Word: disrupter
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...before we start creating man-made volcanoes, we should worry about the side effects. For one thing, increasing sulfur in the atmosphere would increase acid rain, with all the damage that can do to forests and wildlife. And there are serious concerns that artificially changing cloud cover could disrupt global precipitation patterns, a risk that climate scientists Susan Solomon and Gabriele Hegerl raised in a recent article in Science. They found a global drop in precipitation levels after the eruption at Mt. Pinatubo, and an increase in droughts. A cool but dry planet wouldn't be an upgrade from where...
...bumpy mud tracks. In a period of less than two months, the onetime warrior will have been to more than half of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, throwing rallies under the massive, multicolored tents usually reserved for weddings. The dangers, of course, are real. Last week, the Taliban vowed to disrupt Afghanistan's election in a strongly worded warning posted on its website, urging Afghans to boycott the poll and "join the trenches of Jihad." Violence has already claimed the lives of several workers campaigning for a field of 36 candidates. (Read a story about U.S. support for President Karzai...
...quagmire. Recognizing the limits of what could be achieved in Afghanistan, the President has scaled back U.S. ambitions from the Bush Administration's lofty objective of turning the country into a modern democracy. "We have a clear and focused goal," he said in a policy speech in March, "to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future." That goal does not necessarily require the defeat of the Taliban per se - a goal that many analysts have long deemed unrealistic. Many key Taliban leaders have little truck with...
...Andaman Sea, in return for paying multimillion-dollar concession fees to the government. The remote islands are guarded by dozens of armed men - in effect private armies - and are often run "like independent states," says Jandam, the author of the industry study. Companies discourage all visitors, claiming they might disrupt the birds' habitat. In Koh Si Koh Ha, a string of islands in Phatthalung province, 14 suspected nest thieves were shot dead in two separate incidents in the early 1990s...
...criticism was so carefully cast, however, that it is unlikely to disrupt the tone of close cooperation that has defined Obama's first visit to Moscow as President. Even in his speech on July 7, Obama offered his criticisms less as an attack than as a commentary on historical patterns that he argued are pushing toward greater transparency and citizen empowerment. (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...