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When I was a youngster, we lived close to a blacksmith’s shop. The smith was a man trained to take a piece of metal, heat it, beat it, and cool it—thereby producing needed and useful articles. His tools were simple, his strength was great, and his eye was keen. The blacksmith’s implements were few: a hammer, anvil, and forge. His forge was used to produce heat;...
When I was in college, many years ago, sowing a bumper crop of “wild oats,” my time was crammed with activities. You have probably experienced something like it—classes to attend, research and studies to complete, extra-curricular activities and social obligations, with a healthy dose of goofing off mixed in, each day starting early and going late, seldom...
Outraging Jewish and Muslim groups, a German court recently ruled that infant male circumcision causes “bodily harm” and that “a child’s right to physical integrity trumps religious and parental rights.” Some are wondering whether this decision will be overturned by a higher court. Others are raising questions about religious liberty in Germany. This also raises...
A prominent citizen and I shook hands on a deal to buy my house, as I was preparing to be transferred to another area. A smile of relief was on my face. But my relief disappeared a few weeks later when I found that nothing had been done to keep our deal. By that time, I had already been transferred and had acquired another house.
In civil engineering, a canal is an artificial waterway constructed for navigation, irrigation, waterpower, and other purposes. We build canals to purposely direct the flow of water to a prearranged destination.
Left undirected, water can be a force of tremendous destruction—and yet, it is also a precious and easily wasted resource. But water is not the only...
There are reports of a formulating plan that would take a giant step towards European federal integration—a plan that would take away the fiscal sovereignty of the EU nations and invest it in a central bureaucratic body. The financial weakness of several Eurozone states could force them to accept this dominant power, the creation of which is supported by Germany...
While most politicians and commentators in Europe are wringing their hands in angst about Greek, Spanish and Italian debt, one commentator is remaining remarkably calm. Why? He has seen it all before, and has a vision that spans 50 years of European union history. Who is this man?
Have you heard of the “10 percent myth”—the idea that the average person uses just 10 percent of the brain? Many people today take this for granted. What you may not know is that—from the writings of a nineteenth-century psychologist and philosopher, to the set of the popular “Mythbusters” television show—this well-traveled idea is quite brainless on many levels...
My Dad was a hard and dedicated worker. He always had ongoing projects around the house and made sure his sons in particular were contributors to those projects. He knew how to work hard, but also cherished play and instruction time with his children. He had little schooling, only achieving second grade, but he had an educated heart.
In movies and songs, and as advice from actors, singers, and celebrities, we often hear the messages: “Follow your heart” and “Trust your feelings.” Some extol the supposed virtues of listening to their “sixth sense” or their “psychic intuition.” Does the fact that we feel something make it so? Is it generally a good idea to trust our feelings? Or, could doing...