Word: amps
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...Raitt is earthy, then Jackson Browne is slick. He is tall and lean, his hair falls perfectly parted, he sports just a taste of hillbilly in his voice. Friday night Browne did a 40-minute set of his own songs. Plagued by technical difficulties--the worst of them an amp which turned his acoustic guitar into a tinny electric--and uneasy over his place on the bill, Browne seemed uncomfortable on stage and unsatisfied with his band's performance...
Further technical problems included the exchange of McLaughlin's entire bank of amplifiers: problems with the organ's main amp, its Leslie tone cabinet, were confronted, and solved. Then, 30 seconds of silenced. Then, thunder, the massive chords of "Meeting of the Spirits," four of them, as though to alert the heavens that the show had begun. The piece's theme is finger-picked, on the 12 string neck of McLaughlin's double-necked Gibson. From there the group's soloists explored the theme's possibilities...
...learned that adrenaline works by activating the enzyme phosphorylase. a chemical catalyst that triggers the release of energy-producing glucose. This explains how the body produces additional energy under stress. Then, in 1958, Sutherland isolated a previously unknown chemical called cyclic adenosine 3'5'-monophosphate, or cyclic AMP, that functions in an intermediary role in many hormonal processes...
...discovery was significant. The newly identified substance proved to be a missing link in a long series of biological control mechanisms. Tests showed that hormones do not act directly on their target organs. Instead, they trigger the production of cyclic AMP, which in turn regulates body functions, increasing the rate at which some take place, slowing down the rate of others. "I like to call it a second messenger," said Sutherland of AMP. Subsequent research showed that his description is apt. Studies have established, for example, that when adrenaline output is increased by fear or anxiety...
Today there are 22 AMP centers, with more to come, and many resonant place names are vanishing from American envelopes. Letters from Concord, Mass., for example, are trundled off to the AMP center in Framingham. Gone will be such postmarks as Shickshinny, Pa., and Truth or Consequences, N. Mex. If these pieces of Americana must disappear, however, the postal authorities might consider labeling letters with, say, "Somewhere in Oklahoma." That would at least cover the loss with an air of jaunty mystery...