Word: runaways
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There are ways to make the technology more reliable. Fault-tolerant computers like those built by Stratus, Tandem and, for that matter, AT&T reduce runaway system errors by a kind of "paranoid democracy," where modules working in parallel constantly evaluate whether their electronic co- workers are "sane" or "crazy." Unfortunately, as last week's breakdown showed, it is possible for all the modules to go crazy at once. Software, always the skittish part of any system, can also be made more dependable by imposing the kind of discipline on programmers that engineering standards impose on, say, bridge designers...
...River (1985). This winsome adaptation of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn celebrated the frontier in music and lyrics by Roger Miller, a wistful lamenter of the lost open road. Designed and staged with shrewd simplicity, it glowed with sentiment: when Huck and the runaway slave Jim got onto the river, they lit cigars -- and ignited a skyful of stars...
...torching of Brazil's tropical forests each year accounts for some 6% of all the CO2 that is pumped into the atmosphere. Deforestation in Haiti and drought in Africa have prompted large cross-border refugee movements -- just a foretaste, perhaps, of the mass migrations that could result if runaway population growth outstrips world food and energy resources...
...white man, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick skillfully blending shyness and tenacity), had to fight to fight. Their white comrades-in-arms were full of contemptuous prejudice against them, and the high command was afraid to arm black men who had their own bitter racial grievances (many were runaway slaves...
...problem with Thoreau is that, in the end, it seems a little thin. The messages of noticing nature, bucking authority and getting involved have been preached over and over, and no new twists are added here. Thoreau's treatment of Williams (Karl Lampley), a runaway slave, even seems a little paternalistic, undercutting its supposed morality. Because the play's idealism is old and worn out, it does not affect one as it might have. Thoreau's story--except the sequence about the death of his brother, which is affecting--is not emotionally powerful. The play lacks the emotional or intellectual...