Word: letters
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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There is a certain four-letter word that evokes much emotion, is often uttered by mothers giving birth, and whose usage by humans is thought to be evolutionarily adaptive...
...before you go yelling four-letter words at every turn, consider this: in Stephens' study, swearing reduced the perception of pain more strongly in women than in men. That may be because in daily life "men swear more than women," says Pinker, which could have the unfortunate side effect of dulling the natural painkiller. "[For women] I suspect that swearing retains more of an emotional punch because it has not been overused," he says...
...assassinate Saddam. The Clinton White House picked up the assassination part and called the CIA to check. My team and I were pulled back to Washington. The FBI investigated, decided no one had planned to assassinate anyone, and dropped the matter. Eventually the Department of Justice sent a letter to the CIA "declining" to prosecute us for attempted murder...
...spread across 44 states, there's a lot of support on Capitol Hill for keeping it in production. Senator Saxby Chambliss, the Georgia Republican who has thousands of constituents working on the planes at the Lockheed-Martin plant in Marietta, wants to keep those voters employed. He solicited a letter from the retiring head of the Air Force's Air Combat Command, who said buying just 187 F-22s puts the nation's military strategy at "high risk." An additional 60 F-22s, the general said, would ease that risk to a moderate level. Gates was not amused. "Frankly...
...Chambliss also sought a letter of support from the chief of the Air National Guard, who praised the F-22's "unique" capabilities and said its deployment with his reserve forces "is the most responsible approach to satisfying all of our nation's needs." Of course, the U.S. military has never been able to satisfy all of the nation's needs. Assembling a military is a balancing act, where threats are ranked and priorities set so that most of the available money is channeled toward countering the most likely threats. But so long as generals - backed by lawmakers...