Word: uselessness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...discovery of oil. Although the country has a population of only 3.9 million, more than 90% of the people live along the Mediterranean, where increased demand for water for agriculture and industry is taxing local rain-fed wells. Many have become so saline that they are virtually useless for irrigation purposes. Even in Tripoli, Libya's capital, most of the water has an unpleasant salty taste...
...much about the future of atomic power everywhere as it was about a single plant in the Ukraine. In the months since the Chernobyl blast sent clouds of radioactive debris into the air, 31 Soviet citizens have died and thousands of acres of prime land have been rendered useless. A major goal of the conference was to understand the accident well enough to prevent a recurrence...
...insisted that "there is one problem and only one in the world: to revive in people some sense of spiritual meaning." He also realized that such revivals are fraught with danger: "If the Germans are ready today to shed their blood for Hitler, you must understand that it is useless to blame Hitler. It is because Hitler gives the Germans something to be enthusiastic about." His vision of humanity revivified by passion and purpose was clouded by his view of history: "When the Spirit is aroused -- each time it is aroused -- it sheds blood...
...obviously an expert on both. With witty understatement and antic plot, she shows a high social stratum at its apogee. Messages are delivered on silver salvers. A titled Englishwoman seems to have stepped from a Gershwin song, down to the exclamation, " 'S wonderful." Irma's son, rendered useless by the lack of a trust fund, laments, "My parents have never had much use for me," and wheedles a large check from a relative. Emily, with every possible creature comfort, cannot escape the persistent complaint of the dilettante: envy. Gaping at the writers headed for the Algonquin Round Table, she "longed...
There are other clouds hanging over the networks. Since a thousand computer messages can be as easily sent as one, electronic junk mail tends to proliferate, forcing users to scroll through useless verbiage to find the information they need. Some systems are impossibly hard to use, others are plagued by malicious hackers. Rockwell's Sutter reports that even defense contractors' employees can become so engrossed with on-line browsing that they neglect their legitimate work, squandering whatever productivity gains the technology might have brought...