Word: victorian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Opened in July, the machine is an enormous, $A220 million microscope, built by the Victorian government with funding from research bodies and governments in Australia and New Zealand. It's capable of peering inside atoms, yet at first glance the synchrotron appears to be little more than a white-walled, ring-shaped tunnel. In the era of ever-shrinking gadgets, this machine stands out - 67 m in diameter, it's roughly the size of a football field. Yet it's so sensitive that the temperature inside the building that houses it must be kept within a degree either side...
...which the correct answer would be: a modern one. The traditional, expected reserve of the British was a function of a system of authority put together in Victorian times by the sort of upper-middle-class men (not women) who dressed for dinner in the far reaches of the Empire to keep up appearances in front of the natives. They stressed the benefits of order, hierarchy, muscular Protestantism and good sportsmanship. Even in its Victorian heyday, of course, not many in Britain behaved in this way. The world's first mass working class, shuffling from factories to boozy music halls...
...modern, undeferential Britain that celebrated Diana as a rebel against authority, scandalizing those who still clung to Victorian ideas of order. Tony Blair, a new Prime Minister in September 1997, instantly understood what was going on and, by eulogizing Diana as the "people's princess," skillfully aligned himself with the politics of emotion. It was that sort of time--one when politicians proved their authenticity not just by being in touch with their (and your) feelings, but also by telling you until you were sick of it just how in touch with their bloody feelings they were. Less than...
...Monday, a chapter was closed in the social history of New York City: a great dame, the arbiter of New York society, died without leaving any successors. Brooke Astor, who passed away at age 105, was a combination of the Victorian age, with all its wit and elegance, and of the modern era, with its sharp-minded determination. She had taste, discernment, character, compassion, and was extraordinarily generous. She ran a great salon where the meek and the mighty met as equals. She had a profound respect for democracy and believed, as I do, that democracy and excellence...
Traveling widely and feted by the wealthy and well-connected, Garibaldi was a favorite in Victorian England of what historian Rohan McWilliams calls a precursor to the "radical chic" crowd. His mix of egalitarianism, insurgent tactics and rugged sex appeal made him a forerunner of Argentine Marxist Che Guevara. Though T-shirts may be rare, after his death Garibaldi's name would adorn monuments, towns and mountain ranges from Rome to New York City, from Russia to Brazil...