Word: fastest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...some brave, some gluttonous, some merely odd. On November 13, 116 exhibitionists stripped down to their skivvies in London's St. Pancras Station. Some 175 miles away, at a juvenile detention center in Wigan, prisoners and staff took turns running on a treadmill in a bid at setting the fastest time for a collective 100-mile run. In Tokyo, a man dashed 100 meters - on all fours - in under 19 seconds. What did these oddball events have in common? Each was an attempt, on Guinness World Records Day, to enter the tome, which for more than a half century...
...their further development. In the season that just ended drivers were required to do without the hugely expensive computerized traction-control systems that make cornering easier and racing more boring. Such rule changes have boosted competition in the last five years by helping to narrow the gap between the fastest and slowest cars by two to three seconds. Now the global financial crisis has added a new sense of urgency to organizers' efforts to make racing more competitive. The current setup, with big teams depending on "massive handouts from their parent companies" and small independent teams relying on "the goodwill...
Even by the heady standards of one of Europe's fastest growing economies, the Estonian housing firm Nova Haus was on a roll. Launched in 2004, with initial funding of just $13,000, it grew so fast that by 2006 it boasted 120 workers and a $2.5 million profit. In 2007 Nova Haus even took home the Estonian government's award for Developer of the Year. "It was crazy how easy it was," recalls Hegert Lepik, 28, a lanky economics graduate and father of two who helped found the company. "I kept asking myself: How is this possible? It almost...
Much of the growth was financed by cheap money, as Swedish and Finnish banks competed for customers in Europe's fastest growing region. Entrepreneur Lepik recalls firing off an e-mail loan application in 2006 with a "very basic" business plan, and getting approval in less than a week. Private debt across the Baltics rose from nearly zero to Western levels as consumers became hooked on credit. Home buyers and businesses took out mortgages in foreign currencies, which had the effect of worsening already severe current-account deficits. In a peculiarly Estonian twist, companies in the tech-savvy country began...
Obama's far from the fastest off the mark, however; in 1976, Jimmy Carter created a transition staff shortly after winning the Pennsylvania primary - well before the Democratic National Convention in July. Under Jack Watson, who had worked on Carter's successful Georgia gubernatorial campaign, the transition team worked throughout the general election, preparing for what would happen in the event of victory. Carter had made it clear early on that he did not want to mirror the setup and size of Richard Nixon's White House staff; specifically, Carter refused to even name anyone chief of staff, instead changing...