Word: sphere
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Until now, the West has been remarkably shy about taking a hand in the process of change. Entranced by Gorbachev and anxious to believe the cold war is nearly over, the West has been reluctant to tamper in his sphere of influence. Preoccupied with other regions, Washington in particular has not paid more than occasional attention to Eastern Europe. Wariness is wise, but the current indecision has been paralytic...
...maybe there are some things money just shouldn't be allowed to buy, sensibly or otherwise. Socialist philosopher Michael Walzer added flesh to this ancient skeleton of sentiment in his 1983 book, Spheres of Justice. Walzer argued that a just society is not necessarily one with complete financial equality -- a hopeless and even destructive goal -- but one in which the influence of money is not allowed to dominate all aspects of life. By outlawing organ sales, you are indeed keeping the insidious influence of money from leaching into a new sphere and are thereby reducing the power of the rich...
...many citizens of Japan, where personal hygiene is paramount and high technology extends into just about every sphere of daily life. This combination has produced the enthronement of the bathroom as a focus for ingenuity and decorating style. "The Japanese have given up hopes of having a garden, and are spending money for comfortable dwellings," says sociologist Yukio Akatsuka. "The interest is now shifting from the living room to the bathroom." Though the seatless holes in the ground of stereotypical Western dread still exist in many parts of Japan, the newfangled WC is often a marvel of gadgetry...
...goal for the juniors and seniors at Watertown High in Watertown, Mass., is to mount a thimble-size metal earth on a coat hanger in the middle of a melon-size clear-plastic sphere that is supposed to be the universe. The students then use Magic Markers to trace onto the universe a computer-drawn map of a few hundred of the brightest stars in the night sky. They draw a line around the sphere to represent the ecliptic, or path of the sun through the constellations, and then they are ready for some gnarly astronomy...
...crescent and a gibbous moon -- a waxing gibbous, at that. Barry Lyons solves the mystery of the moon's phases for a visitor by drawing an impromptu diagram. "What was the moon last night?" Petricone bellows. "A waxing crescent," Karyn Woodbury shoots back as she assembles her celestial sphere. "What about tonight?" Petricone pushes. "A first quarter," pipes another voice...