To be sure, Portman was anything but comfortable discussing something as private and personal as his son's sexuality, even noting how foreign it felt for someone with his Midwestern upbringing and sensibilities to talk publicly about such issues.

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"If discussing the problem is something that that will enhance the work product or relationship, then the conversation should happen sooner rather than later, " Drum says.

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It means the two sides are close enough when verbally discussing the issues to get something on paper so they can negotiate the smaller details.

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Between trips to London and his foundry in Germany, he is building a piece for Norman Foster's garden near Geneva and discussing the possibility of building something for the courtyard of the Prado in Madrid.

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"The subject of a footprint for the United States post-Iraq is something that we're discussing and considering, " U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week.

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And to make the investments we need, we'll have to scour our federal budget, line-by-line, and make meaningful cuts and sacrifices as well--something I'll be discussing further tomorrow.

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But every so often something happens that crosses the boundary between personal mishap to topic-worth-discussing, and such a thing happened to me last night.

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Four weeks ago Smith and Songkick co-founder Ian Hogarth were discussing these problems over a beer at their local pub, when they decided to do something about it.

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Still, when something like this happens, we are, as a society, like a tribe discussing the events around the campfire.

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The first is a technical matter about the metals industry: not something I expect most to know about but really rather important in the context of discussing solar cell and solar panel subsidies.

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