Word: benignity
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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However, the most indirect, though by no means benign, gift of the Khan was the plague. Originating in the jungles of southern China and Burma, bubonic plague traveled with Mongol armies and then from caravan to caravan till it reached the Crimea in 1347. From there it would take a third of all Europeans. Bereft of labor and talent, the fledgling nation states were pressed to maximize tax collection, bureaucracy and state control of the force of arms, leading to the heightened competitiveness of the West just as Europe's ships sailed for the riches of a distant empire...
...main reason for the absence of a serious challenge to American hegemony is that it is so benign. It does not extract tribute. It does not seek military occupation. It is not interested in acquiring territory--indeed, it specializes in giving it up, as shown in the Philippines and Panama. Economically, the world has prospered under the open trading system the U.S. supports. And culturally, America is a hit. Arnold is a universal icon. Latvians like their Levi's. And everyone loves McDonald...
...gone south; a cocky kid (Foxx) who needs some life lessons before he can step into the starter's shoes. The up-to-date spin on this tale is provided by the tough and scheming owner (Diaz), who has inherited the team, the Miami Sharks, from her more benign father and wreaks a certain amount of nontraditional havoc before she gets some sort of comeuppance...
...continue to expect it. In the face of so long an uncertainty, how has his following not only endured but grown so hugely through two millenniums? And what can be expected of his long potent holding power over human imagination and hope in the near and distant future? If benign Christian institutions and the capacity to believe in a God who loves his creation should weaken fatally, if the artistic inspiration of the figure of Jesus should wane--as it has in some of the West today--are the existential promises of his teaching sufficient to maintain a world faith...
...lower end of this predicted warming range, the temperature rise would take us back to the conditions that existed between A.D. 950 and 1350, when the climate was 1[degree]C (2[degrees]F) warmer than it is now. This time period is regarded as one of the most benign weather regimes in history. To find temperature swings at the upper end, you have to go back 10,000 years, to when the earth was exiting the last Ice Age. Temperatures during the Ice Age were 5[degrees]C (10[degrees]F) cooler than they are now, and there...