Word: air
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When traffic in Jakarta snarls to a stop - as it so often does in the Indonesian capital - swarms of peddlers besiege occupants of air-conditioned cars, offering up everything from roasted peanut to balloons. Lately, though, the street vendors have added another item to their eclectic wares: posters of the country's recently re-elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The hawking of new merchandise in some of the world's worst gridlock is a fitting metaphor for a country that hopes to add a second I to the so-called BRIC emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Just...
...federal debt undermines the dollar is that a government with really big debts will be tempted to inflate its way out by printing money to pay creditors. Printing more dollars (the process actually involves the Federal Reserve's purchasing government securities with dollars it conjures out of thin air) reduces the value of existing dollars. And a government in truly dire fiscal straits - Germany in the 1920s is the most famous example - may print so much currency that it makes the stuff effectively worthless. Our fiscal straits aren't that dire just yet. But chronic deficits during George W. Bush...
...easy deliberation, he shows off the form he says he perfected playing elementary school baseball in the dirt-poor southern Philippines before boxing took him over completely. His shoulder slips back, his torso pitches smoothly forward, left hand and arm torquing an imaginary ball into the depths of the air-conditioned players' cafeteria, where he is waiting to take the field for an announcement. The diamond stud in his ear catches the light...
...California, where pot is already more legal than budget-balancing. Last year I was granted a medical-marijuana license, even though I'm healthy and I don't smoke weed. I went to a doctor's office that consisted of a desk, a TV, two cans of air freshener and a man wearing a Hawaiian T-shirt. I told Dr. Magnum P.I. about my constant anxiety, insomnia and headaches - two more conditions than any previous patient had bothered to mention. He freaked out and gave me a pot license for only six months until I saw a psychologist. My lovely...
While Sesame Street inspired a new approach to children's programming, other formats were faltering. Sitcoms like Gilligan's Island began to push out locally produced kids' shows, while animation studios like Hanna-Barbera offered their own distractions. In 1990 the Children's Television Act required that all stations air at least three hours of educational programming a week, prompting a brainteasing revolution. Preschool kids now learn problem-solving from Blue's Clues, teamwork from Wonder Pets! and Mandarin from Ni Hao, Kai-lan. Good thing they already know how to get to Sesame Street...