If you've been watching the news from Beirut and getting an odd sense of familiarity, chances are good that you've been reading Spot-on's Christopher Allbritton. His forecasts of disputes and violence to come in the city - "The Razor's Edge Can Still Cut" and "Death in Damascus Raises Questions" - are excellent background for understanding today's conflict.

Which is, of course, one of the many reasons why we're not surprised Chris was named a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University. This fall, he'll be at The Farm, as we say out here in Northern California, working on finding a business model to support the work that journalists like him do: report from overseas.

We can't think of a better guy for that task. If you're not familiar with Chris' work, check out his bio here. He's been a pioneer in what Spot-on founder Chris Nolan calls "stand alone journalism" and it's great to see Stanford recognize his efforts.

Of course, not all our writers are award winners. But they will be, just watch.

This week's post from Scott Olin Schmidt, "Searching for 'Hilary,'" offers a unique look at the on-line activity around Sens. Clinton and Obama as the primary season drags on. And on. And on.

Like Chris Allbritton, Christopher Brauchli is frequently ahead of the news. This week, his post about the IRS, "Private Collection, Public Loss," revisits some territory he's covered before, confirming his - and others' - suspicions about privatizing the tax collection business of government.

Over in our feature feed, Kevin Weeks takes a look at the ways to measure environmental sustainibility of food production and comes up with some surprising responses to some familiar arguments in "Sustainibility Redefined."

Kevin and our Italy-based feature writer, Nicole Martinelli, come to a similar set of conclusions about local relationships and interconnectedness. Nicole, of course, uses Italian to test her theory: "How Big is Your 'Salve' Circle."

And Gopika Kaul notes that while Bangalore, India has become a short-hand reference for "high tech on the subcontinent," it's also something of a pressure cooker, too much for many Indians to handle. That's in "Suicide Capital of the World."

That's all for this week. See anything you like? We're starting to cut syndication deals with a number of outlets all over the country. So, if you edit a newspaper, produce a TV or radio show and want to add any of our fine writers to your editorial mix, give us a shout.

We can help you expand your edit mix at little or no cost - and by "no cost" we mean "free." That's right. Free. No money. No cash. Really.

Interested? Drop Doug Page, Spot-on's syndication sales guru, a line and he'll get you all the details.