Word: plainness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...proclivity for self-delusion) is as readily understood in China as references to Big Brother are elsewhere. Each author spent most of his adult life as an independent thinker of the left, criticizing dogmatism and hypocrisy wherever it appeared on the political spectrum. Each championed plain forms of writing. And each penned an ironic novella about a revolution that claimed to be about changing everything, but ended up altering only the titles (in the Ah-Q tale) or the species (in Animal Farm) of the bullies in charge...
However, another common thread in the European coverage was just plain support for the United States—a sense of playing their part. At least among their political leaders, there seems to be a genuine sentiment that they are there to help us simply because we are allies...
Much of what Gibbs is talking about is bull, plain and simple. A parent can't be too careful. This is not the '50s, when you could leave your door open at night to help cool the house. Sad, but true nonetheless...
...Plain old niacin--a B vitamin--may be better at unclogging arteries than an ingredient in Merck's multibillion-dollar cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, according to a recent study. It's the third trial in two years to question the pills' effectiveness. Patients are growing skittish: sales of both drugs fell to $4.56 billion in 2008, down 12% from the year before...
...model that determines how extensive the levees should be. For instance, the Corps did not consider the tendency of soil to sink over time, and it excluded the possibility of a highly powerful storm hitting the city because that was unlikely, which violates sophisticated principles of statistics and just plain common sense. On Nov. 18, a federal judge ruled that the Corps was directly responsible for flooding in St. Bernard Parish and the Lower Ninth Ward. "The Corps' lassitude and failure to fulfill its duties resulted in a catastrophic loss of human life and property in unprecedented proportions," the judge...