The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

In 1978 I entered Tohoku University into the Department of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Technology.

For over 15 years through the clean coal programs of the Department of Energy the Federal Government has been a solid partner working jointly with private companies and the states to develop and demonstrate a new generation of environmentally clean technology using coal.

It would be unwise to say the least irresponsible of us at the TSA at the Homeland Security Department not to evolve our technology to match the changing threat environment that we inhabit.

In the earliest days this was a project I worked on with great passion because I wanted to solve the Defense Department's problem: it did not want proprietary networking and it didn't want to be confined to a single network technology.

I had an art teacher who's the reason I got there in high school who encouraged me to go to Alabama. That's where she had gone and kept raving over their art department.

It was difficult being a teacher and out of the closet in the '50s. By the time I retired the English department was proud of having a gay poet of a certain minor fame. It was a very satisfactory change!

One of my first jobs was at the Boston Globe. I worked in the sports department six months a year. When I was ready to graduate the sports editor gave me a job as a schoolboy sports writer.

I would venture to guess that if I was a construction worker... who requested a transfer to another department for the betterment of his family I would be commended for it. But because it's sports there's just so much passion added to it.

Sports is the toy department of human life.