Word: dampen
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...would not be overthrown. Some say he was convinced that what the Pope had done to galvanize Poland's anticommunist crusade could not be replicated through the weak Cuban church. Some think he realized it was time to embrace the religious hunger in the nation and find ways to dampen discontent. But he was probably driven as much by practical concerns as Cuba begged for European investment to sustain its hard climb out of economic catastrophe. The more Castro wanted foreign money, the more he had to recast Cuba in an acceptably Western light. A visit from the Pope would...
...weather might go a long way toward explaining the relatively low attendance, but neither the bitter cold nor the freezing rain could dampen the spirits of a very vocal and supportive crowd...
...turned out, the '87 carnage was quickly repaired and never did ripple in a way that would curb consumer spending and dampen the economy, as many feared might happen at the time. Just two years after the crash, the Dow was setting records again and the investing public had learned, rightly or wrongly, to buy when the market drops. The bigger the decline, the greater the opportunity. So goes the dogma of the day, and it is ironic that the greatest one-day plunge ever--the 1929 crash was a mere 12%--was the springboard for today's equity culture...
...addition, the computer aboard Sojourner and the one aboard Pathfinder were having trouble communicating with each other, which prevented the rover from getting the information it needed to rove beyond the immediate vicinity of the lander. But these problems, which engineers promptly set about fixing, did little to dampen the excitement when Pathfinder sent back its stunning panoramas of the eerie orange site where it had landed...
Maybe the idea here was to dampen the economic insecurity induced by Deep Blue. During the Kasparov match, there were many references to John Henry, who in legend died trying to defend his job against the incessant march of technology--in his case, the steam-powered drill. After pondering that outcome, and Deep Blue's triumph, people naturally find it reassuring to be reminded that chess is an artificial endeavor, hardly central to our lives or our livelihoods, and that computers still can't make meaningful small talk...