Gongol.com Archives: March 2008
Brian Gongol


March 27, 2008

Water News Iowa authorities will decide stream reclassifications in about a week

Health Children can acquire HIV through pre-chewed food
Apparently, the practice is more common throughout the world than many Americans might realize

Science and Technology If humans are really causing global warming, what should we do?
Is it more reasonable, practical, and/or efficient to just adapt to climate change than to fight it? What, especially, should we do in case climate change is driven more by powerful factors outside human control than by our own behavior? This resurrects the argument that anything we intend to do about global warming ought to have at least one strong motivation outside of climate change. In other words, if we're thinking of moving to higher-efficiency cars, we ought to do so not just for climate-change reasons, but for national-security reasons as well. If we're doing something strictly as a reaction to global warming, and the other benefits are questionable, then we ought to be more skeptical -- perhaps the money involved would be better-spent elsewhere.

Computers and the Internet Do-it-yourself laptop stands
One very simple option: One straight piece of copper pipe, with two adapting 90-degree angles to form a "U". Cheap, easy, and portable.

Science and Technology Does the modern world make it impossible to be a polymath?

Socialism Doesn't Work Congress promises to ignore Medicare and Social Security funding crises
Any member of Congress who's too weak or too ignorant to realize that we have to reform entitlement spending immediately ought to be tossed out of office with nary an apology. Medicare is on a path to be completely insolvent within a decade, and there's no excuse for passing the situation off as though it can be solved later. The future tax burden is going to be downright punitive, which is the last thing America needs right now.

Computers and the Internet Firefox updates fix JavaScript problems
The latest edition of Firefox, Version 2.0.0.13, took care of several security hassles, including two big ones. Most people would be well-advised to use an alternative browser, rather than sticking with Microsoft Internet Explorer. IE is too big a security target for most crooks to ignore.

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