Word: backgrounder
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...Jungen is something of a cultural hybrid himself. His father, born in Switzerland, was 3 when he came to British Columbia with Jungen's grandparents, who had been enticed to Canada by government promises of farmable land. His mother was of native background, a member of the Dane-zaa Nation. "Interracial couples were very taboo," he says. "White guys could have native girls as girlfriends, but not wives." Jungen grew up on farms around Fort St. John, a once remote oil and logging center in northeastern British Columbia. He was 7 when his parents died in a fire...
...creativity and ultimately wealth creation. In those areas, the U.S. continues to be the wonder of the world. From 1947 to the oil shock of 1973, our productivity grew annually at an average compounding 3% rate. For the next 20 years that rate was mysteriously cut in half, the background for much of the declinist vogue of the '80s. Then in the past decade, when we finally stopped playing with our newfangled computers and figured out how to use them, productivity returned to the magic 3% level of the immediate postwar era when America bestrode the world like a colossus...
...seems ridiculous to call the shirt racist in and of itself. The argument, of course, is that it perpetuates stereotypes. Do you know what often perpetuates stereotypes? Truth. Believe it or not, many Asians tend to have eyes that are narrower than most people of Caucasian background (hereafter white people). Thus, there may perhaps be a grain of truth behind the shirts, even if they are “offensive...
...background of this play is an international concordat, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) of 1968. Despite banning further military atomic programs, a nowadays controversial article allowed for “peaceful uses” of nuclear technology. To many analysts’ concern, this Cold War brainchild has no way to differentiate responsible states from tyrannical failed ones. This year’s recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is the United Nations (UN)-watchdog association that struggles to keep the treaty on stage, regardless of the loopholes...
...around 3%, while China could notch up another year of scorching 9% growth. This year there are even encouraging signs of vitality in Japan and Germany, the world's second and third largest economies, which have struggled for years to break out of their torpor. Lurking in the background, however, are a few threats as ominous as the three bears. The worldwide supply of oil can barely keep pace with the huge surge in demand that has been the force driving up prices to more than $60 bbl. - and which potentially puts the world at the mercy of politically fickle...