Word: backwards
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Every now and then, the Utah state legislature gets around to discussing whether the firing squad is backward and barbaric; the new state prison, erected in 1950, laid aside space that could do equally well for high voltage or for gas. In its 1955 session, the legislature passed a bill to install an electric chair and use it, but somewhere along the line the lawmakers balked at providing the appropriation. So, Don Jesse Neal was given his choice-but he added his own unique contribution to Utah firing-squad lore by firmly declining to choose. "There...
...Cosmographer Fred Hoyle of Cambridge University, England had a bright idea. Maybe, suggested Hoyle, the large object in the drawings is the supernova* of A.D. 1054, the enormously brilliant "new" star that outshone all the other stars in the sky and was plainly visible in daytime. Europe was too backward in astronomy in 1054 to pay much scientific attention to the event, but Chinese and Japanese astronomers recorded it accurately. The supernova appeared over China on the morning of July 4, 1054, and its position was close to the bright star Zeta Tauri. The Indians of the U.S. southwest must...
...Fast Stream. One of the disadvantages of the conventional turbojet engine is its lack of propulsive efficiency. The stream of hot gas from its tailpipe speeds backward much faster than the airplane is flying forward. Much of its energy is wasted in creating air turbulence. The efficiency would be greater if the speed of the gas stream were only moderately greater than the speed of the airplane. But conventional jet engines cannot slow their gas stream without losing efficiency in other ways...
...Dear friends," Red China's Red Cross assured the remaining P.W. turncoats, "you are also entirely free to leave China of your own will." With unaccustomed humility, Peking radio offered its explanation to the outside world. "China is an economically backward country which has just begun its construction . . . The standard of living cannot be raised rapidly. There are differences between the customs and ways of life of the Chinese people and the European and American people . . . the language difficulties . . . the marriage problem." Red China, adopting conciliatory tactics alongside the Russians beneath the low eaves of Western pressure, smoothly wished...
Paris Left-wing Franc-Tireur: How different are matters over here. What a different picture when we look at our backward employers, our divided workers, our outmoded routines, our old slogans which no longer convince anybody, and when we witness this forward movement in America, marked by technical progress and social justice...