Word: beacons
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...beach is a mile away, the July sun is shining. But at Beacon Day School in Oakland, Calif., it's the 212th day of classes (only 28 to go before the one-week summer break!), and a group of nine- and ten-year-olds is struggling through a spelling test on parts of the body--lungs, heart, stomach, brain. The afternoon math lesson isn't any easier: How many times does 6 go into 8,342? You might think these were 18th century Puritans. But the kids are all smiles. "School is really fun," says precocious Annie Marcuzzo. "Camps...
...Cambridge resident reports that while walking along Beacon Street, she was struck by a motor vehicle. The driver was furious at her for hitting his car and he proceeded to yell at the resident. He left but upon his return, his passenger exited the car and attacked the resident. Both the driver and passenger fled the scene...
With Weld in the driver's seat, the once ridiculed Beacon Hill became a beacon of hope for residents attempting to escape the infamous Taxachusetts. The State Senate was overhauled as Weld waded through the miasma of budget debacles left by the late, great Michael S. Dukakis. Praise of Weld in the ultra-liberal Boston Globe simply became ubiquitous. A champion of abortion rights and an advocate of gay rights, Weld strode about the State House continually shocking his Republican supporters and constituents. Seemingly, there was nothing he could do wrong. Massachusetts had found her messiah...
...Friday's test, the big, bright balloon will be the major decoy. (The launch container will play a similar but subordinate role.) But even Pentagon officials acknowledge that the balloon will act more like a beacon that alerts the interceptor to the nearby presence of the real target. The Pentagon concedes the October test might not have succeeded if the decoy hadn't appeared so vivid to the interceptor's sensors. "The large balloon aided in acquisition of the target," Coyle says. "It is uncertain whether the interceptor could have achieved an intercept in the absence of the balloon...
...system, since critics had pointed out that the tests was primed to succeed by eliminating the most basic of decoys from the equation. Scientific critics have argued that the system has an inherent inability, in battlefield conditions, to distinguish an enemy warhead from a cone-shaped traffic beacon. Advocates counter that the tests are simply trying to establish whether the system can walk before trying to make it run. It doesn't help their case, though, that the interceptor system isn't even managing to stay on its feet...