Word: gizmos
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What accounts for his amazing metamorphosis from also-ran to world-beater? Powell, 28, gives credit to a five-year scientific training plan devised by his coach, Randy Huntington, who goes by the nickname "Mr. Gizmo" and leaves almost no technique untried in his exhaustive approach to training. Among the elements of Powell's regime...
...doctors, lawyers and bureaucrats pull on the skintight colors (now available in extra-large sizes) and don crash helmets, they also deck out their cycles with an ever growing array of mileage computers, ergonomically correct seats, gel-filled grips, rearview mirrors and other color-coordinated gadgetry. One hot new gizmo is a cyclist's heart monitor that transmits a continuous pulse readout to a special wristwatch...
...seems like something out of George Orwell: television sets souped up so they can watch viewers watching them. Last week Nielsen Media Research, purveyor of the make-or-break TV ratings, announced plans to develop just such a gizmo. The "passive people meter," a computerized camera system, would sit atop sets in thousands of households, keeping an eye on every move that viewers made...
...jobs as much as a purveyor of entertainment. The centerpiece of the Smithsonian's exhibit is a display of old TV sets -- clunky wooden boxes with tiny, anemic-looking screens. But perhaps more significant is a selection of print advertisements that tried to sell Americans on this strange new gizmo...
Haldeman was worried that his chief would forget to turn the gizmo on when he wanted it, or -- worse -- to turn it off when he didn't. Haldeman also fretted "that this President was far too inept with machinery ever to make a success of a switch system." The result: voice-activated tape recorders were installed in the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room, and at Camp David. Writes Haldeman: "I think Nixon lost his awareness of the system even more quickly than I did." The machines, of course, forgot nothing...