We city dwellers are in an interesting spot right now: as food prices seem to steadily climb and certain foodstuffs like rice are in short supply around the world, virtually all we can do is watch.
Sure, now it’s almost summer again we’re transplanting the seedling tomatoes we purchased at Armstrong–and maybe even some corn–but can, [...]

A great man is gone: Cambodian-born photographer and reporter Dith Pran, whose personal story of escaping the enslavement and genocide of 1970s Cambodia under dictator Pol Pot became the film “The Killing Fields,” died Sunday of pancreatic cancer.
Dith, 65, is credited with coining the terrible term “killing fields,” according to The Associated Press, whose obituary [...]

More signs of the end-times–from the New York Times: a cup of coffee from a machine which costs more than a car. A good car.

News from the Detroit Auto Show: they want their m.p.g.
The Detroit Auto Show continues, and the New York Times reports that the big American automakers–that’d be General Motors, Ford and Chrysler–are once again backing away from the once-mighty V-8 engine.

LB gets federal money; LBPost.com gets a business license; and the color of the year
Yes, 2008 is almost here, which means lots of 2007 contemplation–plus some things you probably won’t see until 2008, and which may or may not ever make a difference in your life. But here you go!

Why, skydiving without a parachute, that’s what.
A handful of hardy sky-divers, inventors and BASE-jumpers (folks who jump from tall places, using parachutes to land) are all refining essentially the same piece of technology: a stiff body-suit that will allow one to jump safely from a plane or a high place–and land without a parachute.
(And, presumably, [...]

“New” Manhattan Project spy; John Morris on public safety
The Press-Telegram writes compellingly about public safety,

Sick, Sicker, Sicko
Paul Krugman, the Princeton economist who writes for the New York Times, began his most recent column by noting, “The United States spends far more on health care per person than any other nation. Yet we have lower life expectancy than most other rich countries.” Today, the Associated Press has a story [...]

Counting the cost in Iraq and Afghanistan
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that 2007 has been the deadliest year for American troops in Iraq. Today, the Associated Press reports that 2007 has also become the deadliest year for American troops in Afghanistan.
Of course, it’s not just Americans who are dying in Afghanistan. As the [...]

A toast to the late Jerry Thomas
People seem so much more interesting when you drink; and if you’re smart, you know it’s partly because you’re drinking–and partly because they’re just more interesting.
When you drink, everyone is someone like Jerry Thomas,