PoochyB’s Wordstock

The locus of innovation in steel-making shifted to Europe and Japan.

lo·cus
n.   pl. lo·ci (-sī’, -kē, -kī’)

1. A locality; a place.
2. A center or focus of great activity or intense concentration: “the cunning exploitation of loci of power; the insulation from normal American society” (Clifton Fadiman).
3. Mathematics The set or configuration of all points whose coordinates satisfy a single equation or one or more algebraic conditions.
4. The position that a given gene occupies on a chromosome.

But by defanging competition, Gary’s system of “administered pricing” froze technology.

de·fang
tr.v.   de·fanged, de·fang·ing, de·fangs

1. To remove the fangs of (a snake, for example).
2. To undermine the strength or power of; make ineffectual: an attempt to defang the opposition.