Word: stagnant
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Under Said Bin Taimur, the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman, which lies on the southeast corner of the Arabian peninsula, remained one of the most stagnant societies on earth. The 60-year-old Sultan decreed long ago that his 600,000 subjects should not own automobiles or attend cinemas. In the capital, Muscat, the city gates are closed at sundown, when the cannon booms. People must carry lanterns at night; flashlights are banned as too blinding...
...polluted air hung like a filthy muslin curtain along the entire Atlantic Coast, from Boston south to Atlanta. Because of unusually stagnant winds and humid heat in the high 90s, Washington, D.C., was on the verge of the first smog alert in the capital's history. The hardest hit of all U.S. cities was New York (see following story), which declared a first-stage pollution alert and simultaneously reeled under a severe power shortage...
...Stagnant Empire. In addition to exotic woods, there were cacao and tobacco, the latter actually called "Trinidad" in early 17th century Europe. Nations had strict trade regulations, but they meant little in the face of raw opportunism. The Spanish had a saying: "The law is to be obeyed but not always followed...
Trinidad's Indian population was virtually exterminated and replaced by African slaves. As years passed, bloods mixed, profits dwindled, and Trinidad became little more than a backwater of the stagnant Spanish empire. In 1797, the British occupied the island, with plans for launching a revolution in South America. They even went so far as to draft a British-style constitution for an independent Spanish-American country. But such grandiose dreams were lost in the swamps of political and logistical reality...
...have arrived at the mistaken conclusion that no number will escape the draft this year. They argue that thirty times twelve is three hundred sixty, and that just might as well be everyone. The major flaw in this argument is the assumption that the pool of eligible men is stagnant. Rather, it changes from month to month. The pool is composed of 1-A's who have exhausted their appeals and have passed their physicals. There are many men who have been reclassified 1-A but are not yet "indictable" and hence are not in the pool. Many with...