Word: homely
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...miniaturized electronics to market (they debuted their first transistor radio in 1955), made a series of moderately successful portable cassette recorders. But the introduction of pre-recorded music tapes in the late 1960s opened a whole new market. People still chose to listen to vinyl records over cassettes at home, but the compact size of tapes made them more conducive to car stereos and mobility than vinyl or 8-tracks. On July 1, 1979, Sony Corp. introduced the Sony Walkman TPS-L2, a 14 ounce, blue-and-silver, portable cassette player with chunky buttons, headphones and a leather case...
After decades in the Senate (where he was no slouch at snagging funds for his home state of Delaware), Biden knew his way around a rotten pork barrel. So he set up an in-house watchdog group, with a team that would grow to eight and a charge to keep the spending clean, quick and defensible. Economists will tell you that the most important part of a stimulus is getting the money into the economy fast, where it can replace lost consumer and business spending and keep people employed. But Biden's team knew that it's just as important...
...darkness. For the past few years, the village's cash-strapped local council has been switching off all the streetlights in the village each evening until 6 a.m. the following morning. In most places, a nightly blackout would provoke outrage as residents find themselves fumbling and stumbling their way home through the dark. But in Dörentrup, they have seen the light, with a new scheme that allows residents to turn on streetlights on demand - anytime, anywhere - using just their cell phones...
...When Dörentrup's council started switching off the streetlights, Dieter Grote's wife would worry about their children coming home late at night in the pitch black. "My wife has all the good ideas," Grote, who runs an advertising agency, tells TIME. "I discussed the problem with her and we thought it must be possible to have the lights available on demand." Dieter got in touch with the local utility company Lemgo and together they came up with a solution: How about turning on the village lights with a simple telephone call? Lemgo developed a special modem...
...After a pilot project last year proved to be a big hit with the public, Dörentrup's council has decided to roll out the scheme for the whole village, home to 9,000 people. Utility company Lemgo says the scheme will cut down Dörentrup's carbon-dioxide emissions by around 12 tons each year compared with leaving the streetlights on all night. "We found out that on each stretch of road, people only switch on the lights up to three times each night," explains Frank Bräuer, project leader at Lemgo. "That's why this...