"The consumer electronics manufacturers would like to use the specifications as a cookbook so that they can make variations, " says Robert Schwartz, a lawyer with Circuit City.

FORBES: A cozy duopoly

Exchange rate variations make more of a difference to these figures than do regional growth trends.

FORBES: Semiconductors Positive in January

Biochemists spent 14 years deconstructing DNA into about 25, 000 genes and 1.4 million variations in DNA that make an individual unique, their SNPS, looking for patterns in the data to find useful insights that can improve the quality and lower the cost of health care.

FORBES: The Future Of Search: Better Living Through Algorithms

Why sell a simple commodity when, with the admixture of just the right variations and subclauses, you can make the customer really dizzy?

FORBES: Making Life Complicated

Pensions, for example, are also big business for the City, yet variations in tax treatment between countries make it hard for British firms to capitalise on their expertise abroad.

ECONOMIST: Europe

Professor Kumar said variations in manufacturing, environment, and workload can conspire to make a chip suffer errors.

BBC: Mistakes in silicon chips to help boost computer power

Each dish gets an analytic breakdown of the general technique used to make it, followed by a breathtaking, wonky chart of ingredients and variations.

NPR: The 10 Best Summer Cookbooks Of 2009

Unlike the single-player game, a mobile mothership, variations in maps, game types, starting forces and rules only make the game more intense.

CNN: Homeworld brings epic feel to real-time strategy

Among the 16 teams that would make the playoffs if the season ended today, only the Atlanta Hawks have used more lineup variations to start games.

WSJ: N.Y. Knicks: Just Ignore the Slow Starts