Word: possessed
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...world could hardly have wound up otherwise. Human beings began counting and "falling under the spell of numbers," in H.G. Wells' words, well before they could write. Long ago, the entire species was like some modern aboriginal peoples (the Damara and some Hottentots in Africa, for example) who possess words only for numbers up to three, every larger quantity being simply expressed as "many." A fascination with the multiplicity of things, together with a quenchless scientific yen, pushed the main body of mankind, however, inevitably into its present plight-a time when so many stunning measurements are bandied about...
...have been popular as curiosities ever since Archimedes tried to calculate how many grains of sand the universe could contain (1051, he said). Today, however, mind-walloping numbers are no longer oddities; they are the stuffing of ordinary news and public discourse. While even the biggest figures no doubt possess meaning, it is impossible not to suspect that many casually circulated numbers might as well be the music of the spheres...
Chester Arthur Kinsman is one of Bova's ideal astronauts. These are not the sterile, blandly patriotic robots projected by NASA flacks, but intensely human and necessarily flawed men--and women--who believe in what they are doing and possess enough independence to reject or exploit bureaucratic maneuvering that surrounds them. As Bova portrays it, the path into space--whether it be military, industrial or political--will be strewn with the carcasses of careers and programs that, regardless of merit, lose behind-the-scenes struggles of power and influence...
MARTHA ROBERTS and DEBBIE KALISH. Harvard's number one doubles team, and winners of last week's Mass State title, is seeded second in the doubles bracket. Kalish and Roberts both possess similar serve-and-volley games and are particularly adept...
Princeton's season mark stands at 2-1, while the Lions possess a 1-2 record...