Word: contrasts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Conventional computers function by following a chainlike sequence of detailed instructions. Although very fast, their processors can perform only one task at a time. This lockstep approach works best in solving problems that can be broken down into simpler logical pieces. The processors in a neural- network computer, by contrast, form a grid, much like the nerve cells in the brain. Since these artificial neurons are interconnected, they can share information and perform tasks simultaneously. This two-dimensional approach works best at recognizing patterns...
...estimated three-quarters of all minor-league clubs are running in the black, in contrast to one-quarter 15 years ago. One Triple A team, the Columbus Clippers, earned $665,000 last year. Of the twelve Class A teams in the Midwest League last year, eleven earned profits that averaged $30,000 a team. That may not sound like much, but some of the owners bought or started their teams for less than...
...handful of industry analysts maintain that a cease-fire will make little difference in prices. World demand for crude is flat, they argue, and OPEC, which controls only 37% of the market, in contrast to 56% in 1973, may find it difficult to push prices much higher. "If the war ends, the geopolitics of oil are changed greatly," says Daniel Yergin, president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Cambridge, Mass. "But the price may not be changed nearly as much." The possibility of peace in the Persian Gulf seems to have left the petroleum community as bewildered as the rest...
...found the answer. "It is the idea of community," he said. "It is the idea that we are in this together; that regardless of who we are or where we come from or how much money we have -- each of us counts." Using the image of community as a contrast to the "cramped ideals" of the Reagan years, he challenged his listeners "to forge a new era of greatness for America...
Chinese agriculture has benefited dramatically from ten years of Leader Deng Xiaoping's "modernization" program. Beijing has abolished the commune system in favor of individual and family farming, and has introduced incentives for high productivity as well as a limited but thriving free market for produce. By contrast, Soviet agriculture is still mostly collectivized, centrally planned and inefficient. It is one sector of Soviet life largely untouched by Gorbachev's perestroika (restructuring...