Word: unknowns
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...been nearly 25 years since John McPhee struck out for areas relatively unknown, to prove by deft reportage that anything can be interesting if it is presented well. He has written arrestingly about subjects as mundane as oranges and as momentous as high-energy physics and the geologic forces that shape our planet. The three pieces that constitute his 20th book, Atchafalaya, Cooling the Lava and Los Angeles Against the Mountains, deal with the power of determined people to tame water, fire and earth...
...full year the scientists made weekly rounds of the village, collecting bags and identifying the remains. If the cat had consumed the entire catch, the victim was simply recorded as an "unknown." Otherwise, the identification process was simple, the scientists report, although "initially -- the study began during the summer months -- it was rather smelly." Surprisingly enough, they write, "the villagers were much less squeamish than we had expected." In fact, some went about their assigned task with great gusto, placing their cats' trophies in home freezers to await collection...
...produce results to keep their wealthy backers interested, and Herbert makes it clear that Peary feigned a "farthest north" record at about the time Cook, astonishingly, was counterfeiting a first ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley). To what degree Peary admitted to himself that he was a fraud is unknown. So is the extent to which Matthew Henson, his unswerving black assistant, understood the fudging. Herbert writes sympathetically of all these voyagers, whose real accomplishments were extraordinary. They were married to the Arctic, and perhaps the truth of the matter was that if they had to fake triumphs in order...
...cost of the universal health care plan is really unknown," Woodward said. "I hope we could step back [and] put it off for a couple of years and make a better, more informed decision...
Sherlock Holmes once solved a mystery by noticing that a certain dog had not barked at night. In Moscow the role of the dog that did not bark was played by a series of secret sensors that were hidden inside the embassy -- a crucial fact unknown to the Marine guards. Additional systems protected other sensitive areas. "There was a whole panoply of things around the embassy, none of which showed any evidence of penetration," says a senior security official. "The Soviets might be able to avoid some devices, but not all of them. Nobody is that good." Other key points...