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Last night I watched a TV interview with UK author Jeanette Winterson, who grew up impoverished, but went on to attend a prestigious university and become a famous novelist. She talked about the time she left home for the first time. She told her mother she was leaving because she was seeking happiness. Her mother, who didn’t approve, replied, “You can be happy or you can be like normal people.” It made me realize that a single sentence can sometimes sum up a person’s whole life.
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If food pricesgo up, many people may have to switch from wine and hardliquor to beer. But this may not be a problem, becausecontrary to popular opinion, beer is as healthy?if not morehealthy?than wine.

Charles Bamforth, who holds a teaching chair at UC Daviswhich is endowed by a beer manufacturer, says that beercontains valuable B vitamins, such as B12, folic acid andniacin, as well as antioxidants, which help prevent cancer.
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We’re used to thinking about solar heating, but in manyparts of the country, the big need is for solarcooling.Scientists are working on a thin-film technology that may dojust that.

Researcher Steven Van Dessel and his team have installed atest structure on top of the student union at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute that will both heat AND cool thebuilding. Van Dressel says, “The ease of application wouldmake it possible to seamlessly attach the system to variousbuilding surfaces, possibly rendering conventional airconditioning and heating equipment obsolete.”

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.read more

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Norway has carved a deep vault into the side of a frozenmountain, in a secret location on an isolated Arctic island.This being Norway, it’s not a hidden nuclear weapons cache,it contains?SEEDS.

CNN reports that the Svalbard Global Seed Vault willeventually hold about 3 million of the world’s crop seeds,all stored in case ofglobalcatastrophe. Agriculture Minister Terje Riis-Johansen callsit a “Noah’s Ark on Svalbard.” There are already 1,400 seedbanks around the world, but Norway wants its seed vault tohold duplicates of all of these.

The trust’s executive secretary Cary Fowler says, “Thisfacility will provide a practical means to re-establishcrops obliterated by major disasters.”

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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