Word: blur
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...ever there was an issue cast in shades of gray, this is it. Faith is often a matter of given truths and absolute beliefs, but once it becomes entangled in law and politics, its certainties begin to blur. One of the primary fears of the separationists is that if government gets too involved with religion, the result will resemble the bloodless, lifeless state-backed churches in Europe. Many of the supporters of the church-state wall fear that politicians, bent on compromise more than conversion, would try to invent some inoffensive brand of faith -- the creche encircled by reindeer hauling...
Self-awareness is television's big-time plague. Name the social issue, front-page crime or family trauma, and somebody is thrashing it out on a TV talk show. A listing of typical topics is a surrealistic blur of human misery, sideshow voyeurism and sheer lunacy: illegitimate kids who found their natural parents but wish they hadn't; transplant recipients who claim to have adopted the personalities of their donors; women who have been raped by the same man more than once; guys who like overweight gals; mothers-in-law from hell; doctors with AIDS; crack addicts with babies; celebrities...
Accidents are of course entropy, as is the slow wear of tire treads or the blur of alcoholic vision that suddenly turns all your raging horsepower and tons of steel from an asset into a trap. Too much entropy can deliver you back into Newton's dread realm after all. It was a big, black American sedan that skidded up the mountain road where I live on Memorial Day night, climbed a guy wire and broke the telephone pole. The way the car came to rest -- lights blazing, leaning against the opposite side of the pole from where...
Biosphere 2 is not the only project to blur the line between hokum and hard science. In fact, a vital symbiosis seems to be developing. Today even the purest adventuring, from climbing Mount Everest to trekking across Antarctica, often comes cloaked in scientific respectability. Consider the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition. Publicity about the seven-month trek played up the scientific research: collecting snow samples, conducting experiments in meteorology and monitoring the team's physiology. But the expedition emerged mainly as an exotic sporting event. To date, few scientific findings have been published, and critics point out that such information...
Another time, we convinced him to test out a pair of "Moon shoes" which had been sent to the office. "Moon Shoes" are mini-trampolines that you strap to your feet individually and they let you jump or bounce while you run. Paul was a blur of flowered-print silk for the rest of the afternoon...