Word: decibel
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...persevere--and suffer as advertised. Insects attack them everywhere ("I covered myself in SAS anti-fungus powder until my erogenous zone looked like meat chunks rolled in flour"), hordes of leeches rush across the jungle floor to greet them, and cicadas, "megaphones built into their bodies," keep up a decibel level "way over the limit allowed in discotheques...
During the women's gymnastics, the crowd responded to the pyrotechnics of Ecaterina Szabo's team with a decibel level nearly as high as that accorded the U.S.'s own Mary Lou Retton. The spectators even booed marks they did not consider high enough for the East bloc visitors. Such evenhandedness was not lost on those Rumanians who had competed in 1980 in Moscow, where Soviet crowds applauded loudly for their own performers but were at best lukewarm to other competitors, even when they excelled...
Despite its high-decibel pullout, the Administration left the door open for reentry. UNESCO requires a member to give at least a year's notice before resigning, so the U.S. withdrawal does not take effect until Dec. 31,1984. The U.S. would consider rescinding its action, wrote Shultz, given "indications of significant improvement" in the way UNESCO operates...
...retaliate. Administration officials believe that the Syrian attacks on U.S. reconnaissance planes were not an invitation to war but a probinig of how much the U.S. would take. Observes Joyce Starr, a Middle East expert at Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies: "The Syrians are playing decibel politics. They heighten tensions for a few days, then lower them." Some Washington officials believe that Syria, after it stops testing U.S. resolve, will settle down and work out a deal with Gemayel six months to a year from now. In this view, once Gemayel shows progress?no matter...
Under questioning from the Senators, Shultz made it clear that the low-decibel rhetoric did not augur an imminent Reagan-Andropov summit. He reiterated Reagan's contention that such a meeting would be useless unless there was a probability of "some significant outcome." The U.S. must play hard to get. "The minute you see another guy really wants any agreement," he said...