Word: absurdity
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Could such a moment be upon us again? Are the walls around national economies being built once more? From the numbers, the argument seems absurd. World trade is growing healthily, by over 7% a year. The U.N. Commission on Trade and Development estimates that the value of global flows of foreign direct investment grew by a remarkable 29% in 2005. Yet a quick look around the planet might lead to the impression that globalization is in crisis. Ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington next month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez told China that it must shape...
...economic patriotism, putting in place a takeover law that gives the government a veto on deals in 11 sectors of the economy deemed to be strategic. They include biotechnology, arms manufacturing and casinos. But de Villepin's boss, President Jacques Chirac, blustered last week that it was "absolutely absurd" to think of France as protectionist, and he has a point. For much of the 1990s, France was the largest recipient of foreign investment in the European Union; by the end of 2003, one in seven French employees worked for a foreign company, compared with just...
...placement of rocking chairs on high pillars around the theater. Their elevation completes the sense of enclosure and draws the attention of the audience upwards, especially when the empty chairs suddenly start rocking wildly as the actors progressively anger the watching father—perfectly capturing the absurd, otherworldly element that runs throughout the play.That element works especially well in contrast to the drabness of the costumes (designed by Casey M. Lurtz ’07), which uniquely complemented each character’s suffering in their simple styles. The mother’s dress was the piece de resistance...
...seen in Boston this season, it is certainly “Spamalot.” It’s everything one expects it to be and a little bit more, boasting better songwriting than most contemporary musicals and, of course, the timeless appeal of jokes that are simultaneously completely absurd and carefully crafted—the trademark of any Python fare. Yet “Spamalot” is still a difficult show to sell to college students, who—though they might be able to recite lines from “Grail” word for word?...
...snicker at them, and the modelers themselves are aware that they are engaging in an activity that’s kind of goofy.”“But there’s a kind of poetry in that—in doing something that is slightly absurd, but you take it really seriously,” he added. THE MINIATURISTSFor some, this publicity of this exhibit won’t be such a shock.George Bossarte has been well-known among some Cantabrigians for his semi-annual Erector set parties, which he has held since 1976, and which were...