Word: beams
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...whose two-hour premiere this month drew a whopping 21 rating, higher than any other syndicated-series episode in history. And now a whole fleet of hour-long action shows is buzzing into prime time, in an effort to satisfy the audience's appetite for shoot-'em-up (and beam-'em-up) adventure. Network executives are taking heed: if these independently distributed shows continue to do well, they could pose a bigger threat to the networks than an army of Klingons...
Celebrity has its muscle in America, but politics has the power. Eddie Murphy can't drop a bomb, he can only make one. Steven Spielberg can beam E.T. home, but he can't run NASA. Superagent Mike Ovitz can't appoint a Supreme Court Justice (at least, we don't think he can). So the artists, most of them liberal Democrats, came to celebrate the politics of inclusion: after 12 years, or maybe 30, they were back on a party line to Washington clout...
Scientists sort out X and Y carriers by tagging sperm with a fluorescent dye; under ultraviolet light, the X sperm glow brighter. Then the sperm are electrically charged -- positive for male, negative for female -- and a laser beam separates the two. Egg and appropriate sperm are mated in a glass dish, and the resulting embryo is implanted in a cow. The technique is about 90% reliable, which is pretty good odds for farmers to get more beef for the buck. Theoretically, a similar process could be developed for selecting human sex, though that ethical quandary does not appear imminent...
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU COULD ride on a light beam? Albert Einstein posed himself that playful question; his answer was the special theory of relativity, which utterly changed how scientists see time and space. Writers have tried to explain relativity ever since, but Alan Lightman, who teaches physics and writing at M.I.T., has an entirely new approach. EINSTEIN'S DREAMS (Pantheon, $17) is a novel, an impressionistic look at thoughts the great physicist might have had while concocting his theory. We are privy to musings about worlds where time runs backward or branches into diverging streams. The writing, beautifully...
...however, that Bush is trying to put pressure on Clinton in a more subtle manner. Though Clinton has often pledged to follow an active foreign policy, he has also spoken of the necessity to avoid spending all his time on international affairs and vowed "a laser beam" focus on the U.S. economy. Bush may be trying to signal his successor -- and the American people -- that foreign policy cannot be treated as an unwelcome distraction, that the U.S. must play a leadership role in making the world a safer place; no other country can. "The new world could, in time...