Many modern maps used by amateur and professional observers of the sky show stars, dark nebulas of obscuring dust, and bright nebulas (masses of tenuous, glowing matter).
As folk rock became the trend of the moment, however, its socially critical stance was quickly broadened and diluted, and the relationship between the music and its traditional sources became more tenuous, a matter more of "feeling" than of strict reverence for the past.
The world they had built together seemed a fragile, tenuous thing; one stray word and it might collapse entirely — and in a week it would be over, no matter how well they behaved.
The RFE could become exactly what some Chinese prefer to call it -- "Outer Manchuria," a territory where Russian sovereignty is getting increasingly tenuous and where matters are decided in Beijing and Harbin rather than Moscow or Vladivostok.
No matter how tenuous the connection, no matter what country they live in, if they have Maori blood, then they are considered to be part of that culture.
They picketed high schools, concerts, conferences, and film festivals, no matter how tenuous the connection to homosexuality or other sins.
"It's a legal cover," said the new finance secretary, Alberto Romulo, "no matter how tenuous and nonexistent it is".
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians have proclaimed that they will not accept any tie to Serbia, no matter how tenuous.
Over in the USA, the day is also an opportunity for Americans to proudly declare their Irish heritage, no matter how tenuous.
