edward Liveing, who called them "nerve-storms," but references to them can be pried out of Sumerian documents 5,000 years old. The history of their treatment is about as bizarre and useless a medical menagerie...
...care? Some blame the E.U. as a whole for appearing remote, abstract, bureaucratic and dull. The Parliament itself is all of that - and less. It lacks visible personalities, and doesn't even have a ruling party or opposition to make it clear what is at stake. Instead, power is split among the big political groups - the conservatives, the liberals and the socialists - who rule largely by consensus. "This makes it difficult for people to see how their vote matters," says Karel Lannoo, CEO at the Centre for European Policy Studies think tank. "Since they do not do anything like elect...
...Soldiers and lawyers live at opposite intellectual extremes. Lawyers - at least those who deal with constitutional questions - live in an abstract world of seemingly precise codicils, which often turn out to be maddeningly inadequate when confronted by the violent imprecision of war. Soldiers in combat live in the existential horror of right now; their decisions save or cost lives. The best of them understand the need for rules, but don't have the luxury of abstraction. And so, Guantánamo: the lawyers defend the rights of the detainees, the soldiers fear the consequences of granting undue rights to villainous...
...while habeus corpus rights and the state's secrets privilege are somewhat abstract, everyone understands the power of the photographs from Abu Ghraib released in 2004. The American Civil Liberties Union sued in federal court under the Freedom of Information Act for hundreds of similar photographs. Strictly on legal grounds, it was an easy call for Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department to decide three weeks ago that - having fought the release of the photos in federal court, and lost, three times - that further appeals would be fruitless. So the Justice Department urged the Pentagon to strike a deal...
...hotel is also a way for the family to share their vast contemporary Turkish art collection, which is regularly refreshed by their gallery in Istanbul. The walls are adorned with pieces by Turkish artists such as abstract masters Devrim Erbil and Adnan Coker, as well as works by international artists including Colombian sculptor and painter Fernando Botero. And next door is the Casa Dell'Arte Art Village, an equally chic 38-suite hotel with in-house artists who run free painting and sculpture workshops for guests - just in case looking at all that great art inspires you to create some...