Word: formulaic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...ignorance of statistics. All college teachers have had to learn about the bell-shaped curve, that symmetrical pattern formed by the grades of a large, representative population, and in the minds of many that frequency distribution, intended to be descriptive, has become normative. Whether a teacher uses a precise formula or a rough estimate, he tends to think that the largest number of grades in his course ought to cluster around an average (a "C"), with roughly equal numbers of grades above and below that average. But these days he discovers that the average in his courses...
...Collier has worked out the pain formula is unfair to certain Houses," Katherine Fulton '78, CHUL representative from Winthrop House, said yesterday...
...have a say on everything goes with a subtle manipulation by influential people. One particular feature struck me; when a dispute between two entrenched factions cannot be resolved, an elaborate compromise is worked out and pronounced forcibly by the chairman of the meeting as the group will. Then the formula is ignored by both sides. Sometimes it seems that they are intentionally designed to be unworkable or unenforceable...
...extinct species by limiting political contributions to $1,000 from each donor. More immediately responsible is congressional failure so far to rescue the Federal Election Commission from its court-imposed limbo. Under the new laws, the commission was to distribute federal funds to the candidates according to a simple formula: every dollar a candidate could raise in contributions of $250 or less would be matched by the Federal Government. In January, the Supreme Court held that the commission could not constitutionally perform this function (which is reserved to the Executive Branch) as long as some of its members were appointed...
Glacé Blondes. The Grand Prix circuit is the class act in racing. Unlike stock-car drivers, Grand Prix racers are rich sybarites who zip through the industrialized world in futuristic "Formula I" nodules of fiber glass. Theirs is a life of death and daring where excess baggage means two cars and a couple of glacé blondes. "This is the only gentlemen's sport left," observed a Caracas businessman. "Polo and tennis are such a bore...