Gongol.com Archives: July 2006
Brian Gongol


July 11, 2006

Computers and the Internet Scam artists spamming by fax
A fax solicitation from some scam artists is really insidious when carefully inspected

Water News Crops relying on sub-surface moisture to stay alive

News About half the world's population is under 25
Two important observations: (1) That means many of them have yet to go through the fertility curve. (2) It's a tremendous opportunity to strike a blow for freedom and liberty, since young people are open to persuasion.

Business and Finance Trade talks could fail; biggest losers would be poor people
Trade has a disproportionately favorable impact (in general) on poor countries. The difference between "job" and "no job" generally means more than "expensive shirt" and "less-expensive shirt". Regarding free trade, people in poor countries generally face the former; people in rich countries generally face the latter.

Threats and Hazards Terrorists attack trains in Bombay
At least 90 people killed, almost twice the number killed in the London train bombings on July 7, 2005. New York City is increasing security in reponse.

Broadcasting Now even more governments are threatening US foreign broadcasting
First, the US government made stupid decisions cutting back on foreign broadcasts. Now, Russia's government is using strong-arm tactics to suppress the use of RFE/RL and VOA news on Russian radio stations. In Zimbabwe, the suppression is less subtle. The fact that governments and others feel threatened by the VOA and RFE/RL is probably a sign that they're doing something right...free societies aren't generally threatened by honest reporting.

Socialism Doesn't Work A good reason to be skeptical of government power
When a Senator charged with making decisions about regulating the Internet says things like "an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday", we should probably be skeptical of giving these people the authority to tell us what to do with our lives. At the very least, they should be able to answer three or four simple questions before doing anything.

Business and Finance Taxpayers to get refunds for telephone tax they shouldn't have had to pay

Threats and Hazards Congress gets angry with the President
House intelligence committee chair says they have anti-terrorism programs underway that he can't tell the public about, but that the White House should've brought to him earlier. That's the point of checks and balances. A bit of inter-branch re-balancing is happening in the UK, too.

Agriculture USDA trying to figure out how to make pine-tree farms profitable
The trees can take 30 years to grow, so they're looking for ways to use things like the pine needles in the meantime

Threats and Hazards Parliamentary committee says campaign in Iraq hasn't made UK safer
Meanwhile, a survey says that 16% of British Muslims think the train bombings in 2005 were bad, but were carried out for the right reasons

Aviation News Airbus may delay new plane because new CEO doesn't know anything about it
The A350 is a widebody with a capacity around 300 passengers

Computers and the Internet Microsoft will release seven security updates today
At least two are "critical"

Health 62-year-old gives birth
British mother used a donor egg. Meanwhile, scientists claim to have developed artificial sperm, which could change the nature of male infertility.

Aviation News 45 killed in aircrash in Afghanistan
Just after 122 are killed in a Russian crash

News Russia says its special forces killed the architect of the Beslan attack
They say he was planning an attack to coincide with the G8 meeting

Graphics Riveting