Word: discerning
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...concept of the surround-sound headphone is, well, heady. Though surround sound is made for five speakers, we only have two ears. Sound from each of the five speakers ricochets off every surface in a room, reaching our ears at different times. Our brains analyze it all to discern where the sound is coming from. (Sound from behind is duller, because it has to pass through the skin flaps of our ears.) The headphones come with processors that analyze incoming sound tracks and transform them into two-channel tracks. This replicates the behavior of sound coming from five speakers...
...danger, a new protector: Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), a wise, kindly gent with the habit of disappearing every few weeks, then returning with unseemly scratches on his face. Aided by his school chums Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint), Harry must discern protective friend from mortal foe at the risk of his life--and of learning astonishing things about himself...
...line dividing Africa's Muslim north from its predominantly Christian south runs straight through the Nigerian state of Plateau. The boundary is normally hard to discern. For one thing, people in the same town can belong to different religions but work next to each other, cheer the same football team and even intermarry. But in Nigeria, every few years the divide becomes obvious and stark. Made desperate by poverty and joblessness, and often goaded by manipulative politicians, extremists on both sides go at each other in vicious battles. Plateau state, where cattle herders from the north and farmers from...
Kerry may sometimes overestimate the appetite of the public for the nuances of his positions. He thinks if he just explains long enough, says the former aide, he can make anyone agree with him. Kerry's allies and friends insist that voters will eventually discern an underlying honesty to Kerry that makes him more than a cartoonish, obfuscating figure. "If you look at his public career, it's been just the opposite. He's not been unclear on the environment, on labor and education issues," says former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey. "His reputation in the Senate is that...
...nails off but would do so only if someone paid him $200,000. ("I haven't had a good night's sleep," he lamented, "since 1965.") When asked why they went to such extremes, their explanations were overpracticed, self-mythologizing, implausible. But the truth wasn't hard to discern. Inclusion in the Guinness book gave them prestige, hard to find in impoverished Indian towns. The book reflected a quirk in the mind of Norris McWhirter, and it created its own quirky world. ?By Anthony Spaeth...