Word: direness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...margin of 237-170 a bill to give General Motors and Chrysler $14 billion in emergency loans from a green modernization fund that Congress created earlier this year. (Ford is in better shape and has not asked for short-term emergency assistance.) But behind the scenes, things looked pretty dire for the Big Three's hopes of a rescue...
...until it actually happens. A crucial aspect of every recession is the interplay between expectations and economic reality. For a time, gloomy expectations drive consumers and businesses to cut back, deepening the recession and making everyone even gloomier. Just like now. But at some point those expectations become so dire that the real economy begins to surprise on the upside, and the way is cleared for recovery. In early October, pollsters commissioned by CNN, after describing the economic conditions of the Great Depression, asked respondents if a return to such misery was likely. Almost 60% said yes. And perhaps...
...That's a dire prediction given that further outbreaks are expected throughout Asia in the coming months, according to Peter Cordingley, a spokesman for the World Health Organization. Cordingley says he's not surprised that the virus, which spreads most readily via wild birds migrating during the winter months, has struck Hong Kong again. "I'm disappointed because Hong Kong has done so well since this outbreak started," Cordingley says. "But this is a very versatile virus. It's on tractor wheels and in wild birds. It may be found on a farmer's boots. We've seen this virus...
...water continues to decline, says marine geophysicist Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, "buckle up." Barnett co-authored a study estimating a 50% chance that a combination of climate change and increased demand could render Mead effectively dry by 2021. Mulroy doubts Barnett's dire conclusion, but she knows Las Vegas--and the world beyond--faces an existential crisis over water. "This is about being able to survive as a human being," she says. (See pictures of the world water crisis...
...dire has the piracy problem become that several international shipping companies have chosen to abandon the shortcut through the Suez Canal that requires their vessels to pass the Somali coast, and instead route them around South Africa. "As long as there is no firm deterrent, attacks will continue," said Noel Choong, chief of the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center in Kuala Lumpur. "The risks are low, and the returns are so high." And not only for the pirates, either...