My friend Jim, a farmer, jokes about bringing a bowl of manure and a spoon to the farmers’ markets where he sells his beef. “My beef has no manure in it, but you can add some,” he’d like to tell his customers. I’m sure you’d pass on manure as a condiment. But unless you’re a […]

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(Source: Reuters) As of now, the Moscow deal looks like win-win-win for everyone with legitimate interests in the Syria situation. Winners First of all and most importantly, it is a win for the vast majority of the Syrian people—those who are desperate for an end to the conflict and want nothing more than to go […]

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(Source: AFP) What sort of fabulous new energy systems will the world possess in 2040? Which fuels will supply the bulk of our energy needs? And how will that change the global energy equation, international politics, and the planet’s health? If the experts at the U.S. Department of Energy are right, the startling “new” fuels […]

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Citing concerns about linking to classified material, Johns Hopkins University asked a professor this morning to remove a blog post discussing  last week’s revelations about the NSA’s efforts to break encryption. The post had linked to government documents published by ProPublica, the Guardian, and the New York Times. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins, which is short drive from the […]

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Photo: Detroit, 1942 via Wikipedia After the 1805 fire that left 600 Detroit residents homeless, territorial Judge Augustus Woodward announced he had copied the plans for the soon-to-be-built Washington, D.C., and he would use them to create an even greater city. That inspired Father Gabriel Richard to bless the plan with the Latin phrase Resuget […]

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