Word: uselessness
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...Countless required or recommended inspections were never conducted, while others were carried out so perfunctorily that they were meaningless, and still more revealed problems that went unreported just to spare the airlines any inconvenience. Inspections of planes, pilots, mechanics and repair stations were so unreliable as to be virtually useless. Fortunately, most of the time savvy and diligent airlines filled the gap. But it was inevitable that the inspection process would eventually break down at an airline like ValuJet, creating the perfect conditions for a deadly crash...
...GRIDLOCK ECONOMY (Basic Books; 259 pages), Columbia Law School's Michael Heller documents such "wasteful underuse" and the straitjacket it puts on innovation. His examples resemble pastures in which each square inch is owned by a different rancher: useless...
...Many officials would like Sarkozy to concentrate instead on issues like shepherding an agreement on an E.U. climate change package that goes beyond the Kyoto Protocol commitments. But he has put more attention on plans for a Europe-wide cut in fuel taxes - already dismissed as useless market interference by most other E.U. leaders - and a hard-line European migration pact, which is also lacks widespread support...
...American Dream. In 1985, my mother immigrated to the United States from South Korea. She knew very little English and had little money. The accomplishments, the status, the connections that she had back home meant nothing here. The college degree for which she labored so hard in Korea was useless. So, my mother started all over as she held on to a simple conviction—that with determination, she would be able to provide her two sons the opportunities these new shores had to offer. At the age of 29, she enrolled as an undergraduate at the University...
...that start with B-something are your best friend, because they’ll help that hangover you got “studying.” The other important stuff in your drink, like ginseng, and ginko, are basically there to make it sound healthy, but are otherwise pretty useless. What about rest? Well, there’s sugar, sugar, some antioxidants and, if you’re lucky, more sugar. But to stay on the safe side, if you get overly jittery or nervous, or start having heart palpitations (English majors: that’s the feeling like your...