Word: tornadoes
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...relatively benign. But not to Nexrad (for Next Generation Radar), a new detection system that is powerful enough to track a swarm of insects moving across a wheatfield 50 km (30 miles) away. The domed instrument peered into the swirling winds and raindrops inside the clouds and saw a tornado aborning. The Weather Service flashed an alert to the surrounding community. Two houses and $1 million worth of property were destroyed that night by the cyclone, but there were no serious injuries. "You can never prove you've saved a life," says Ron Alberty, director of the Nexrad facility...
Some argue that our constant bombardment with these morbid images desensitizes us to the horror of death. They've got a point. As Stalin recognized, one death is a tragedy, but a million deaths is a statistic. The Gulf War annihilated more than 100,000 Iraqis, a tornado destroyed more than 100,000 Bangladeshis, and Americans barely seemed to care...
...what is a reader to make of the book at the center of this tornado? First, while Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography may be mean-spirited, it is no mean achievement. The book is exhaustively researched, packed with quotes (a surprising number of them with names attached), anecdotes and detail. To be sure, much of this is not new: Kelley mixes original quotes indiscriminately with recycled material from other books and articles, and fudges the notes at the end so the reader often cannot tell which is which. Still, much of the portrait -- Nancy's difficult relationship with her children...
...best therapy, though, was the kind Algonans gave one another over coffee at the Chrome, a 24-hour truck stop and favorite local hangout, where the 1979 tornado struck. "In public places like that, you could actually feel the town coming closer together," says MacDonald, who switched from editor to columnist so she could spend more time with her children. "We all suddenly realized how fragile life is, that we better get on with the things we have...
...supplying nations is essential. But Western defense industries, particularly in Europe, have become heavily reliant on exports to finance research and development of new weapons systems. France, which once sent a third of its weapons exports to Iraq, is seeking new customers. Britain hopes to sell Challenger tanks and Tornado aircraft to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates...