Word: chronic
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...light of Africa's chronic political instability (there have been a dozen coups in the past five years), the Soviets are taking a chance with a strategy that depends on present regimes remaining in power. Such a strategy could be costly if-as Washington warned last week-continued Soviet backing of the M.P.L.A. in Angola undermines U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations...
Inevitably, things got nasty. While crossing the bow of the British tug Euroman, the Icelandic gunboat Thor was rammed and damaged. The British claim it was an accident; the Icelanders believe it was deliberate. In any case, given the North Atlantic's chronic wintertime high winds and rough waters, such naval games of chicken were bound to produce collisions. A fortnight ago the confrontation grew more serious. While seeking shelter from a gale two miles off Iceland's coast, the unarmed British ocean-going tug Lloydsman was fired on by the Thor. Iceland says the Thor fired...
Deadlines are a fact of life for journalists, which may explain why so many of them are chronic eleventh-hour Christmas shoppers. For instance, Economy & Business Editor George Church, who edited this week's cover story on U.S. retailing in general and Bloomingdale's of Manhattan in particular, is confident that the economy may get "a big boost from holiday sales"−and equally sure that he will not get around to doing his part until the last minute. New York Correspondent Eileen Shields, who interviewed Bloomingdale's executives, buyers and customers, is another committed procrastinator...
...unaware that she is in effect going on trial for her life. Her eyes are open, unseeing. Her body convulses slightly every few seconds as an artificial respirator, surgically connected to her windpipe, forces her lungs to work, enabling her to continue in what her doctors describe as a "chronic vegetative state." Her heart is beating, and her permanently damaged brain continues to function, sending off slight but steady signals visible on an electroencephalogram...
...findings read like a horror story in bland bureaucratic prose: employees confused about their responsibilities and shifted from job to job so frequently that they never learned their jobs; a near absence of planning; managers unaware of how many staffers they could hire; offices that were unclean and unsafe; chronic shortages of supplies; employees "indulging in frequent coffee breaks, extended lunch periods and early departures." Worst of all, the state study found, the IBES was still using computer programs written twelve years ago for less complex machines than it now owns. Says John Day, an auditor for the state legislature...