Word: gist
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...Gist: By exploring the mysterious phenomenon of Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that is wiping out honey bees worldwide, Jacobsen lays out a case for why we need to care - and it has very little to do with honey. A spiritual successor to Rachel Carson's seminal eco-polemic Silent Spring, Fruitless Fall walks us through the various theories put forth as causes of CCD -genetically-modified crops, global warming, God's wrath, cellular phones, loss of habitat and a nicotine-like pesticide to name a few. Jacobsen concludes that a return to simpler times - for example, before honey bees were...
...Gist: Filkins, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times, delivers an unflinching look behind the front lines of the war on terror. Whether it's a crowd impassively watching a soccer field execution in pre-9/11 Afghanistan or a group of American soldiers throwing everything they have at a sniper (bullets, grenades, tank shells, air-to-ground missiles) for six hours - only to watch him escape on a bike - Filkins confronts the absurdity of war head...
...GIST: Expanding on the Pulitzer Prize-winning series published last year in the Washington Post (co-written with Jo Becker), Gellman explores Dick Cheney's reign as the most powerful vice-president in American history. Angler - the VP's Secret Service nickname - reveals Cheney's heavy hand in formulating everything from financial policy (Cheney favored of more tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts in the capital gains tax) to energy policy (he forced a reversal on President Bush's 2000 campaign promise to reduce carbon emissions). The bulk of the book's drama, though, is found in Cheney...
Health-insurance companies and hospital administrations are quite enthusiastic about evidence-based research. "Our evidence-based study says the test you ordered is not needed, so we're not paying for it" is the gist of their letters to patients and doctors. But has there been any improvement in our overall treatment of spinal stenosis since the revelation that the surgery actually works? Have more folks lined up for the operation since? Not that I can tell from my practice. When I tell stenosis patients that we now "know," in 2008, that the surgery works better than other treatments, they...
...humility). However, this is only the last three chapters. For the most part, Jacoby’s argument lacks the very basic tenets—rationality, tolerance, and an openness to discourse—she seems to be trying to encourage in society. Many can sympathize with the gist of her argument, but Jacoby gets bogged down in the insignificant particulars of past. While she means to show the importance of our heritage, Jacoby seems to forget to look to the future at all. Rather than merely name intellectual greats of the past, Jacoby would have done well...