Word: spasms
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...allergens or pollutants. The body responds by activating various defense cells from the immune system. Their mobilization causes the airways to swell. At the same time, the muscles surrounding the airways contract, cutting off airflow. When that happens, asthmatics must inhale an adrenaline-like substance to stop the muscle spasm and reopen their airways...
Like carousers who do not want to know too much about what happened the night before, Americans tend to forget or downplay emotional binges like the idolization of MacArthur. I was talking with a young journalist at the height of 1987's spasm of "Olliemania," when Oliver North seemed -- to some -- to be speaking truth to power. The reporter said he had never seen anything like it -- and I tried to contrast the few weeks of Ollie with the months of MacArthur's heroization. There are many cases in America's recent past in which people have turned from...
...since the dinosaurs were killed off, say biologists, has the world experienced an extinction "spasm" like the man-made one that will wipe out 10% to 20% of the earth's estimated 10 million species of plants and animals by the year 2020. Since at least 50% of those species live in tropical rain forests, past efforts to save them have run into the usual lines of resistance from governments in the South, which resent any kind of meddling from the North. What makes the losses so unacceptable is that they are irreversible; once a species becomes extinct...
...September pursuit and capture of favored Los Angeles. It helped that everybody hated the damn Dodgers. It didn't hurt that Braves partisans urged the team on with toy tomahawks and a war-chant mantra, which the votaries could moan for innings on end (the dumbest mass spasm since the Wave). By playoff time, the Braves were high and loose. All the Pirates' edgy swagger could not mute the magic -- or solve the riddle of a brilliant Atlanta pitcher, as young and ageless as Lefty Grove...
...worst spasm of nativist violence since the days of Adolf Hitler, bringing the number of attacks to nearly 400 since the beginning of the year. With a record 220,000 asylum seekers expected by year's end, even more clashes seem likely. While the latest wave of xenophobic incidents originated in the formerly communist east, anti-foreigner sentiment is being demonstrated throughout the country...