Word: plasticizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Meanwhile, in city and in country, new fads and features from the West have begun to change the face and shape of the people. In Peking, women sometimes pay plastic surgeons $20 (half a month's wage for the average urban worker) to have their eyes enlarged, their eyelids folded or their noses straightened. Men think nothing of putting down $5 for a permanent wave. Others spend $5 for disco-coordinated aerobics classes with Oriental Jane Fondas like former Star Gymnast Qi Yufang...
...Nicaragua, some relatively sophisticated and others seemingly handmade. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the 30 to 40 used under the supervision of the CIA have caused the most damage. They are smooth cylinders up to 10 ft. long and 21 in. wide, filled with 300 Ibs. of C-4 plastic explosive. Weighted by another 300 Ibs. of material, they are transported by a mother ship operating 30 miles offshore, carried closer inland by speedboats and dropped to the bottom of shipping channels...
These types of mines have a magnetometer that detects disturbances when heavy steel ships pass overhead. If the disturbance causes the magnetometer to reach a certain threshold, a jolt of electricity from a battery sets off the plastic explosive. After about six weeks, experts believe, the battery loses power and the mines become inactive. Because the mines were placed in deep channels, the explosions are unlikely to cause serious damage to ships. But those familiar with the operation say that "they will crack a seam in the ship, shake things up and knock people around." That is enough...
...Libyans. Inside, sitting with legs crossed on a carpet, is the general, Abdul Raman Berdabali, 47, looking like a bird of prey. "Oh, yes," he says, pointing to a heap of seven land mines sitting next to his sleeping mat, "there are plenty of mines about. They are plastic, which makes them hard to detect." Under his watchful eye, everyone devours trays of boiled mutton covered with flies. Again, all eat together. "Even Camarade Habré ate from the same plate with us when he came to visit," the commander says...
...February the Crimson scrimmaged with Brown on the plastic grass on top of the Bruins' athletic complex and, after four hours of frustration, came away 57-6 losers...