Word: leape
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Once aloft in the dark void of space, the Hubble promises a leap in astronomical observing power unlike anything since 1609, when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the heavens. As never before, astronomers have a realistic hope of seeing planets that orbit distant stars, watching tidal waves of energy swirl around black holes and spotting the birth of galaxies. The Hubble, says presidential science adviser D. Allan Bromley, "will open entirely new windows on the universe...
Step aside, Superman. Get back, Batman. Make way for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest superheroes to make the big leap from comic books to the silver screen. The who?, you say. Then you haven't been paying attention. The Turtles -- four wisecracking, pizza-guzzling reptile masters of the martial arts -- are already the biggest animated adventure act to hit television since Ghostbusters cartoons. Kids adore their hip and slightly naughty sense of humor ("Let's haul shell out of here"). "I like Michaelangelo because he's a smooth dude, a party animal," says Michael Serio, a 7-year...
...first glance, such figures make the heart leap at this sudden elevation of popular taste. Unfortunately, no one has yet revealed how many copies of Rushdie, Eco or Hawking were actually read by those who bought them. Surveys of reading habits appear now and then; they must be discounted absolutely. Pollsters are not equipped with rubber truncheons to beat the truth out of interviewees. And where this subject is concerned, people lie. They will go on Donahue or Geraldo and confess, beaming, to every sin against God and man -- except the act of not having really read the latest much...
...Middle East arms race is expected to take another leap into space soon when Israel launches its second and most sophisticated reconnaissance satellite. Dubbed the Ofek-2, the spying device may be in orbit in a matter of weeks, providing detailed photographs of troop movements and missile activity in Israel's neighboring Arab states...
...reforms. The Soviet republics are beginning to snap the political and economic bonds linking them to the once all-powerful center in Moscow. With the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the vanguard, some of the imprisoned peoples are battering the outside walls and intend to leap to freedom. It now seems certain that the center cannot hold onto all 15 republics. What was unthinkable only a few months ago has now become reality: the largest country in the world is on the brink of shrinking. Politics in the U.S.S.R. has turned into a race between the republics...