Word: metalic
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What can be done to stop the sabotage? The Pentagon, which spends $50 million a year on computer-safeguard research alone, protects its systems from hackers by transmitting classified data on private telephone lines. These are usually encased in metal tubes and filled with high-pressure gas. A break in the tube resulting from an unauthorized tap causes a telltale loss of pressure. Furthermore, all classified files are in codes that are changed daily, even hourly for acutely sensitive information...
Beneath its distinctive decor, the conspicuous helmet was a cap of riveted metal leaves, weighing up to 11 lbs. and meant to protect a man's skull against sword and club. But was ever a martial object more drenched in symbolic fancy? The helmet had to convey no meaning to the warlord's troops except its own singularity. It was the exact reverse of a "uniform"; it was a portable spectacle. Its shape was not determined by the kind of functional rules that governed the making of a samurai's main emblem, the katana or long sword, whose basic form...
...malleable metal that has been considered versatile enough for the coffins of kings in the 17th century and for cola cans in the 20th, is now in trouble in the marketplace. Trading in the commodity has been suspended on the London Metal Exchange since Oct. 24, and it remained unclear last week just when the buying and selling of tin will resume. Says Jacques Lion, chairman of the London Metal Exchange: "The global tin industry is in complete disarray." Some members of the 108-year-old exchange are suggesting that the time may have come for closing the London...
...short of cash to finance its operation. While most commodity markets are vulnerable to volatile price swings, tin prices have been controlled by the London-based I.T.C. The cartel attempted to fix both the world supply and the price of tin, measures once considered beneficial to consumers of the metal as well as producers. It assigned production quotas to members and then bought up surplus tin whenever international prices fell below a certain level. The surplus metal was then gradually sold off during times of greater demand, when prices were higher. The cartel does not include all nations that mine...
...There's a swagger among miners from Mount Isa to Perth, and it's largely thanks to China. Last year, exports to the country soared: nickel by 88%, coal 72%, copper 35%. No longer do miners feel outdated and outsmarted by the dotcom people. China's growing metal consumption is pushing up prices across the board, giving companies the upside they need to commit to exploration and mining projects. Comalco, owned by Rio Tinto, recently commissioned an alumina refinery at Gladstone in central Queensland, the first plant of its kind to be built in the world for 20 years...