Word: scoff
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...First of all, let me say that I make no apologies to those (oh-so-bitter) Harvard cynics who have forgotten the meaning of being a kid. I am verily aware of those who will scoff at my words and ridicule what I'm about to say. However, I refuse to build some expected Harvard facade that makes being a teenager--a nave teenager -- uncool. I refuse to forget (or ignore) the innocence of a dream. Because on Tuesday night, Sept. 21st at exactly 8:35 PM in the Fleet Center, my dream came true when the Backstreet Boys exploded...
...Tuesday's approach that frightens the activists. Should Cassini pass too close to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere, they warn, radioactive plutonium in the generators that provide the craft's electricity could cause millions of cancer deaths. Most scientists and doctors scoff at such claims. Any plutonium vaporized in an accident, they explain, would be so diluted in the atmosphere that it would pose no real threat to most people. Still, activists say, had Cassini been equipped with solar panels for electricity, all danger could have been averted. But Saturn receives only a hundredth of the sunlight Earth...
...next week's approach that frightens the activists. Should Cassini pass too close to Earth and burn up in the atmosphere, they warn, radioactive plutonium in the generators that provide the craft's electricity could cause millions of cancer deaths. Most scientists and doctors scoff at such claims. Any plutonium vaporized in an accident, they explain, would be so diluted in the atmosphere that it would pose no real threat to most people. Still, activists say, had Cassini been equipped with solar panels for electricity, all danger could have been averted...
Needless to say, all of these reasons are fatuous, and the survey is simply disturbing. How can an American respond to this sort of racism coming from the mouths of people whom I otherwise respect? Hardly anyone has heard of political correctness in Moscow, and if they have, they scoff at it. Those crazy Americans making things complicated for themselves, they say. Russian society is keenly aware of its uniqueness as a nation, and it looks for commonality among people of other societies as well. Consequently, stereotypes can go a long way towards what is considered truth in Russia...
Needless to say, all of these reasons are fatuous, and the survey is simply disturbing. How can an American respond to this sort of racism coming from the mouths of people whom I otherwise respect? Hardly anyone has heard of political correctness in Moscow, and if they have, they scoff at it. Those crazy Americans making things complicated for themselves, they say. Russian society is keenly aware of its uniqueness as a nation, and it looks for commonality among people of other societies as well. Consequently, stereotypes can go a long way towards what is considered truth in Russia...