Word: slope
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...tell its own history? If so, what would then result? For within each group, there are smaller units, each of which experiences history in a different manner, and within these units. But wait a minute! Is this what we want? Do we really want to follow down a slippery slope that leads to complete alienation? Muhammad argues, "I didn't come to Harvard University to teach you to hate white people." But what exactly are you doing, Muhammad If you teach us that there is no truth beyond each subjective conciousness, what hope remains for any communication between individuals...
This, of course, is something of a surprise to those who objected to the mission from the beginning. The standard line was that we would be in Somalia--and then the rest of the world--forever, as we plunged down the slippery slope of humanitarian aid. The mission's critics worried that a policy of sheer benevolence provides the U.S. with no clear stopping point. Sure, Somalia is better off now than before the intervention, but it still doesn't have a government, and people are still starving--but people are starving everywhere, and this argument could expand forever...
Backcountry skiers can substantially reduce their risk by heeding avalanche- center warnings, which rank the danger as low, medium, high and extreme. Forecasters routinely dig pits into targeted slopes to probe the condition of the snow below. Sometimes they even check the stability of the slope by carving ski-size slices through a test area, then standing or jumping on it. In general, south-facing slopes are less prone to avalanches because warmth from the sun promotes the bonding of the snowpack. Avalanches are also rare on slopes with inclines of less than 30 degrees. But there are exceptions...
...After seeing those people die," Williams recalled last week, "I just said 'Goddammit, I don't want to die,' and I started running as fast as I could." Scrambling down the slippery, ash-coated outer slope of the cone, he and three other scientists were bombarded with boulders the size of TV sets. "They split open when they hit the ground," said McFarlane. "Inside they were glowing red." One of the flying boulders crushed to death Colombian geochemist Jose Arles Zapata. Williams was felled as well, but managed to drag himself to partial shelter behind a huge rock...
This phenomenon is known as self-organized criticality -- the grains have organized themselves to slope at a certain angle, yet the arrangement is precarious because a tiny extra bit of sand can knock the whole thing down. The sandpile is not quite stable, not quite chaotic...