Word: stratus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The government is suing Chrysler to force compliance with a recall of more than 91,000 cars that federal regulators say are fitted with unsafe seat belts. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration contend that the rear seat belts in the 1995 Chrysler Cirrus and Dodge Stratus models have a defective anchoring system and are not strong enough. The case is the first time the NHTSA has taken an automaker to court for failing a government safety standard test. "Usually the government and automakers try to work out an agreement ahead of time," TIME's Joseph Szczesny says...
...their smaller models. Now hitting showrooms % is a new type of compact, one that approximates the flowing, sculpted looks and sheer drivability usually found only in sports and luxury cars -- in short, a kind of Everyman's Porsche. Ford's Contour and Mercury Mystique, Chrysler's Cirrus and Dodge Stratus, and GM's retooled Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire will feature from 120 to 170 h.p. (vs. 90 or under for many older compacts). Formerly upscale-only features like dual air bags, antilock brakes and automatic mirror controls will be standard, while options include leather interiors, dashboard CD players...
There are ways to make the technology more reliable. Fault-tolerant computers like those built by Stratus, Tandem and, for that matter, AT&T reduce runaway system errors by a kind of "paranoid democracy," where modules working in parallel constantly evaluate whether their electronic co- workers are "sane" or "crazy." Unfortunately, as last week's breakdown showed, it is possible for all the modules to go crazy at once. Software, always the skittish part of any system, can also be made more dependable by imposing the kind of discipline on programmers that engineering standards impose on, say, bridge designers...
...holiday travel period, the cold and storms were caused by a vast high-pressure area with temperature-inversion layers that stretched from Spain to the Ukraine. On much of the Continent, mountainous regions basked in relatively warm air and sunshine while the lowlands were shrouded in a chilly gray stratus cover. The Eurofreeze created wartime-like refugee conditions for those caught on impassable highways, in crowded train stations and in befogged airports. Travel was sometimes impossible by any means...
...spotted a Soviet MIG-17 fighter with six rockets under each wing soaring 200 ft. off the airliner's right wingtip. "He just sat there, where all the passengers could see him," said Pan Am Captain Tony Duff. When Duff's plane entered a convenient layer of stratus cloud, the MIG peeled off and vanished, but the maneuver was an obvious hint of what could come...