Word: chaff
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...becomes a joke. The mindless cliches, the lists of important events, all the accoutrements of the historical scholar's language are displayed, and not one of them is bright or new. (It was with some charity that I did not choose the work of a sociologist.) Why should this chaff not be parodied? That the author is a distinguished scholar whose reputation would hardly suffer is certain; it sems a fine subject...
...that sets the guidance system on a new track, tilting it 60° from the horizontal. An electric impulse fires explosive bolts to kick off a re-entry capsule, a retrorocket slows the capsule's speed, a drag parachute pops out, a radio beacon shrills signals, and aluminum chaff is released to show on the radar screens of the recovery aircraft and ships waiting anxiously below. All this must be accomplished on a rigid time schedule with millisecond accuracy if the Discoverer is to be successfully recovered...
...prevalence range from 5% to 25%. Heredity, sex, race, body type, personality, stress, pregnancy, occupation, diet and climate have been listed as all-important-and of little significance in its development. Mortality, among patients followed for ten years, ranges from 12% to 91%. After sifting all this chaff and studying almost 3,000 patients, Dr. Perera said that he has reached these conclusions...
...mind during the show, for it will only evoke sympathy for Mr. Faulkner and antipathy for Jerry Wald, of Peyton Place fame, who lovingly identified Faulkner with his film, but who cunningly ripped up The Hamlet into many pieces, tossed them into the air, and caught mostly his own chaff...
...capsule and pilot can survive this crisis, the capsule will slow to something like the speed of sound without much further trouble. An automatic mechanism will break out a small, tough drogue parachute, simultaneously releasing a puff of chaff (reflecting metal foil) to help watching radars to pick up the capsule's track. When its speed has decreased sufficiently, a large landing parachute will unfold. A big rubberized "doughnut" will inflate around the capsule's base, designed to cushion the impact if it drops on land, or to keep it afloat if it falls in the ocean...