Word: thwart
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...blacks as equivalently human.” Loury argues that this racial stigma restricts the social interactions and opportunities available to blacks. This “social divide,” Loury says, leads to “racial differences in the acquisition of productive skills” that thwart African-Americans before they even enter areas of public life where racial discrimination is illegal. Add this to the material disadvantages, like the wealth gap, that black families suffer because of the historical fact of slavery and, as Carter puts it, “We [African-Americans] are still playing...
...foretell the future is always a risky business. Like generals who prepare for the next war by planning for the last one, prognosticators usually look ahead on the basis of what has already happened. In the Pentagon last year, military planners immersed themselves in missile-defense systems to thwart a cold-war-era nuclear attack but failed to prepare for the civilian airliners that were transformed into guided missiles on Sept. 11. Brokers in the World Trade Center towers speculating on oil, gold and pork-belly prices could not have known that the future of the markets was flying straight...
...recent strategy, shown effective for the first time at NIAID, may be able to thwart this evasive action. Known as "prime-boost," it gives the immune system a whiff of the virus' scent before hitting it with the actual vaccine. In Nabel's lab, that whiff consists of a snippet of DNA from HIV's outer coating--not enough to trigger a full immune response but, as his work was the first to show in animals, enough to put the system on alert. In the past this strategy hasn't worked in humans because our immune system, unlike those...
Many FBI agents feel that asking young women about their love life or students about their major isn't the most effective way to thwart global terrorism. A similar strategy was attempted during the Gulf War; it failed to yield any significant leads, but it did arouse some ill-will in the Arab-American community. Former FBI and CIA director William Webster worries about Ashcroft's prevention-first policy, warning that nothing will be gained if preemptive arrests are made before all the players in a terrorist conspiracy are identified and located. Those who escape the net will regroup...
Less extreme and more effective precautions are available to thwart terrorism. Many airports have already implemented comprehensive screenings at security checkpoints—with every carry-on scanned first and then searched by hand. We already have the technology in place for airlines to enter their passenger lists into background checking databases that will flag those with suspected terrorist connections. And it would only be a mild inconvenience if security personnel conducted one last identification check on board the aircraft to ensure that all passengers and crew are supposed to be there...