Word: rocks
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Perhaps, as some critics suggested, the budget had been deliberately padded to let the Republicans make some cuts for the record and still let a Democratic administration operate comfortably. But there was a hard-rock basis to many items. Few thought that national defense could be had more cheaply, except by merging the armed forces. The $5 billion for debt service was sacrosanct; so was the loan commitment to Britain; so were nearly all veterans' benefits, tax refunds and pensions...
These added up to more than $27 billion of hard rock. Thus most of the promised cuts would have to come out of the ordinary operations of government. Some could be made, thus justifying tax cuts. But many a citizen thought it might be better to leave taxes alone and reduce the debt-$260 billion-instead...
...Spaniards spent hundreds of millions to fortify Cartagena. Miles of tunnels, ventilated by shafts driven 100 feet through solid rock, served Fort San Felipe's twelve gun emplacements (one named after each apostle). A stone barrier, thrust across one of the two harbor entrances, forced men-of-war into a narrow passage raked by Spanish guns. Cartagena knew what it was to be sacked (e.g., by Drake in 1585, and the French in 1544 and 1697), but in 1741, the fortifications paid off: the Spanish routed a 28,000-man, 186-vessel British fleet thrown at them by Admiral...
...exploded at various points on the bottom of the lagoon sent waves through the coral and underlying material. The denser the medium, the faster such waves travel. By measuring how long the waves took to reach listening instruments, the Navy's scientists could estimate the density of the rock at various depths (see chart...
...some 2,000 feet down they found that the atoll was made of coral and similar stuff, rather like what was found on the surface. Then began a zone of heavier rock, which might be ash thrown out by a volcano, or limestone formed by corals and other sea creatures and compacted by pressure. At about 5,000 feet, they found what they had hoped to find: a "buried mountain" of heavy rock...