Word: makeshift
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...Elian in Cuba. The passions that have been stirred in Miami are rooted in the exiles' conviction that the boy should not endure the sufferings from which they have fled. Thousands of Cubans choose to risk their lives every year as they attempt to traverse the Florida Straits on makeshift rafts. Indeed, many hundreds die on their journeys towards freedom, including Elian's mother who paid the highest price--her life--for her son's liberty...
...back on a mud floor, Mallai looks nervous as a nurse bends down to examine her. After losing two children at their birth, the 27-year-old farmer's wife is frightened for the baby that is due soon. Nirmala Palsamy, the nurse who is visiting this makeshift clinic in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is also worried. This fetus is in an incorrect position. "You know that you might need an operation, don't you?" she asks her patient. Mallai bursts into tears. Nirmala patiently explains that a caesarean surgery will help the baby. Then she makes...
...wife evidently felt otherwise, strongly enough to pile her son into a makeshift boat piloted by her hustler boyfriend and set out to sea--a fatal choice, as it turned out. The last decision she made was perhaps the one that saved her son's life, when she dressed him for the journey in the bright orange jeans and sweat shirt that fishermen say they found him in, colors that often keep sharks away...
...hour alert, will try to block any reappearance of the black-hooded anarchists who inflicted millions of dollars of damage on downtown Seattle. Njehu, who heads a coalition of more than 200 groups, will be on hand, along with thousands of union members, religious activists and environmentalists. Makeshift kitchens will serve free food, and rock bands will crank out hymns of protest...
...traveling to Mars on the cheap the best way to go? As the recent failures of NASA's unmanned Mars probes suggest, makeshift machines built with off-the-shelf parts may save money, but when it comes time to fly, they often fall short. At the Johnson Space Center, engineers are thus looking at other Mars scenarios that still include frugal, on-site fuel manufacturing but also call for six-person crews, bigger vehicles and Apollo-style motherships in Martian orbit. "We're trying to take the best ideas and fold them into a reasonable approach," says Drake...