Word: perfective
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
That makes perfect sense to Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Center. Since 1988 he has studied American centenarians--he calls them "expert survivors"--and compared them to people in their 80s ("master survivors") and to relative youngsters in their 60s. Poon found that out of 16 personality traits, the experts exhibited four coping mechanisms. First, he says, "centenarians are more dominant. They want to have their way," and they are not easily pushed around. Many are characterized by "suspiciousness. They do not take information on the superficial level" but will question an issue and think...
Entrapped in his obsessions and compulsions, he eventually became the perfect American weirdo--all silences and unclipped toenails. But before that, Howard Hughes, at least as Martin Scorsese sees him, was the perfect American, period. He was rich. He was romantic. He was fearless. And as an inventor and entrepreneur, he was one of the past century's great visionaries. It is this Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who dominates The Aviator--recklessly crashing planes and cars, heedlessly wooing Katharine Hepburn (Cate Blanchett), among others...
...phone services use private Internet connections, but Vonage uses the public Web, so phone calls travel alongside messages, digital photos and online shopping orders. Traditional phone service, on the other hand, creates a dedicated circuit between you and whomever you're calling. That century-old system is darn near perfect--while Web calls are prone to background buzz--but not nearly as efficient as the Web. Because Vonage can route calls at a lower cost and does not face the fees and taxes imposed on regular phone service, monthly bills are typically half what you would pay the phone company...
...South Seas in the 1850s, bound for the gold fields of California, when she comes upon Bethlehem Bay, so renamed by missionaries who have ventured to the Society Islands to "civilize" the natives. When the shipmen and the emissaries of religion meet on the island,they naturally discuss (in perfect Melvillean cadences) the survival of the fittest and the plans of God. Yet all their talk of progress and a New Jerusalem has a slightly piquant air because we know what the future holds in store for them. An earlier section in Cloud Atlas (Random House; 509 pages) has told...
...master at turning ideology--or the lack of it--into something inspiring, Noonan has plenty to do. Republicans watched the Democrats mount an almost pitch-perfect middle-of-the-road convention in Boston and are wondering how they can match it. Although Noonan was not recruited by the White House ("She broke down the door," says a Bush supporter), top Bush aides telephoned her last week to welcome her aboard...