Word: blackout
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...orbital engines will be fired to reduce speed and let earth's gravity pull the orbiter down. As Columbia plunges belly up into the atmosphere at nearly 25 times the speed of sound, gases outside the ship will produce enough heat to create a 17-minute communications blackout. To slow the descent, computers will order a series of linked S-turns. When the ship reaches a 5.2-mile stretch of dried lake bed numbered Runway 23 at Edwards Air Force Base, Columbia will make a 180° turn and begin its final hair-raising glide...
...blackout hit sections of East Cambridge, Central Square and Harvard Square. At Harvard, the main office of Buildings and Grounds and offices on both Plympton and Linden streets lost all power between...
...sense that Baghdad is a city at war is most acute at night, when the blackout is strictly enforced. Glimmers of candlelight escaping through a slit in the curtains can arouse outpourings of official ire. Customers in a restaurant one evening heard an explosion overhead. Waiters nervously scurried to put out candles and lanterns. When the patrons went outside to find out what had happened, there were no planes to be seen. As the diners went back inside to resume their meal, the unanimous conclusion was that it was not an Iranian raid at all, but a sonic boom caused...
...temporarily stopped using his car, a locally assembled Peykan. Every motorist is entitled to 30 liters of gasoline a month, but getting the ration involves several hours in line at filling stations. Even then, private driving is prohibited from 6:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Driving during the nightly blackout is legal but dangerous. Motorists may not turn on their headlights unless the lights are painted deep blue. Some owners have covered their lights with blue carbon paper. The sight is eerie, and the chances of collision high...
...dogfight, even though the state radio and television constantly remind Tehran residents that they should take the air raid signals seriously. Most people have covered the window panes of their homes or apartments with thick black paper or tin foil, in order to keep the lights on during the blackout. The reason is not so much the fear of air strikes as the noisy urging of young people and children who act as self-appointed civil defense wardens. The briefest glimpse of light from a window starts a chorus of "Turn it off" from a dozen directions...