Word: sphere
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...failure of nerve, Koestler believes, sabotaged these true starts toward knowledge. Faced with a Greek society already in decline, Plato equated any change with decay. For philosophic reasons, he decided that the sphere was the only perfect shape, that the world must be a perfect sphere and that the motion of heavenly bodies must be in perfect circles at uniform speed. Aristotle returned to the idea of an immobile earth and placed it in the center of nine concentric, transparent spheres, outside which was the Unmoved Mover who kept the whole machinery turning. To make the heavens jibe with Aristotle...
...cynicism about the Council's power. Obviously no Council report by itself can have any direct effect on College policy, for decisions are made only by the Administration and the Faculty, and there is understandable doubt that the Council can convince the powers that be. In the only other sphere of Council influence, undergraduate organizations, there is general agreement that student groups should retain independence and not be subject to Council control...
...politico-national sphere, horse-trading proceeded at a marey pace. Longtime Lucenemy Sen. Wayne Morse, Oregon egghead, failed in a gauche bid to mass ouster votes. Appointment won overwhelming approval in the Senate, world's poshest club...
...critics have dutifully produced a jargon suitable for such works. Sample (Nicolas Calas in Art News): "Jasper Johns extinguishes the emblematic character of a given sign . . . The target of blue and yellow circles holds the implication that from the marksman's stand it would be seen as a sphere of green . . . From a national emblem the flag becomes a symbol of ambiguity; from the insignia it is converted into poetry ... If a flashlight instead of a gun is aimed at the target of displaced colors the silence grows louder...
...took the precaution of finding out just what the Army had planned for its banned Explorer I satellite. The Army informed him that it had in mind a cylinder 6 in. in diameter. By no coincidence at all, the instrument package Van Allen produced for the 21-in. Vanguard sphere proved to be cylindrical, and just 5½ in. in diameter...