Brian Gongol
South Korean president guilty of mammoth understatement
Says North Korea's nuclear test (if that's what it was) means that his policy of engagement with the North "faces difficulties." That might be a little too understated. Meanwhile, Japan's newly-minted prime minister has to figure out how his country should respond without any time to get suited to his new office, there's fresh unrest in Taiwan, and the UN Security Council just nominated a South Korean to become UN Secretary-General. Adding to the "perfect storm" nature of the timing of the reported test, of course, is the upcoming US election as well. One economic observation: There's a great deal of talk about expanded economic sanctions against North Korea as punishment for the test, but rational heads need to consider whether trying to further strangle a moribund economy will drive North Korea to pursue cash by selling more weapons on the black market. Corner a desparate animal and it may just lash out. Economic sanctions sound tough, but they could be counterproductive.
Important questions for long-lived Baby Boomers
As life expectancies continue to grow, will Baby Boomers run out of cash before they die? Will their bodies outlast their brains?
Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion
Watch how quickly Google moves to correct YouTube's copyright violations -- Google has much deeper pockets than YouTube did on its own
Faraday Cage
2nd Firefox 2 beta test is out
Virginia mother wants to un-adopt extra-troubled kid
Says the state lied to her when she was considering the adoption and failed to disclose just how much trouble the boy would be
UK worries that climate change will destroy the shoreline
Warmer weather begets higher sea levels, which erodes shorelines
Weather Channel special focuses on Nebraska drought