Word: benign
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...point him in a new direction--for one thing, toward the asymmetrical almond eyes, sometimes painted without pupils, that became one of the signature tropes of his portraiture. Unlike Picasso, he used African sculpture not as a route into his fears and sexual obsessions but as a much more benign vocabulary of forms that could be joined with other influences to produce--and overproduce--his enigmatic, spiritualized faces. Over the next few years he would learn to borrow as well from the simplified language of Cambodian stonework, early Christian statuary and the geometric abstraction of ancient Cycladic sculpture...
...Fake drugs are a consumer rip-off. But are they dangerous, too? According to Santoso, 60% consist mainly of benign ingredients such as rice powder or talcum powder. They won't harm people, but they won't cure them either-and that can sometimes be just as deadly. In 1995, 2,500 Nigerians died during a meningitis outbreak after they were inoculated with fake vaccines believed to have come from India. In a similar event in China last month, hundreds of parents unknowingly fed their infants bogus baby formula made of starch and sugar. At least 13 of the children...
...couture. Michael Moore was prowling the Riviera, and this time the game he aimed at was George W. Bush. Bull's-eye! His Fahrenheit 9/11 captured Cannes's highest prize, the Palme d'Or, from a jury headed by Quentin Tarantino. "What have you done?" the winner asked in benign shock. "You just did this to mess with...
...could pick up the mantle of empire laid down by European powers. The dream of the neo-imperialists was idealistic; they imagined that after U.S. soldiers had secured Iraq, the infrastructure of the modern state - independent judges, honest civil servants, efficient tax collection - would gradually take shape under a benign American tutelage until, one day, a beacon of democracy in the Middle East was lit. Iraq may yet become such a democracy; hope springs eternal. But if that happy consummation should come to pass, it is likely to have less to do with the ideas of neo-imperialists than with...
...three, is a railfan--a hobbyist who watches trains with the fastidiousness of a lab researcher. Over the past 15 years, he has shot hundreds of hours of video and tens of thousands of pictures. Call it what you will, it is hard to think of a more benign hobby...