Word: airburst
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...theory makes a degree of sense. Science is usually an incremental enterprise, with most researchers toiling in the experimental thickets, trying to hack out a little clearing of enlightenment. Occasionally, however, a Darwin or Einstein comes along and with a flash of insight as blinding as a thermonuclear airburst, clears the entire landscape. Down below, ordinary scientists blink disbelievingly at their sudden ability to see from horizon to horizon. But their sense of wonder is tempered by regret. Tending your tiny patch seems like pulling weeds compared with such intellectual clear cutting...
...about Israel's intentions. At some point after Hizballah's mortar attack, two, or perhaps three, of its fighters entered the camp. That has prompted some U.N. officials to suggest privately that Israel knew exactly what it was doing: it bombed the mortar site first, then deliberately aimed the airburst shells at the compound in the hopes of nailing the fighters. Van Kappen's monograph did not go so far as to make this accusation explicit--although the U.S., which fears that the report may jeopardize a new agreement to contain the war between Israel and Hizballah, is apparently interpreting...