Word: equilibrium
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...frilly public relations post instead. An American official in the U.N. complains that it's "a very clearly anti-American bent." However, with just one superpower left in the world, Boutros-Ghali may feel that a little bureaucratic kryptonite is exactly what is needed to maintain the U.N.'s equilibrium...
Gould argues convincingly that traditional interpretation of Darwin and other scholars fall short of the true significance of these heroes of early biology. Familiar images of punctuated equilibrium, evolutionary contingency and the metaphorical Galton's polyhedron that on strains the evolution are all present in sterling form lot evidence, Gould draws on his extraordinary knowledge of biology, introducing the reader to an incredible array of fascinating facts, sometimes embarrassing in their context Describing a herring's gas expulsions out an orifice next to the anus, he gleefully calls them "herring farts...
...central idea is that self-organization is almost inevitable in a wide range of systems, both natural and man-made. The consistent shape of sand dunes marching across a desert, the evolution of complicated body parts such as eyes and kidneys, the equilibrium between supply and demand in a functioning economy and the existence of life itself -- all these may be expressions of this single principle...
Complexity theory examines the systems that lie in the middle ground between the predictable and the chaotic -- in fact, right on the border between the two states. Says Edward Knapp, president of the Santa Fe Institute: "We think of a complex system as one that is probably never in equilibrium, a system with many interlocking parts that are not easily described by simple arithmetic...
However, while we paddle in our youthful complacency, the enemies of sanity are arming themselves. Their work is being conducted with utter secrecy, yet excessive drunken reflection has given Gubba the insight. Language, comrades, is being appropriated, and is about to pierce our studied equilibrium. The pincer movement runs as follows. On one side lies the debasing jargon of cinema advertising, which compels innocents to speak in triplets, with a amputated vocabulary. Soon the apocalypse will be upon us, and it will happen before morning class. You go to breakfast. Eggs and bacon await the edibility test...