Word: robustness
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...worth paying for something rather remarkable. It has been 20 years since, in her unwitting gift to Latin America, Margaret Thatcher defeated the Argentine junta in the Falklands war and revealed the bankruptcy of politics run by men in dark glasses and military uniforms. Democracy in Latin America is robust; Hakim calls last week's election "tremendously clean, competent and decent." One mark of health in any democracy is the election of those who once opposed a regime. That is why the election to the Mexican presidency of Vicente Fox, a right-winger, was so important in 2000, and that...
...today, at a time when many people 60 or older are healthier and more robust than ever, the Age 60 rule has come under a new challenge. Ten pilots have filed a petition with the FAA, claiming that the agency's establishment of the rule had nothing to do with safety but instead was a back-room deal to rid major airlines of highly paid senior pilots. The 76-page appeal, which uses previously unreleased documents obtained by the petitioners, claims that the agency has dismissed or ignored research showing that older pilots are as safe as their younger colleagues...
...spine-injured rats in which some of the animals are given no therapy after injury and others are given exercise. When their cords are later examined, the stimulated animals show new cell growth at the site of the lesion. "We believe," says McDonald, "that we can induce selective and robust cell growth...
Solving the problem is difficult, mostly because of the ferocious debate over how to do it. Biotech partisans say the answer lies in genetically modified crops--foods engineered for vitamins, yield and robust growth. Environmentalists worry that fooling about with genes is a recipe for Frankensteinian disaster. There is no reason, however, that both camps can't make a contribution...
Third, otherwise robust societies can be dragged down by the environmental problems of their trade partners. About 500 years ago, two Polynesian societies, on Henderson Island and Pitcairn Island, vanished because they depended for vital imports on the Polynesian society of Mangareva Island, which collapsed from deforestation. We Americans can well understand that outcome, having seen how vulnerable we are to instability in oil-exporting countries of the Middle East...