The Independent's literary editor, Arifa Akbar, pointed out the novel's unexpected shift into a story of "psychopathology and emotional meltdown, rather than one of religious fanaticism".
The assessment by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, was much starker than his view last year, when he emphasized the considerable progress in the campaign to debilitate Al Qaeda and said that the global economic meltdown, rather than the prospect of a major terrorist attack, was the "primary near-term security concern of the United States".
Phil Harrison Kevin faces the fallout of his spectacular on-camera meltdown, finding that rather than being able to walk away from his lowest common denominator sitcom, he's now facing either career suicide or having to make a humiliating apology.
"Stop being scared of turning on the television," she exhorts herself at one point, "but instead simply locate and read instruction manual for TV, Virgin box, DVD remotes and buttons so that TV becomes source of entertainment and pleasure rather than meltdown".
Rather than a meltdown, some investors are worried that the post-election ecstasy could actually make Mexico's economy overheat just as the United States economy begins to show signs of slowing down.
"This is still just a moderation rather than a meltdown in growth, so there is no need to worry about over-tightening," said Hongbin Qu, co-head of Asian Economic Research at HSBC.
Earlier this month, Chambers told Reuters that he expected the economic downturn sparked by the subprime meltdown to last into early 2009, rather than merely late 2008 as he'd originally predicted.
Against Newcastle, it's pretty much do or die, and it might be a long sad demise if they fail, rather than the tears, meltdowns and on-pitch team-talks that we hoped for.
At least that might allow for an orderly restructuring, if deemed necessary, rather than a complete market meltdown.
Mr. Diaz suggested that the Japanese might have acted too slowly to prevent overheating, including procedures that might have required the venting of small amounts of steam and radiation, rather than risk a wholesale meltdown.
"Rather than hiding the triple meltdown threat from the public and taking more than a decade to address it," said Jim Riccio, a nuclear analyst with Greenpeace, "the NRC should force Duke Energy to reduce the risk or retire the reactors".
