I am looking forward to watching the Republican convention this week on television, although it looks like the event may be upstaged by what is soon expected to become Hurricane Isaac. While the storm missed Tampa for the most part, it appears to be headed straight for New Orleans, where it may make landfall as [...]

I was interested to see that Newsweek magazine has apparently given up on President Barack Obama. You may have by now seen the cover of the current issue, which has a color photo of Obama with the large caption, “Hit the Road, Barack — Why We Need a New President.”
I’m going to have a hard [...]

I have recently been thinking about some of my early adventures in Detroit during what must have been the 1930s. My uncle Bill Beyster was a member of the Detroit Athletic Club, which was a big deal at the time.
The club was established in 1887, and I believe most of Detroit’s automotive pioneers and top [...]

I was pleased to get an update recently on an algal biofuels research project being led by Professor Phillip Savage of the University of Michigan Chemical Engineering department. According to the update, Professor Savage and his team have been successfully exploring and developing ways of converting wet algal biomass to liquid transportation fuels.
Their primary approach [...]