Questões Militares de Inglês - Vocabulário | Vocabulary

Billions of dollars spent on defeating improvised explosive devices (IED) are beginning to show what technology can and cannot do for the evolving struggle.

Two platoons of U.S. Army scouts are in a field deep in the notorious “Triangle of Death” south of Baghdad, a region of countless clashes between Sunni insurgents and Shia militias. The platoons are guided by a local man who’s warned them of pressure-plate improvised explosive devices, designed to explode when stepped on. He has assured them that he knows where the IED’s are, which means he is almost certainly a former Sunni insurgent.

The platoons come under harassing fire. It stops, but later the tension mounts again as they maneuver near an abandoned house known to shelter al-Qaeda fighters. A shot rings out; the scouts take cover. They don’t realize it’s just their local guide, with an itchy trigger finger, taking the potshot at the house. The lieutenant leading the patrol summons three riflemen to cover the abandoned house.

Then all hell breaks loose. One of the riflemen, a sergeant, steps on a pressure-plate IED. The blast badly injures him, the two other riflemen, and the lieutenant. A Navy explosives specialist along on the mission immediately springs into action, using classified gear to comb the area for more bombs. Until he gives the all clear, no one can move, not even to tend the bleeding men. Meanwhile, one of the frozen-inspace scouts notices another IED right next to him and gives a shout, provoking more combing in his area. Then a big area has to be cleared so that the medevac helicopter already on the way can land.

That incident, which took place on 7 November 2007, exhibits many of the hallmarks of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan – a small patrol; a local man of dubious background; Navy specialists working with soldiers on dry land; and costly technologies pressed into service against cheap and crude weapons. And, most of all, death by IED.  

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Modern buildings incorporate exciting forms with glittering façades and compelling interior spaces. Surveying for these projects requires sophisticated computation, aggressive quality control and close interaction with construction teams. 

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                                                        Text 3

                                   Xerox and the Icarus Paradox

                                                                                                             Schilling, Melissa A.

Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, Mc Graw-Hill International Edition, Fourth Edition

      According to Greek mythology, when King Minos imprisoned the crafstman Daedalus and his son Icarus, Daedalus built wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son could fly to their escape. Icarus was so enthralled by his wings and drawn to the light of the sun that despite his father's warning, he flew too high. The sun melted his wings, crashing Icarus to death in the sea. This was the inspiration for the now well-known Icarus Paradox – that which you excel at can ultimately be your undoing. Success can engender overconfidence, carelessness, and an unquestioning adherence to one's way of doing things.

      For example, in the 1960s and 1970s, Xerox had such a stranglehold on the photocopier market that it did not pay much attention when new Japanese competition began to infiltrate the market for smaller, inexpensive copiers. Xerox management did not believe competitors would ever be able to produce machines comparable to Xerox's quality and cost. However, Xerox was dangerously wrong. By the mid-1970s, Xerox was losing market share to the Japanese at an alarming rate. When Canon introduced a copier that sold for less than Xerox's manufacturing costs, Xerox knew it was in trouble and had to engage in a major benchmarking and restructuring effort to turn the company around.