Word: excessive
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Sneak Killer. Among other things that Balke & Co. studied was sensitivity to an excess of carbon dioxide in the inhaled air. Odorless and tasteless, COo can be a sneak killer: if something went wrong with his oxygen-recycling system or its indicator, a busy spaceman might not notice it until too late. In the altitude chamber, first Balke and then the airmen mounted an Exercycle. Disguised like Martians in a spirometer (breathing measurement) mask, they pedaled frantically off to nowhere...
What are the specifications for a spaceman? Dr. Balke and his crew supplied partial answers: he will be a lean, athletic type (bulging muscles are useless excess baggage), a scientist, and aged 35 to 45-men in this bracket have it over their juniors in greater emotional stability, endurance for tedious tasks, and better judgment as the result of longer training and experience...
Nautilus now headed directly toward the North Pole, the place that had drawn Nansen, Amundsen, Wilkins, Peary, now flown over by scheduled airlines but never yet reached by ship. Its speed was rapid, probably in excess of 20 knots. Its depth was below 400 ft. Its reactor was functioning perfectly. Its ship's inertial navigational system-an amazing complex of gyroscopes, accelerometers, depth finders, integrators, trackers, etc. (TIME, April 29, 1957) taken over in a rare salvage from the Air Force's defunct Navaho missile program-kept Nautilus on course and on depth, gave its captain instant readings...
...Past, and much funnier. Powell's thesis is that blood is thicker than almost anything; his social unit is the family, not the individual. Says his fictional spokesman: "There is something overpowering, even a trifle sinister about very large families, the individual members of which often possess in excess the characteristics commonly attributed to 'only' children: misanthropy: neurasthenia: an inability to adapt themselves . . . The corporate life of large families can be lived with a severity, even barbarity...
...businessmen expect competitive pressures and excess capacity to keep price rises small. The U.S. economy can take the flurries of a foreign crisis in stride...