Word: extract
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Computers have giant memories, but are exasperatingly literal-minded. The U.S. Patent Office encountered this problem in an acute form when it began planning a computer designed to extract from its memory all earlier mentions of a patent-seeking idea. Patents are described in ordinary English, and ordinary English proved too imprecise for literal-minded computers. The word glass, for instance, means a material and a long list of things made out of that material. It also means additional things (water glasses and eyeglasses made of plastic) that have nothing to do with glass. Such things confuse computers...
GENEVA, Nov. 16--A breakdown of the East-West negotiations on nuclear test suspension clearly became a possibility yesterday in view of rejection by each side of proposals put forward by the other. The United States rejected a Soviet plan on the ground the Russians sought to extract a promise to end tests without giving guarantees on a control system...
Since few firms have unique products, they often try to outdo each other in boastful bragging about what they do have. Helena Rubinstein, who styles herself the "First Lady of Beauty Science," claims that her Tree of Life cream contains extract of human placenta "from nature's storehouse of nutrients for the unborn baby." To supply juice of water lilies for some of her other products, she keeps convents of nuns in London and Paris busy growing lilies. A year ago Lilly Dacheé introduced a finishing powder "which actually contains pulverized pearls," claimed that it made the skin...
...detail that vividly catches the mood. He has a homing instinct for the essentials in a complex situation. He is a master of the art of brain-picking-and of choosing the right brain to pick. From careful homework, he knows precisely what information his story needs, and can extract it with the efficiency of an automatic orange squeezer...
Most important, the new rules clamp down hard on the numerous additives used in mass ice-cream making. FDA approves the continued use of such lump-preventing stabilizers as gelatin, locust-bean gum, sodium alginate, guar-seed gum and extract of Irish peat moss. But it frowns on any further use of alkaline neutralizers, e.g., baking soda, which some producers use to sweeten up sour milk and cream, make it palatable. Totally banned: certain acid emulsifiers that make ice cream smooth by breaking down the barrier between fat and water. While approving chemicals that occur naturally in food, FDA rejected...