Word: nugget
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...flatness of the universe also means the theory of inflation has passed a key test. Originally conceived around 1980 (in the course of elementary-particle, not astronomical, research), the theory says the entire visible universe grew from a speck far smaller than a proton to a nugget the size of a grapefruit, almost instantaneously, when the whole thing was .000000000000000000000000000000000001 sec. old. This turbo-expansion was driven by something like dark energy but a whole lot stronger. What we call the universe, in short, came from almost nowhere in next to no time. Says M.I.T.'s Alan Guth, a pioneer...
...helped, of course, that the missionaries brought more than just Scripture to the villagers. They gave out food and medicine too. "Aspirin was like a gold nugget," Boykin says. As North Americans, they enjoyed celebrity status in rural Peru. They came from a richer, cleaner, shinier planet far, far away. "They would set up a hammock for you in their hut and bring out fish and fruit," says Boykin. "You could be there forever and not find out that every time you finish eating, they're in back eating your leftovers...
...stuck with me was a remark by a high-level Microsoft executive. He had heard I once worked for a federal judge he knew. The more I tried to focus on the antitrust issues, the more I kept wondering how this man I'd never met summoned up this nugget from my past...
...known presidential sleeping habit. The dog, whose name was "Darling," had recently sniffed out some heroin in the tennis shoes of a tourist on a cruise ship. Clinton petted the dog, who seemed quite taken with POTUS. In surmising why the pooch seemed so affectionate, Clinton dropped his little nugget: "Buddy slept with me last night. He probably smells Buddy." No details were available about the president's morning shower...
...Gore's campaign-research team was combing through Bill Bradley's Senate record last summer, it hit upon a nugget of political gold. But not until a few weeks ago did Gore messagemeister Carter Eskew decide the time had come to share that bit of history with the voters of Iowa. "Let me introduce a friend of mine to you," Gore purred to Bradley as a man in dungarees stood up in the audience at their first debate in the state. "Why did you vote against the disaster relief for Chris Petersen when he and thousands of other farmers here...