Word: loon
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...small a cyclic change able to have a noticeable effect on weather? Two scientists suspect it may. Karin Labitzke of Berlin's Free University and NCAR's Van Loon have discovered a relationship between the solar cycle and the stratospheric winds over the tropics. During a 28-month period, these winds reverse direction, blowing half the time from the east, the other half from the west, a phenomenon meteorologists call the QBO, or quasi-biennial oscillation. Depending on the direction of the QBO flow, Labitzke and Van Loon found, solar maximums and minimums seem linked to changes in air pressure...
...pure statistics," Van Loon concedes. "We have no physical explanation for what we've found." That explanation may be hard to come by. Experts have calculated that the tiny change in the solar constant detected by Solar Max can supply less than a millionth of the energy needed to produce the observed changes in weather. "If there really is an effect," says Van Loon, "there must be an enhancing mechanism, and we don't have the foggiest idea of what that enhancing mechanism might be." Yet the statistical evidence is so compelling that many scientists are taking it seriously...
...which cannot understand why a nice girl like Wendy is not married with children at 38. Even her closest friends sometimes find her hard to take entirely seriously. "With that stupid little voice and ratty fur coat," laughs fellow playwright William Finn, "you initially think this lady's a loon, a modern- day Dorothy Parker...
...commercial and critical successes of previous books -- will find much in Billy Bathgate that feels, initially, familiar. As in Ragtime (1975), this novel mingles fictional characters with historical ones: Schultz, Walter Winchell, Thomas E. Dewey. The setting combines Depression seediness and underworld glamour in a manner reminiscent of Loon Lake (1980). And this is not the first time Doctorow has written about a boy's coming of age in the Bronx; he did so in World's Fair (1985), even giving its made-up hero his own first name, Edgar. But the author is not simply repeating himself this time...
...narrating a video version of Strunk and White's classic writing manual, The Elements of Style. But why would anyone who cares about the distinction between "irritate" and "aggravate" be watching a videotape instead of reading the book? A slew of soothing "mood tapes," ranging from Video Fireplace to Loon Country by Canoe (natural sounds only), is relaxing, all right, but so is a test pattern. On the other hand, after a session with Betty White's Learn to Fox Trot Course or How to Have a Moneymaking Garage Sale, starring Phyllis Diller (Terrifying realism! Claws at your unbelieving mind...