Word: distracter
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This is a deal about brute scale, about huge numbers. For example, if you squish Hotmail (Microsoft's e-mail service) and Yahoo! Mail together, they have 426 million users worldwide; that's compared with Gmail's paltry 90 million. But don't let those huge numbers distract you from two very small ones. First, the number 1: that's where Google stands in the search business and in the online-advertising business, the latter of which--unlike search or e-mail or instant messaging--actually has real dollars attached to it. Second, the number 0. That's how many...
...also a setback for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In two weeks, he faces the release of a possibly scathing report card by the Winograd committee, appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the many failures that occurred in Israel's 2006 military campaign in Lebanon. Hoping to distract Israelis from the report's anticipated criticism of his performance, Olmert and his government had been working furiously, through Egyptian channels, to free Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit who has been held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since the spring...
...willing to pay for a commodity that the other group has depends on the scarcity or abundance of that commodity on the market. Scientists think female macaques may use grooming, too, to try to maintain social relationships within the group to benefit their offspring, or as a way to distract or appease males from getting aggressive after a sexual encounter. In fact, when female macaques groomed males, their services decreased sexual activity in males...
...Instead of the giddy surprise viewers experience during well-placed cameos, such as Ferrell’s uncredited appearance at the end of “Wedding Crashers,” there is the distinct impression that all of the celebrity drop-ins are mere smoke and mirrors to distract from a lead who, while passably funny, doesn’t have the comedic chops of his compatriots.As for the humor, Apatow and friends take shot after ever-cheaper shot at the Cash mystique. When the jokes hit, they’re usually propelled by the shock of sheer absurdity...
...other incendiary political issues, such as visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, where the general who commanded forces in Nanjing is honored. Meanwhile, Chinese leaders know that keeping the memory of the Rape of Nanjing alive stirs outrage against a common enemy and inspires a fervent patriotism that helps to distract the public from the Beijing government's shortcomings. In other words, the truth is obscured because the massacre is being used as a political football by leaders in both countries who are better served by retelling the more extreme versions of history...