Word: harmlessness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Bird watching. Noun (archaic). A form of harmless staring, conducted in woody areas, by genial eccentrics often named Matilda or Chauncey...
...because that is what the Pilgrims first called them, thinking no doubt of the locust plagues described in the Old Testament. Actually, those biblical insects were migratory grasshoppers, which even today cause extensive crop damage in Africa, Asia and South America. In contrast, the 17-year cicadas are reasonably harmless bugs whose only sins are sucking sap out of trees for nourishment and killing small branches by laying eggs in them. They also mess up lawns with their 2-in.-long bodies. Vulnerable sapling oaks and fruit trees can easily be protected with a covering of cheesecloth. "They're more...
...first and lasting response to his appearance is "Ooooh, isn't he cute?" His face is a posh prison, his smile a winsome rictus. Because everyone wants to mother him, or date him, or have him for a baby-sitter, nobody will let him grow up. He must remain harmless, asexual, a teen-dream Dorian Gray doll or risk losing the devotion of his millions of chaperones...
Actually the personal risk to Zagury was probably quite small. The vaccine he used, based on the work of NIH Immunologist Bernard Moss, contained only a tiny portion of genetic material from the AIDS virus. This material was inserted into the genes of a larger, harmless virus, which served as a carrier. (The larger virus was vaccinia, once commonly used to prevent smallpox.) When tested in baboons and a chimp for one year, this hybrid stimulated the animals to produce antibodies not only to vaccinia but to the AIDS virus, with no apparent side effects...
...Union's poltergeist hardly merits calling in the Ghostbusters, though. Gannon said the innocuous phantom makes himself known about a dozen times a year in harmless ways. "There are a few unexplainable noises, and doors opening and closing for no apparent reason, but other than that, he's harmless...