Word: compaction
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Gorbachev took office in 1985, the Soviets intensified the war and appeared to gain ground. Deadly Mi-24 helicopters and elite Spetsnaz commando units regularly ambushed rebel units and supply caravans with devastating effect: mujahedin casualties rose to all-time highs. Then the Reagan Administration began shipping Stingers, those compact but lethal antiaircraft missiles, to the guerrillas. Soon the air war turned around. By one conservative estimate, the Soviets last year alone lost 270 aircraft worth about $2.2 billion...
...immediate threat or sweat. But for people who like to own movies, who bought any of the 35.4 million theatrical films sold on cassette in 1987, who spent any fraction of the $637.2 million raked in by video distributors, a fresh temptation is at hand. Laser videodiscs, compact discs with pictures, have such a clear picture and such a rush of sound that they make even the best-quality videotapes look shoddy. In many cases they are as good as what is onscreen at the local multiplex. Sometimes they are better...
...cassette looks similar to a standard tape but is about half as large and has a much clearer, sharper sound. Like the compact disc, DAT is the product of a digital recording method that uses computer chips to break sound down into billions of bits of information, which are stored on magnetic tape. The process reproduces sound more faithfully and with less background hiss and crackling than traditional analog recording techniques...
...fight against DAT. They fear that home taping will ruin their lucrative CD business. As a modest concession to the recording industry's concerns, several DAT manufacturers are considering a special electronic system called Solo in their machines. Consumers will be able to make a digital tape of a compact disc but will not be able to duplicate that tape...
...merry month of mall hopping, a season of spending all the money that has been larded away -- and then some. But wait: this may not be Christmas as usual. America's jingle-jangle shopping spree seems muffled so far this year. As customers browse among the cashmere sweaters and compact-disc players, many are having doubts not only about this month's expenditures but also about their whole philosophy of buy, buy, buy. The October stock-market crash and the likelihood of an economic slowdown next year have rekindled the feeling that Americans must reform their spendthrift ways. "Consumers...