Free Republic

SURFACING MODELS OF THOUGHT Out of the complexity of the global sand trade has emerged something of a butterfly effect, in which an economic decision in one place can wreak social and environmental havoc on the other side of the world. If you’re looking for a way to express something that’s staggeringly hard to count, you won’t find a more reliable metaphor than grains of sand. There is indeed quite a bit of it – about 7.5 quintillion grains on Earth’s beaches and deserts, according to one estimate. But if you think that this would be sufficient to supply an...

Supplier price rises force industry rethink Carl Mortished: World business briefing Suddenly, it is not the customer who matters; it is the supplier. The stuff that arrives at the factory loading bay is now expensive; shortages and logistical logjams are playing havoc and the company that sells you a vital commodity is digging in its heels, refusing to renew a long-term contract without a big price increase. It is time to start thinking about vertical integration. Owning every segment of the production process from metal mine to packaging plant is an unfashionable idea, but in some industries it is coming...

Abbas: Gaza pullout due to "Palestinian Sacrifices."

The US plans to return to the Moon and establish the first base there as a staging post to a manned trip to Mars. But what would living and working on the Moon do to astronauts' bodies and minds? Neil Armstrong speaking live from the lunar surface to a billion-strong audience on 21 July 1969: "It has a stark beauty all its own. It's much like the high desert of the United States." The big difference being that the high desert is a mere 4x4-drive away from California suburbs while visiting the Moon means three days of hurtling through hard...