Word: junking
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ever walked through a swarm of gnats at a picnic, you have some idea of what it's like to navigate the mass of debris that circles our planet in low-Earth orbit. Space planners have long warned that the growing belt of cosmic junk would eventually lead to collisions, and on Tuesday it happened, when an American satellite and a defunct Russian satellite totaled each other 500 miles above Siberia. This has sparked new worries that space is simply becoming too dangerous a place to travel. Things aren't nearly that severe yet - but they're getting worse...
...ships that just collided are sources of a whole lot of potential new junk. The American craft - one of 65 communications satellites in an orbital flock known as Iridium - weighed 1,235 lb. The Russian craft, a now defunct satellite launched in 1993, weighed...
...think those tiny pieces of junk can't do much harm, think again. According to a back-of-the-envelope rule the Apollo astronauts used, given the speeds involved in traveling in low-Earth orbit, a one-tenth-in. bit of chaff would collide with an oncoming spacecraft with as much force as a bowling ball traveling 60 m.p.h...
Certainly, there's some junk in there. The Senate wants to toss as much as $50 billion into loan guarantees for nuclear plants, even though their costs have gone through the roof. And there's talk of further subsidizing home mortgages that are already tax-deductible, as if the Federal Government hasn't done enough to encourage homeownership (and in the process, it can be argued, help lay the foundation for the current crisis). But Obama has called for an earmark-free stimulus, so the legislation shouldn't have too many embarrassing waterslides, Mafia museums or cranberry subsidies. Instead, Congress...
...financial pinch isn't the only reason McDonald's is winning fans in Europe - and in standoffish France in particular. According to Berger, after laboring for years in France with the greasy-spoon label imposed by detractors (as le mal bouffe, or junk food), the company has of late made very determined and demonstrative efforts to adapt menus, tailor to hygiene sensibilities and communicate with clients on dietary and nutritional questions that have long dogged its food. "It has introduced salads, begun using certain traditional French cheeses on burgers and told clients, 'Our food is good food...