Word: pastes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Among superpower currencies, the Soviet ruble gets no respect. Its official value is so overstated after decades of isolation from the marketplace that even Soviet citizens treat it as funny money. In the past year Soviet economists have openly acknowledged that the ruble's official rate of exchange with Western currencies was seriously out of whack. While the Soviet state bank, Gosbank, gave visiting foreigners only 0.65 rubles for every U.S. dollar, a thriving black market offered as much as 15 rubles. An internal study done for the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party reportedly estimated the ruble...
...last week's step, which in practical terms will apply to a small portion of transactions. Tourists are generally asked to pay in foreign currency for lodging, transit and food. And as Soviet citizens know painfully well, the ruble is virtually worthless in the domestic economy. Moscow cabbies speed past hapless hailers unless they hold up something more enticing: a greenback or a pack of Marlboro cigarettes...
...American cities, game has taken off this season partly because of "an overall interest in finer foods." Joseph Baum, co-owner of New York City's Rainbow Room and Aurora restaurants, agrees. "Flavor is in again, and game is full of flavor," he says. "It's evocative of the past, of tradition. It's romantic." This season Aurora has set up a special game menu for its dinner guests. Last week's offerings included medallions of venison with dried fruit, saddle of hare with black- and white-peppercorn sauce and roasted Scottish grouse...
Eighty percent of the 1.5 million lbs. of venison sold in the U.S. comes from New Zealand, but American farmers are starting to catch up. Over the past seven years, the yearly production of farm-raised deer has increased sixfold, to 30,000 lbs. Game ranchers sell another 100,000 lbs. of wild venison. Farm venison, however, appeals to more people because it tastes milder than wild deer. "Every deer farmer sells all he has," says Raleigh Buckmaster, president-elect of the North American Deer Farmers' Association. "Restaurants are calling us all the time...
...past glory, radar is facing its most perilous assault ever. All the major military powers are working on stealth technologies designed to defeat radar. The U.S. Air Force's new B-2 Stealth bomber, for example, is supposedly almost invisible to radar because its sleek shape and special composite construction tend to absorb rather than reflect electronic signals. The same techniques will soon be used to introduce stealth missiles, ships, satellites and tanks. Moreover, military designers have developed missiles and other weapons that can zero in on electronic signals and thus destroy the ships and planes carrying radar. Faced with...