My recent blogs have concerned ingenious solutions: Naomi Bock's brilliant essays about the future of the book (www.redroom.com) ; lawyer Terence Mix' "aha!" solution (dietary cholesterol administered to pregnant mothers in the first eight weeks of gestation) to the incidence of birth defects caused by fertility drugs ("The Price of Ovulation," www.TendrilPress.com) and Margaret Atwood's electronic "Long Pen" (www.longpen.com), which enables writers to sign books long distance on the Internet. In an Op-Ed article, "People vs. Dinosaurs," published last week, columnist Thomas L. Friedman referred to the ingenuity of an entire people.

He compared Ahmadinejad's despicable declaration that Israel would soon be wiped out geographically with investor Warren Buffet's optimistic interest in the Israeli economy longterm. He contrasted Iran's oil-dependent military and economic clout with the Israeli kind of military and economic power, which is "entirely dependent on extracting intelligence from its people" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/opinion/)8friedman.html).

Money talks, and, it is true, can buy the intelligence of others. But I'll take the home-grown kind anytime. It is not dependent on anyone else.