Word: flux
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...University of California's Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, scientists added another improvement: a magnetic flux compression generator, which increases the thrust of the magnetic field by squeezing it with a carefully directed explosive charge, a technology pioneered during nuclear weaponry research. When the gun is fired, the electric surge ignites the near end of an explosive strip placed just on the outside of one of the rails. As the detonation speeds forward, faster than the blink of an eye, it presses one rail against the other, confining the magnetic field between them...
...backdrop of this psychodrama is irresistible to stay-at-homes. A bald eagle nests on the island; wolves come close enough to the house to be easily seen in the moonlight. Though she went off looking for permanence, Arthur discovers that she is a connoisseur of flux. The lake evokes her keenest descriptions: during a storm "the water was stirred every few minutes by a gigantic sweep like the slap of a hand." On a sunny day "the lake is ocean blue, throwing back the face of the sky and then catching it again...
Second, in contrast to the flux of students, Harvard and its reputation have stood firm over the centuries. As deeply entrenched as Widener Library is a way of thinking hostile to educational reform: Harvard's collective ego, a chest-thumping, self-assertiveness that blinds the school's faculty and administration to the faults of the institution. Chief among these misconceptions, the leitmotif of all CUE meetings, is an implacable faith that since Harvard is the best, no student should receive academic credit for work done elsewhere, work that is by definition sub-par to a Harvard Education...
Capitalism's critics likewise have railed against the inequities, uncertainties and the social flux it creates. As Karl Marx saw it, "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned." Foes charge that the capitalist system perpetuates grave inequalities of wealth and extravagantly rewards success. Communists proclaim that capitalism demands periodic depressions as the way to keep workers poor and subservient. Psychoanalyst Erich Fromm wrote that 19th century capitalism's drive for profit made people overly competitive, warped and aggressive. Finally, Economist John Kenneth Galbraith argues that free enterprise values wasteful private consumption more than needed...
Most important, the President did not say whether the registration would include women. The subject is controversial, and especially explosive in an election year. Says a top Defense official: "Not only is the question not decided, it is wildly in flux." The best guess is that Carter will stick to his guns on equal rights and ask for the registration of women as well...