Word: rurals
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...That goes double for Coraline, and never mind that it's set in rural Oregon. The figures are angular and mostly spindly, like undernourished Europeans after the war; they might be denizens of pestilential Vienna in the 1949 thriller The Third Man. Some of the characters are distinctly European, like Bobolinsky and the theatrical ladies. But even Coraline and the Cat, and certainly Other Mother in her final, spidery metamorphosis, lack the soft lines and winning personalities found in most U.S. animation. Indeed, the girl's "real" environment and her dream-nightmare one are equally remote from the reassuring landscapes...
...rejected 8,000 for dubious family and residency ties to his district. "A voter card is the most valuable thing in this area," he says. It makes sure that holders get at least a share of what they're entitled to: not just a vote but also access to rural employment schemes, monsoon relief, health clinics...
...China Back to the Countryside In a further example of China's faltering economy--exports and overall growth were down significantly in the fourth quarter of 2008--some 15% of its migrant workers are now jobless. This labor force, composed of rural peasants who travel to cities for factory jobs, is the backbone of the country's manufacturing sector. The Chinese government has said it may increase its $585 billion stimulus plan...
...there have been more serious critiques of the $900 billion--plus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act--from more serious critics. The stimulus smorgasbord does include some head scratchers, like $246 million worth of tax breaks for movie producers to buy film and $1.4 billion for "rural waste-disposal programs." Principled conservatives worry that it's so big, it will institutionalize Big Government; principled liberals worry that it won't be big enough to resuscitate a flatlined economy. And a bipartisan chorus--including Clinton Administration budget chief Alice Rivlin and Reagan Administration economist Martin Feldstein--has argued that the stimulus package...
...highways, funneled through state transportation departments, which love to build unsustainable sprawl roads to nowhere. There's $4.5 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is addicted to projects that destroy wetlands and induce development in vulnerable floodplains. There's $14 billion for school modernization, $100 million for rural business loans, $8.4 billion in "state- and tribal-assistance grants"--and who can say how it will all be spent? (See the top 10 financial collapses...