Word: specked
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...PRESUMPTUOUS TO ASSUME THAT this speck in the universe we inhabit should be the only one with intelligent life on it [SPACE, Feb. 5]. Among the many billions of heavenly bodies, there have to be a large number on which life exists, and many on which beings may have evolved beyond our level. It is conceivable that such beings have had a close look at us and turned away. There may be a message out there in space: "Hey, guys, as you explore other planets to visit or colonize, stay away from one. The dominant species there is vicious, killing...
Speculation titillates the mind but usually ends by subtly demeaning the human place in the cosmic scheme. The Earth that the ancients took to be the center of the drama becomes ever more marginal, a receding speck. Astronomers' searches tend to assume that the aliens would be superior to earthlings, perhaps evolved beyond Earth's ability to comprehend them...
...HUBBLE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AS irrelevant as they are beautiful. Suppose our vision were limited to the range of the human eye and the resources spent on seeing farther into the universe had been devoted to improving our own speck of cosmic dust, the earth. How much worse off would we be? JAMES H. REYNOLDS Berkeley, California...
...SIMPSON TRIAL HAS SHAKEN AMERIcans' confidence in the ability of the U.S. judicial system to deliver justice. As time passes, the case may recede into being only another speck of sand on the sand hill, but its effect on the shape of the hill will last forever. There is far more at stake here than the case. Yes, one side lost and another won, but did either one rise to the occasion? MAIR ZAMIR, London, Ontario...
...presented with 150 metal trunks and boxes crammed with documents that the Iraqis claimed the general had hidden from the government in his chicken house. American officials laughed at the notion that Hussein Kamel ever kept any records secret from Saddam. The steel cases, Ekeus said, "had not a speck of dust on them," a clear clue that they'd been quickly planted...