Word: blunting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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What's happening? To be blunt about it: the pinstripes are chasing the poor. Microfinance, once a relative cottage industry championed by antipoverty activists and development wonks, is on the verge of a revolution, with billions of dollars from big banks, private-equity shops and pension funds pouring in, driving growth of 30% to 40% a year. Financiers are convinced that there's huge money to be made in microfinance...
...like shaken-baby syndrome and postpartum depression, for the most part steers clear of touchy-feely emoting. But to kick off the class, Dubin asks the men to describe the father figure they grew up with and the kind of dad they'd like to be. Some responses are blunt: "My dad was an a__hole, and I'd rather not be one." But nearly all include a desire to attain the virtues of a decidedly modern man: patience, emotional availability, anger-management and communication skills, and open-mindedness...
...paradox of Kapoor's work is that it has debts to the blunt boxes of minimalists like Donald Judd and Robert Morris as well as to the weightless atmospheres of James Turrell. But the blend of heavy and vaporous, declaring and beckoning--that's all Kapoor's. That explains S-Curve. A long wall of bending steel, it's like one of Richard Serra's hulking stretches. But because of its mirrored surface, S-Curve dematerializes, the way Cloud Gate does, into a field of runny reflections that throws the world for a loop. It's art as metaphysical jujitsu...
...campground in downtown Beirut that has clogged traffic, destroyed local businesses, and become the tattered symbol of Lebanon's dysfunction. But the relief among war-weary Lebanese is unlikely to be echoed in Washington, Paris and Jerusalem, since the new arrangement is bound to reverse years of effort to blunt Hizballah's influence...
...Which is why other leading feminists - including former NARAL head Kate Michelman and writer Katha Pollit - have taken a more pragmatic approach, endorsing Obama for reasons they say are unrelated to gender. Similarly, the NARAL board also focused its decision-making on the question of how best to blunt John McCain's appeal to swing voters, particularly moderate pro-choice women who are largely unaware of his steadfast opposition to abortion. The issue was the main topic of conversation when I met with NARAL staffers earlier in the winter and has long worried the organization. They also reportedly wanted...