Word: odd
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...country and the methods being used to curb the grackle population. In order to discourage roosting, city administrators in Tempe, Ariz., tried lathering their downtown trees with a concord grape coating that made the birds throw up. Other solutions are more violent. A few years ago, in an odd reversal of stereotypes, the University of Texas in Austin bought shotguns to scare off the grackles, while A&M, famed for its Corps of Cadets, opted for a recording of a shotgun blast echoing through the barracks' courtyards periodically, Gayle recalled...
...eight months before Election Day, giving a depressingly early launch to what promises to be a brutal general-election campaign. At the same time, however, it could be harder for a front runner in either primary to deliver an early knockout punch to the rest of the field. "The odd effect could be to elongate the process, not shorten it," says former Republican chairman Ken Mehlman, who was George Bush's 2004 campaign manager. "On each side, there will be two or three candidates who will have the resources to survive a key loss early...
...What's odd is that, back in the 1930s, when each major studio had enough star quality to stock up to 50 films a year, the top audience favorites were kids. Cinemoppet Shirley Temple was the #1 star in 1936, 37 and 38; the third year of her reign, she turned 10. Temple was followed by three years (1939-41) when Mickey Rooney, then in and out of his teens, was the #1 attraction. (Both stars are largely forgotten, but not gone. They're, respectively...
Some philosophers maintain that solving the problem of consciousness is beyond the reach of human intelligence. This is very odd and, I believe, untrue. It fits a sensible intuition that the mind is something special and different, separable from the brain, but the fact that the intuition is sensible does not make it right...
...aside from such odd cases, virtually no expert doubts the connection between the hormones of emotion and memory--and nobody doubts that memory can be enhanced artificially. It's not necessarily a good idea, though. Give someone a shot of adrenaline, and memory temporarily improves. But it also drives up the heart rate, so it could be dangerous for the elderly. Other memory enhancers, like Ritalin or amphetamines, used by college students to cram for exams, are highly addictive. And some of the experimental drugs McGaugh is testing in rats can cause seizures. Unfortunately, he says, for people with truly...