Word: comfortable
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...variations by a complex cooling system; glycol antifreeze solutions similar to those used in radiators of cars circulate through walls and floors to keep temperatures stable whenever observations are made. On the other hand, some heat is provided in the Mauna Kea's control center-not for the comfort of the hardy astronomers, but to warm the delicate circuitry of the observatory's computer...
...extraordinary nation, by a nation straining against the limits of history, even of human nature. At their best, they call us beyond the ordinary life of nations, beyond the averages of a little compromise at home and a little conquest abroad, beyond the mediocrities of blood and power, beyond comfort. In short, the radicals-always excepting the most violent fringe -insist that America must be great. That is why, within reason, we must cherish them...
...earlier times of crisis, there always were certain very American talismans to which one could turn for reassurance. Now the magic does not seem to work any more. One source of comfort used to be the sheer size of the land: the vastness of America, surprising again and again no matter how often one had glimpsed it from plane or train, always promised that there was enough room for everyone, enough space to dwarf all factions and conflicts. Now the huge stretches seem oddly empty, even useless despite the abundance they produce, and one is all too conscious...
Another source of comfort used to be the countless signs of American inventiveness and ingenuity, a tradition stretching from colonial tinker to modern technocrat, asserting not only mastery over nature but also a sly, triumphant outwitting of every kind of adversity. It was the frontier spirit mechanized. Despite the triumph of the moon voyages, that spirit now seems suddenly unequal to mundane problems: they are beyond the powers of technological or scientific tinkering...
Perhaps the greatest source of comfort used to be the plain common sense and decency of most Americans, the more or less good-humored willingness to see the other side of a dispute. Possibly that tolerance has always been a bit more illusion than fact. Today, at any rate, you find people everywhere whose common sense is consumed by anger, whose decency is limited to their own kind, whose tolerance is only for those who substantially agree with them, and whose openness to change lasts only as long as change does not seriously unsettle them. There seems to be developing...