Word: highs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...high school, I was the unsociable, flatulent nerd. Lovable, not so much. No nerds were; that is at the very core of being a nerd. Pretending to passersby that I was waiting for my brother after school, while secretly wishing the Mathletes bus would hurry up and get there—that’s a nerd. Winning the public library’s book raffle three years running, because no one else entered—that’s a nerd. Ordering the Kong so frequently that the owner laughs every time I call and asks...
...high school senior, I thought Harvard would be a haven for others like me. The unfortunate truth, though, is that a nerd is a nerd, no matter where you put him, and, as it turns out, a Chemistry major is a Chemistry major, no matter how prestigious the university. I recall a particularly painful interaction, when, as an overeager Freshman, I was hit on by a Quadling in the Ten-Man. Looking up at this upperclassman with my best come-hither stare, from behind my intensely thick glasses, I tried as hard as I could to imitate the flirting...
Highlight Reel: 1. Why quality still trumps quantity: "In order to take in fewer young people who have a criminal record, are overweight, or have no high school degree, the Army has been spending about $22,000 per recruit in enlistment bonuses ... Even with a high school degree, many potential recruits still fail the Armed Forces Qualification Test (the AFQT) and cannot join. The test is used by the military to determine math and reading skills. About 30 percent of potential recruits with a high school degree take the test and fail it. ... Even when recruits qualify, health problems...
...higher numbers of well-qualified candidates seek to enlist and the military can temporarily rely less on waivers for those with academic deficits or criminal records. But a weak economy is no formula for a strong military. Once the economy begins to grow again, the challenge of finding enough high-quality recruits will return...
...that had been put on hold during the election. And that will also provide an opportunity for the Obama Administration to use the leverage offered by Afghanistan's security and economic dependency to press Karzai to do better. "If we can start pressuring him to start cracking down on high-profile criminals and drug traffickers to show that he actually cares about rule of law, then he starts gaining legitimacy," says Dempsey. "Afghanistan is still going to be a basket case five years from now, but at least the perception that the head leadership is trying to move the country...