Word: harmless
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World Bank economists in Washington swallowed hard when the message suddenly flashed on their screens. Identifying itself as "Traveller 1991," an invading computer virus announced, "Do not panic. I am harmless." Horrified bank officials, who use computers to transfer billions from developed countries to hard-pressed parts of the world, wondered at first if it was possible for some tiny nation to fill its coffers by tapping into their inner sanctum. An international army of computer nerds and police experts soon tracked down the trespasser and pronounced it harmless. But what about the next one? Scotland Yard investigators, who traced...
...Heinz U.S.A. announced that it has recalled 12,000 cases of its strained vegetable-and-ham baby food after the discovery of bits of rubber in several jars. The company said the recall began about three weeks ago but was not announced publicly because the little black specks were harmless. Spokesman Harry Carroll said the particles "may have come in with one of the ingredients" but did not alter the product's "food grade...
...French Absurdist Alfred Jarry, about a loathsome clod (read: typical bourgeois) who murders the King of Poland and, supplanting him, ruins the country. Yet even with the events of the past two years before him, Penderecki draws no particular political symbolism from the text, and his harmless, rather charmless tonal score simply galumphs forgettably along. Far more Ubu-like are the sets and costumes by artist Roland Topor, which achieve startling new depths of vulgarity through their persistent evocation of feces and entrails. Is a triumphal arch crowned by a defecating man waving toilet paper black humor, or does...
...time for a truce with the soft and wayward flesh. Maybe violent imagery feeds the obsessions of real-life sickos. Or maybe, as some argue, it drains their sickness off into harmless fantasy. But surely it cheapens our sense of ourselves to think that others, even fictional others, could see us as little more than meat. And it's hard to believe all this carnage doesn't dull our response to the global wastage of human flesh in famine, flood...
...first glance the Thai system, which is being considered for possible adoption by Indonesia and the Philippines, seems harmless enough. Every citizen over age 15 will be required to carry a card bearing a color photo, various pertinent facts (name, address and so on) and an identification number. Most Thais are happy to get their IDs, which distinguish citizens from noncitizens (including a large population of refugees) and simplify all sorts of bureaucratic transactions, from receiving health-care benefits to enrolling a child in school...