I needed snow chains to make the tires bite.

Usually such ‘linacs’ are short, low-energy machines, but they can be high energy and lengthy, as at the Stanford Linear Accelerator in California.

[…] everyone was doing what he paid us to do, rather than gossip, goof off and ride the clock, things we often did instead.

She stood there dumbfounded as the door swung open and banged against the inside wall, narrowly missing her.¶ I did that, she thought. I'm a... teek?