Word: basics
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...individual trying to improve his status. Whether he is an Asian peasant tilling his land or an American businessman building a company, the profit incentive is a powerful force. Capitalism is not a neat, orderly system. The street vendors of Lima or Peking or New York City, some basic examples of capitalism, are more chaotic than the orderly but often empty stores in so many socialist states. Capitalism's unruliness means that it will always be subject to swings of boom and bust. The system, however, presents the constant opportunity for profit and for improvement of the individual...
...like fear and motherhood. Sure, the aliens are ugly, drooling and screeching as they try to plant their eggs in their victims. But the director James Cameron creates a more general atmosphere of unrelenting fear--such as a child's fear of losing her newfound mommy--that turns your basic horror-movie shock-rush into two hours of spine-chilling terror...
...G.I.s smoke tobacco. Last week the newly health-conscious Army implemented a policy to stub out that hoary tradition. In a move assailed as "unjustified, unenforceable and unfortunate" by the Tobacco Institute, the service banned smoking in conference rooms, auditoriums, classrooms, all Army vehicles and at all times during basic training...
...widely available components, the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS DOS) and the Intel 8088 microprocessor chip. Reason: IBM wanted to use standard equipment so that software companies would write programs for its computer. The only element of the PC that IBM copyrighted was the integrated circuit called the Basic Input Output System (BIOS), which controlled how the software interacted with the hardware. But by building circuits that simulated the BIOS, enterprising computer jocks created machines that could legally run the same software as IBM's machine...
...cautionary tale about today's athletes, Playwright Lawrence Kelly's vision is at least a compelling metaphor for the way decent people in all walks of life slip into dishonesty. Kelly's perception is that the Black Sox did not cheat as individuals. They did so, following the basic tenet of their sport, as a team. Money may have been the bait but loyalty and comradeship were the motives that persuaded them, some with great reluctance, to betray their talents. As Chick Gandil (Paul Christie), the sour ringleader of the scam, remarks in an aside, people become willing...