Word: trillion
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That is a rare, fancy metaphor that can be backed up by hard numbers. The Pentagon has indeed been on a long binge: in the eight years of the Reagan Administration, Congress will have handed it $2.2 trillion -- trillion! A good deal of that has been dribbled away in heedless, indiscriminate spending. Now the bills are coming due -- literally, in the case of a number of supersophisticated weapons systems nearing production. Meanwhile, the Defense Department has been forced by the overall federal budget squeeze to embrace a decidedly unfamiliar, and in its eyes hideous, new bride: austerity...
What worries crime experts is that wire transfers, which banks use to zap some $1 trillion in funds around the globe each week, could be so susceptible to security breaches. Says a senior officer of First Chicago: "It's impossible to do something like this without the help of an insider. But once you have the insider, it's almost a childlike process...
...invaders soon receive a rude shock, for they encounter one of nature's most incredible and complex creations: the human immune system. Inside the body, a trillion highly specialized cells, regulated by dozens of remarkable proteins and honed by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, launch an unending battle against the alien organisms. It is high-pitched biological warfare, orchestrated with such skill and precision that illness in the average human being is relatively rare...
...NATO defense ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels to ponder those issues and look at what Western Europe might do to stop the grumbling in the U.S. One answer: greater spending by the West Europeans. With a combined gross domestic product of $4.3 trillion, they are as strong economically as the U.S., and their total population of 374 million is one-third larger than that of the U.S. The likelihood that defense outlays will increase is dim, however, since European economic growth rates are slowing. Another inhibiting factor, a senior U.S. official notes, is that "arms talks are making...
...immune system is made up of a trillion specialized cells, regulated by powerful biochemicals, that wage an unending war on alien organisms that cause illness, suffering and death. Spurred along by the AIDS epidemic, research into its complex and wondrous workings is bringing about promising developments in the treatment of deadly diseases. See MEDICINE...