Word: spectacularities
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...potential as an international sporting venue but also its post-apartheid aura of unity and democracy. The country hosted, and won, the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and was beaten controversially by Germany for rights to the 2006 soccer World Cup. The South Africans are hungry to host the soccer spectacular in 2010. "Sport in South Africa has proved to be a unifying and empowering force," said South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki at the weekend opening ceremony in Cape Town, in which some 4,500 volunteer performers staged a stirring African-themed spectacular. South Africa also has visions...
...There is at least one more reason we grasp for the common experience of sadness. Tragedy, and specifically the shuttle disaster, with its epic scope and spectacular visuals, brings us together in a way very few things do these days, says Dr. Robert Butterworth, a psychologist and bereavement specialist. "There are so few places left in our society where we can agree, where we're not debating and fighting with each other," he says. This kind of universal loss transcends divisions established by politics or religion, he adds, and unites us in our grief. We've all experienced this strange...
George W. Bush, in fact, may be the most spectacular affirmative-action success story of all time. Until 1994, when he was 48 years old and got elected Governor of Texas, his life was almost empty of accomplishments. Yet bloodlines and connections had put him into Andover, Yale and Harvard Business School, and even finally provided him with a fortune after years of business disappointments. Intelligence, hard work and the other qualities associated with the concept of merit had almost nothing to do with Bush's life and success up to that point. And yet seven years later...
...modern world, stress usually takes other forms. But the fight-or-flight response hasn't changed. Sometimes it's still useful: a demanding job can lead to a sense of pride; a bout of precurtain jitters can motivate a spectacular performance. But many modern stresses are continuing, not acute, and arise in situations we can neither fight nor flee: an unreasonable boss, a harrowing commute, a stormy relationship, a plummeting stock market, a general sense that life is out of control...
...Part of the "Ring of Fire," the string of volcanoes that encircles the Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka has more than 100 volcanoes, 29 of them active, along with spectacular concentrations of geysers and thermal springs. For nine months a year, snow blankets the peninsula, and only by July does it melt sufficiently to enable comfortable hiking. Well, let's say relatively comfortable. During our mid-August trek, it rained half the time. Much of the interior is accessible only by helicopter, and tourists who fly into a volcanic site for an afternoon can occasionally be stranded for days...