Word: lightness
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...This is the strangest sight I have ever seen," said the pilot of the spotter plane. It was Nov. 1, 1950, and he was looking at two divisions of Chinese infantry where none should have been, advancing under heavy shelling as if in a light rain. It was perhaps the first modern "mission accomplished" moment. The U.S. thought it had the Korean War sewn up, but it spent the next three years slugging it out with Mao's "volunteers." In The Coldest Winter (Hyperion; 736 pages), David Halberstam, who died in April, brings angry wisdom to a conflict that, after...
...space watchers are always looking for clever ways to take high-resolution images from the ground without the atmospheric blurring that made the Hubble such a good idea. And it's why a recent announcement by Cambridge University and Caltech made scientists take notice. By wedding an innovative electronic light detector to the Hale Telescope at Mount Palomar in California--until 1990, the world's largest--astronomers were able to snap at least one space photo that was literally twice as sharp as a comparable Hubble image and, they bragged, 50,000 times cheaper...
...than the Hubble could, but it took a lot longer. The instrument is also limited to a patch of sky only about 1?120th the width of the full moon; the Hubble's field of view is 150 times as large. And the Hubble can see ultraviolet and infrared light, which the atmosphere blocks. Ultimately, says Mackay, "we're not competing with the Hubble. We're simply trying to provide an alternate for when the Hubble dies...
...questioning about one’s pedigree.I found a party in a dilapidated Victorian building where obscure rap was blaring from every available window. A bunch of kids were assembled outside, smoking what seemed to be expensive European cigarettes. One guy eventually approached my posse, to ask for a light. “So how do you like fuckin’ Harvard?” he asked me after finding out where I studied. He took a long drag out his cigarette and ran his dirty fingernails though his mane of unkempt curls—all in one smooth motion.I...
...fans will disagree, “December Boys”—while easy on the eyes—lacks the originality to make it noteworthy. An adaptation of Australian author Michael Noonan’s eponymous text, the film chronicles coming-of-age trials in a familiar light. And while director Ron Hardy gracefully treats the convergence of childhood ideals and adulthood disillusionment, the final package is debilitated by scattered characterization. The movie opens at the chaste, jejune scene of an Australian orphanage home to four self-named December Boys (for their birthdays) linked by the same distant...