After 9/11, whatever the evidence of intelligence failures, many people still saw that attack as almost unimaginable, so brutal and brazen an assault.

In many parts of the world, more people have access to a mobile device than to a toilet or running water.

This assault on Craig wasn't a stick-and-go. It was a frenzy ... it was brutal and it took some time.

I live in a dumb house. Which is not to say that I don't love its quirky charm, its drafty windows and leaky fireplaces and an electrical system that protests when too many people are trying to vacuum and microwave at the same time. But charm is not always user-friendly.

While many alien species are harmless, others pose expensive threats to seas and fields and forests.

The battles after the wars are over can be the toughest; there's no longer the public interest that accompanies, for good and for ill, the start of combat.