No two brewers are alike. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but the three brewers who wandered into my life last week were an MIT fermentation scientist (Mystic’s Bryan Greenhagen), the founder of American craft brewing (Boston Beer’s Jim Koch), and a former investment banker turned airline mogul who started the first microbrewery in the Middle East (Mazen Hajjar of 961 Beer).

It’s doubtful any other career path would unite these three, but I found myself having similar conversations with each brewer as I plotted out stories for the week and reflected on larger truths in the way that only a couple of beers can inspire. Extreme beer was a major topic with two of the brewers; all three agreed that they prefer to brew the kinds of beer they like to drink themselves. And there’s serious industrious talent and business chops in anyone crazy enough to start their own brewery.

  BEIRUT: The first of two Turkish electricity-generating ships aimed at helping resolve Lebanon’s endemic power shortages anchored at Beirut Port Monday, a port official told The Daily Star. “The ship docked at Beirut Port this morning [Monday],” the official said. Karadeniz Powership Fatmagul Sultan, which departed from Istanbul on Feb. 8, entered Lebanese territorial waters […]

  Although parliament’s joint committees approved the so-called Orthodox electoral proposal today, Speaker Nabih Berri gave them an extra week to study other draft laws, and it is unclear if the endorsed proposal has enough votes to become law.   In theory, the proposal should now go to the full parliament for an up or […]

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – There’s a lot of trivia to choose from when studying the presidents, so admittedly, this list is subjective. Still, some of the staff at Catholic Online got together. Here’s the list we came up with.

10. Martin Van Buren – As a child, Van Buren spoke Dutch. His parents were native speakers of the language and he was raised speaking Dutch. The fact isn’t surprising, considering the history of the time, for the United States was still a new country, widely populated with immigrants from Europe. Today however, a president who was raised speaking a language other than English would probably have to assert his American credentials, given the unfortunate politics of today.

9. James Polk’s election promise was not to be reelected. Polk was a powerful president, whose legacy lasts to this day. Most notably, Polk led the US to the war which took from Mexico the entire region that is now the Southwestern United States. Polk said during his first campaign that he would serve only one term. He kept that promise, which was astounding, even for his time. Polk died three weeks after leaving office, dying of cholera.

8. Benjamin Harrison was afraid of electricity. So scared in fact, that although he had electricity installed in the White House, he and his wife refused to touch the switches for fear of electrocution. He is also the first president to have his voice preserved in recording.

  Lebanon’s Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said that starting Wednesday the Health Ministry will cease to provide medical care for patients who cannot afford any. “Since a decree for private and public hospitals allocations was not issued, the Health Ministry announces that it will cease to provide medical care for patients starting Wednesday February 20 […]

  The joint parliamentary committees voted on Monday on the first article of the Orthodox Gathering’s draft electoral law, increasing the number of MPs to 134, MTV reported. LBCI said the session has been adjourned to Tuesday morning.   Meanwhile, Former PM Fouad Saniora said he might not continue to participate in the joint committees’ sessions […]