Word: sheer
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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WELL, he did it again. Everyone, including his Finance Minister, thought Charles DeGaulle would finally be forced to devalue the franc. It was sheer economic idiocy to assume that France could possibly maintain the parity of the franc. So of course Le Grand Charles refused to devalue...
Whether he did it out of sheer peversity or out of some deeper understanding of the psychology of international economics will probably never he known. But, although it is still really too soon to tell, it seems to be working...
...sheer drama of man's first flight to the moon-the spectacle, the perils and the uncertainty-has been heightened by the prospects of a close race between the U.S. and Russia. The U.S. has announced that on Dec. 21 it hopes to launch three astronauts aboard Apollo 8. According to the projected schedule, they will circle the moon ten times, starting on Christmas Eve, then return to the earth, where they will land 21 days later. Russian plans, as usual, are cloaked in secrecy. But many Western experts who have pieced together clues from Moscow rumors, recent Soviet...
...matter how carefully it is planned and executed, however, the December flight of Apollo 8 will involve some chilling perils. Besides anticipating the kinds of problems that could occur in a simple near-earth orbital flight, lunar-mission planners must plan realistically for troubles that would be magnified by sheer distance from earth. Should life-support or power systems begin to fail on earth-orbital flights, astronauts are usually within half an hour to three hours of recovery on land or water; a relatively small thrust from a retrorocket can lower their orbit into the atmosphere, where friction provides...
...example, the recent headline idea that the nation's courts should double the conviction rate-a sheer impossibility. Reason: 90% of all defendants already plead guilty, are thus convicted without trial. Of the 10% actually tried, more than half are convicted. Obviously, a rate of roughly 95% cannot be doubled...