Word: turnings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Technology, in turn, has led to our obsession with ultraprecise timekeeping and time management. Before the Industrial Revolution, the exact time of day or year mattered only to those in specialized jobs, such as astrologers and sailors. For the rest, the day began at dawn, noon was when the sun was highest in the sky, and sunset wrapped things up. Says Carleen Stephens, who curated the Smithsonian show, in 1790 fewer than 10% of Americans had a clock of any kind in their homes, and most of those had no minute hand...
...English, shied away from bars, preferring to read or attend the theater. Carruth also avoided the media, often refusing to give any interviews. "In our family, an empty wagon makes the most noise," says his mother Theodry Carruth, explaining his quiet demeanor. She claims he was ready to turn himself in but "fled because he got poor legal advice and he was scared." The Panthers took a harsher view of Carruth's actions and released him. "This thing is beyond football," says coach George Seifert. "Look at the lives that have been destroyed...
Well, it did not turn out quite that way. Japan went into economic decline. The U.S.S.R., then Russia, collapsed. Europe entered a decade of economic stagnation and diplomatic fecklessness (as displayed in the Balkans until the U.S. cavalry arrived). And China, though rising, remains decades away from being able to pose a global challenge...
...everyone now recognizes, the world at the turn of the 21st century is not multipolar but unipolar. America bestrides the world like a colossus. Such hegemony is rare in history because coalitions of rival powers invariably rise to challenge and cut down the big guy. Two centuries ago, Russia, Prussia, Britain and Austria rallied together to defeat Napoleonic France's bid for European hegemony. The miracle of the '90s has been the dog that didn't bark: Where is the opposition, where are the coalitions of second-rank states rising to challenge Pax Americana...
...unify China and become its first emperor. His aims are honorable, his methods increasingly brutal; he might be the prototype for Lenin or Mao. Ying sends his lover Lady Zhao (Gong) to her Han homeland. Her mission is to find a professional killer (Zhang, in a potent turn) to fake an assassination attempt, whose "failure" will make Ying seem invincible to his adversaries. But Ying grows more ruthless, and the lady and the killer fall in love. Now they will try to put an end to the emperor's dynasty before it begins...