Word: distinguish
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Still, Victor's sense of terror in being unable to distinguish the true from the false is unmistakable. The world of celebrity in Glamorama really is inescapable, not just because Victor is too shallow to comprehend anything beyond it, but because everything--from the public spheres of politics and religion to the private sphere of sex--is part of this world. The plot twists more often than Chubby Checker on speed. Reality alternates with the constructed so often that the constructed becomes real: "everything is altered... everyone will believe this". Even the novel itself borrows Jay McInerney's Alison Poole...
...voices on the right these days are bleaker. They see America becoming a cesspit of promiscuity and godlessness and blue dresses with who knows what on them, a place where some sexual interludes have to be specified as being "in person," as the Starr report does, so you can distinguish them from the ones you might have, say, over the phone...
People know a good story when they hear one. We are a narrative species: our brains function as storytelling organs in our frontal lobes, which, say neuroscientists, distinguish us from other animals. Evolution is a story, a beauty. We're stories as individuals; our DNA writes the plot, sometimes the theme. It is thought that children acquire language to tell the story that is already in them. Only a few weeks ago, the pure-science linguist Noam Chomsky, in another change of mind, said he now thinks a divine power gave us language in a single, inspired stroke...
...generations, people have restored the balance by eating yogurt, buttermilk or other products made from fermented milk. But nowadays, you can also down a few pills that contain freeze-dried germs. These preparations are called probiotics to distinguish them from antibiotics. Unfortunately, you can't always be sure that the bacteria in the products you buy are the same strains as those listed on the label or even that they're still alive. Probiotics are usually sensitive to both heat and moisture...
...typical "first-person shooter" like Quake II. Sherry Turkle, a psychologist and professor at M.I.T., says that in a curious way, hunting simulators may ultimately benefit kids who are increasingly confronted with the blurring of reality and virtual reality. "This generation of children is developing the skills to distinguish between virtual experiences and physical ones," she says. "I see these hunting games as part of that process--and that's a good thing." For everyone, that is, but the virtual deer...