Fry recalled how his mother had back in the 80s asked him to help her operate a fax machine, and that she had found the contraption a remarkable feat of human achievement.

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Instead, communist North Korea's latest achievement on the nuclear front was a feat of diplomatic jujitsu: In talks with U.S. officials in New York, Pyongyang's representatives agreed to suspend its withdrawal from the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT).

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His aim is not to belittle the American achievement but to break the habit of treating it as a virtually isolated feat of self-creation.

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Looking back on her feat, the gymnastics equivalent of the first four-minute mile in athletics, Comaneci almost downplays her achievement.

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