Word: giant
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...decades, residents of U.S. cities would synchronize their pocketwatches using a giant globe that would descend from a pole in a public space to mark the exact hour. Ochs conceived of an ornate "time ball" that would descend just before midnight to mark the exact end of the year. The first ball to drop - an illuminated 400-pound iron-and-wood orb - was lowered from a flagpole. Tradition took root and the ball has heralded a new beginning almost every year since - in 1942 and 1943, during World War II, the ball was temporarily put out of commission...
...Harvard hoopster with pro-level talent? Yes, that's one reason Lin is a novelty. But let's face it: Lin's ethnicity might be a bigger surprise. Fewer than 0.5% of men's Division 1 basketball players are Asian-American. Sure, the occasional giant from China, like Yao Ming, has played in the NBA. But in the U.S., basketball stars are African Americans first, Caucasians second, and Asians ... somewhere far down the line. (One historical footnote: Wat Misaka, a Japanese American, became in 1947 the first nonwhite person to play in the NBA.) (See the classic sports photography...
Lula saw the film but was, says Barreto, too emotional to voice his opinion. That must have been a first for Lula, a giant among conversationalists. But when you're a superhero like Lula, you are free to set the rules. And the music...
...crowd was soon reviewing all the chants in the green movement archive, as if reliving the triumphant moments of the last six months. Above them, a giant image of Khomeini hung respected and intact at the entrance to the meeting hall. It made a mockery of the engineered furor surrounding the desecration of his portrait earlier this month, footage of which was later broadcast on state television in an attempt to discredit the opposition...
...Theroux makes a passionate defense of his genre when asked what role travel writing can play in a globalized world where much that was exotic seems increasingly like one giant 7-11 franchise. "That's just an illusion," Theroux claims, "because the customs, obligations, pieties that govern the people in that 7-11 can still be completely different." He still believes there's a wide field to be discovered in "dangerous places, war zones ridden with crime or plagues or terror." And he insists "the travel book should give the lie to those who think they can find everything...