I think it's also the leading cause of nightmares in the under 6" fish population...

A unique high-tech network of weather monitoring stations in farm fields connected to the Verizon Wireless network and beamed back to Michigan State University is helping Michigan's agricultural industry grow better crops and bring them to market faster and with higher quality.

A team of 11 technicians at MSU gathers data sent wirelessly from 60 weather stations across Michigan, from all parts of both peninsulas. The information is updated every 30 minutes and made available through a Web site, called Enviroweather at http://www.enviroweather.msu.e.....halist.asp.

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They call it "wind turbine in a box," a simple off-the-shelf but high-performance wind turbine.

The innovative wind turbine is the first major launch of a commercial product from the Grand Valley State University energy center in Muskegon. Plans are to sell the turbine at home improvement stores for less than $2,000 to homeowners who can use it to provide up to 20 percent of their electricity.

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Watch as this sequence of facts goes from perfectly normal to incredibly bizarre:

1. Toby Barlow is an advertising director.

2. He lives in downtown Detroit.

3. While stuck in a hotel room working on "a very important cheese account" he read a story in the Chicago Reader about a dogcatcher.

4. A throwaway fact in the article got him thinking about werewolves, so he started writing a story.

5. Rather than writing the novel in prose, the story came out in verse.

6. He got HarperCollins to publish his epic poem, a style of storytelling that hasn't been especially popular since the English Renaissance.

The result, "Sharp Teeth," has been getting lots of favorable reviews, and Barlow has been interviewd by everyone from The AV Club to NPR.

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This is a story that might seem straight out of a James Bond movie. It involves a massive arms deal, British fighter jets, a Saudi prince and billions of dollars in payments to a longtime ambassador to the United States. But the plot veers away from thriller territory when it lands in a leafy suburb of Detroit.

Harper Woods, Mich., has filed a lawsuit against a massive defense contractor, BAE Systems, over allegations that the company funneled payments to a member of the Saudi royal family.

In the process, this small city has become a central player in an investigation that spans continents, involves accusations of corruption on an unimaginable scale, and has players ranging from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to a substitute teacher.

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