Word: eyeful
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...spring arrived on the Texas prairie last week, farmers and ranchers were fighting a range war that packed all the fury of a Panhandle twister. At the eye of the storm was Jim Hightower, the state's populist, barb-witted agriculture commissioner. Outside Texas, Hightower is best known for regaling the Democratic National Convention last year with his zingers about George Bush, who he said "was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple." Hightower provoked national attention again early this year when he urged cattlemen to grow hormone-free cattle in response to the European Community...
Among other hard-boiled writers, the most impressive effort of the past year comes from Michael Allegretto. His Blood Stone (Scribner's; 261 pages; $16.95) is a superb example of the "cold crime" subgenre. A seedy private eye, approached by an even seedier pal, starts looking for the proceeds of a famous jewel robbery out West a couple of decades after the theft. His allies and enemies in an ever shifting set of alliances include an aging femme fatale, a spunky tomboy and her ex-con grandfather, a trio of murderous Indians, a small-town newspaper editor and a crooked...
...world of biometric security. It is a world in which traditional keys and combination locks could eventually become obsolete. Increasingly, access to buildings, rooms and vaults will be controlled by computerized machines that can recognize personal characteristics of people seeking entrance: fingerprints, blood-vessel arrangements in the eye's retina, voice patterns, even typing rhythms. These biometric machines have special sensors that pick up the characteristics, convert them into digital code and compare them with data stored in the computer's memory bank. Unless the information matches up with the characteristics of authorized persons, entrance is denied...
...regulatory standards and put more resources into testing if it hopes to bolster confidence in the wholesomeness of fruits and vegetables. The EPA will also have to review whether most pesticides serve an indispensable purpose. Between 60% and 80% of pesticides are used on produce primarily to enhance eye appeal by keeping fruits unblemished longer. Alar, for example, is sprayed on apples mainly to allow them to ripen slowly. Some consumers have begun to reject the perfect look. "I do not want food that has been overly sprayed, waxed or tampered with," declares Norma Quintana of Napa Valley, Calif...
...poultry. Studies have indicated that up to one-third of chickens sold to consumers are tainted with salmonella bacteria that can cause food poisoning if the birds are not properly cooked. Yet only 0.5% of chickens are rejected by inspectors. Some of the contamination apparently occurs right under the eye of inspectors, who observe each chicken on the production line for one to three seconds. High- speed eviscerating machines that rip out intestines sometimes spew feces and stomach contents on the birds. Splattered carcasses are hosed down and put in tanks of chilled water but still may become infected...