Word: signal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...came more or less periodically every two to seven years. But in the early 1990s several El Ninos appeared in a row, one right after another. Now, after dying down in 1995 and '96, El Nino is back. What is going on? scientists wonder. Are frequent El Ninos a signal of global warming caused by human tampering with the atmosphere? Or do they arise from random fluctuations in the natural cycle? There are as yet no good answers to these questions. Observes Michael Glantz of the National Center for Atmospheric Research: "The discrepancy between what we think we know about...
...stranded on a desert isle, about the only comfort a notebook computer can offer is a nice long game of solitaire. The right watch, on the other hand, might save your life. Breitling's Emergency watch comes with a tiny transmitter that sends a distress signal that can be picked up by search planes or rescue boats as much as 250 miles away...
...Exchange. No listing. Nope. Or call Dallas--Irving, to be precise, home of the Dallas Cowboys--and ask for the number of Da'Boys. No listing. You provide the address--1 Cowboys Parkway--and are finally given a number, which produces only the screech of the no-such-number signal. The list goes on: no number for state representatives' offices in New England, or for the Mayflower hotel in Washington, D.C. One operator, when asked for a number in Des Moines, informed the caller that there was no such place...
This idea hasn't yet been confirmed by other shark researchers, but they don't dismiss it either. They know that sharks are extremely sensitive to electromagnetic signals; a "sixth sense" lets them home in on faint electricity generated by another fish's movement, gill action or even heartbeat. Indeed, Holland's team in Hawaii routinely tricks baby hammerheads at Coconut Island into striking at electrodes dangling in the water. Adult sharks, apparently drawn by the same process, have been known to bite through undersea cables. Holland is planning to investigate what sorts of electric signal might repel rather than...
...gets into the elevator on another floor," he writes, "a man who gives her no undue attention, who presses the button for a floor other than the one she has selected...who stands a substantial distance from her, is not likely to hurt her without giving some signal." If she'd read his book, she would have been able to unclench. That is, until the next human appeared on the horizon...