Word: system
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...thought of moving away, although her car was looted a second time and rocks later were thrown at her house. She remained curiously unshaken, never bothering to turn on her expensive burglar alarm system, and merely replacing a broken window with a plastic sheet...
State Department specialists caution that it is too early to judge what kind of relationship will be struck between military and civilian forces. "The ominous factor is the sudden politicization of the army," explains a worried diplomat. "We had seen an orderly movement to a democratic system, but the use of military strength to change the personalities in charge could be traumatic...
Such is the impression created by America's all-purpose early alert system. Day after day the air bleats and print blinks with warnings and alarms. Cancer alerts have become almost as commonplace as weather reports. Strictures on how to avoid heart attacks pop up everywhere. Preventive campaigns stir up a constant din of sermons against careless driving, against starting fires, against getting too fat. It is like the continual murmur of doom's own voice...
...pathos is enough to provoke wistful dreams of returning to the vanished day when a person was guided only by folk wisdom: an apple a day would keep the doctor away. But there is no going back. Today the apple must be checked for sprayed-on toxins. The alarm system is here to stay. It would be foolhardy as well as foolish to suggest that it be shut down; it is, in truth, indispensable for guiding those who wish guidance. What is needed is a strategy for getting through life passably happy de spite all the ominous background chatter...
...prices it should have saved the rest by midwinter. Not all of his conservation problems are so easy to solve. A handsome arts complex, designed when oil cost less than $2 per bbl., turns out to be a stubborn and profligate fuel waster. When its radiant heating system is turned down to a reasonable consumption level, the building's pipes are in danger of freezing...