Word: earthly
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...then checked to determine whose sample it was, for it was identified only by number. Frantic meetings ensued, and a second portion of the original sample, which had been stored in a locked refrigerator, was tested. The results were the same: Ben Johnson, the fastest man on earth, had cheated...
...popular sports -- especially weight lifting and field events, like the hammer throw and shot put. But much of the shock is a by-product of the fascination with the 100-meter dash. That most elemental, primordial event is run, at least in the mind, by almost every child on earth, and its Olympic champion occupies a place of honor as the fastest man alive. He is the heir of Harold Abrahams of Chariots of Fire fame, of Jesse Owens, Bob Hayes and Carl Lewis. What other betrayal could mean as much...
NASA's long ordeal is nearly over. The space shuttle has again shown it can blast astronauts into orbit on biblical smoke pillars. There is much to admire in the sight of the astronauts circling the earth in their splendid reusable spaceship, but there is also something disappointing. For the past two decades the American space program has been going mainly in circles, riding a splendid shuttle to nowhere. Once upon a time NASA launched men to the moon and sent robots across the solar system; there was even brave talk of expeditions to Mars. Now that the nightmare...
...making $10 billion wrong turns. They are ideas that were filed in the round basket in NASA's rush to re-ignite the shuttle's engines: a manned expedition to Mars, a moon base, a reinvigorated program of unmanned solar system exploration, or even the so-called Mission to Earth, which would strive to understand our own planet before we ruin it for good. Like ambivalent lovers, NASA and the American people have to choose...
...Manichaean mythology that the world is divided by an eternal conflict between the forces of good and evil, light and dark. Why not invest instead in a different mythology? Why not invest a pittance of the military budget in a new mythology of cooperation and evolution, of the earth as a living organism with eyes molded from stardust, still dumb but trying to learn...