Word: instrument
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Superconducting Supercollider Big Science took a big hit when Congress finally pulled the plug on the Superconducting Supercollider, the 54-mile-around atom smasher that was supposed to be the world's largest and most sophisticated scientific instrument but is now just a $2 billion hole in the ground. The SSC was doomed when its projected cost escalated from $5 billion to more than $11 billion, making it look less like Big Science and more like Big Bloated Bureaucracy...
...nouns, like the first name of his Wildcats coach Lute Olsen, who incidentally just hired Simon as an assistant coach, are allowed in Scrabble. As tactfully as I can muster, I remind him of this stipulation, but with patience he informs me that a lute is also a string instrument or a clay-like substance. The education continues. Still, it only counts for six points, and I continue with a masterful bit of psychology, playing “bell” onto the new “L”. Simon had a run-in with the authorities...
...granddaughter from Farmingdale, N.Y., to Toronto. Squirming on her mom's lap, Liba stretched out her arms toward him, plaintively wailing "Gampa!" Harbater took her onto his lap, cradling her with one hand while piloting the plane. She snuggled against him, fascinated by the colored lights blinking on the instrument panel and the rain streaking back on the windshield. "It was like a dream come true," he says. And perhaps most satisfying, a year later Liba still talks about "Gampa's airpane...
...second event, John Harbison’s “Concerto for Viola and Orchestra,” was rare on two accounts. First, the composer was present in the audience; and second, the viola is rarely used as a solo instrument. “The traditional concerto is a battle between the soloist and the orchestra,” says Zander, and the viola—unlike its close cousin, the violin—has no chance of victory. With this in mind, Harbison, who plays the viola himself, cut the orchestra’s size significantly. The result...
...naively think, “I can be different. I do not fit this Harvard mold,” I would have to correct you. Think of how you got here. You did well in school, because that was what one was supposed to do. You played a musical instrument, because your parents inculcated that ability as a symbol of excellence. You ran for leadership positions because your teachers encouraged you to do so. (Of course there are some genuinely brilliant kids who have developed their talents without such constant prodding, but they fall few and far in between...