Word: last-ditch
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Like most U.S. warships, the Stark has a last-ditch weapon: the Phalanx, a six-barreled Gatling gun capable of firing 3,000 rounds a minute of uranium, 2 1/2 times as dense as steel, to create a wall of metal in front of the attacking missile. But the Phalanx system has its limitations: it operates only at close range and has difficulty tracking sea-skimming missiles amid the radar "clutter" caused by waves. Even under manual operation, the Stark's Phalanx system should have detected the incoming missiles, but the ship's only warning came just seconds before impact...
...watching the action on a closed-circuit television monitor and rumbling orders into a microphone. The jauntiness of his warm-up suit is belied by the clear plastic tube that runs from his nose, behind his ears, down his chest and along his leg to an oxygen tank, a last-ditch defense against the emphysema that has plagued him for decades...
...provided early roles for such actors as Jill Clayburgh, Lee Grant and Wayne Rogers, and was an anchor of CBS's top-rated daytime lineup of the 1950s and '60s. But ratings fell, and the soap was dropped by CBS in 1982, only to resurface on NBC. In a last-ditch ploy to revive interest, a devastating flood was ordered up in February, enabling a revamp of sets, story lines and characters. It did not help: Search for Tomorrow remained the lowest-rated network soap. Its final episode will air on Friday, Dec. 26. After that, the daily woes will...
...U.S.S.R. had continued to up the ante. Now, as night closed in on Hofdi house, the "grand compromise" was in sight. But the whole startling package of proposals was hanging on the Soviet insistence that Star Wars research be confined to the laboratory. Ronald Reagan made a last-ditch appeal to Mikhail Gorbachev. He declared he had made a pledge to the American people not to trade away SDI. "Please," Reagan said, "don't ask me to do it." Impervious, the General Secretary replied, "Nyet...
Meanwhile, Thatcher will pursue her last-ditch diplomatic initiative in an attempt to tame insistent calls for sanctions within the 49-member Commonwealth. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe will head to Pretoria with a two-pronged message for Botha: release imprisoned Black Leader Nelson Mandela and lift the ban on the African National Congress. Though Botha has agreed to meet with Howe, the flurry of diplomacy is not expected to change the State President's position. Warned Botha last week: "We are a strong, proud nation with the faith and ability to ensure our future. We are not a nation...