Brian Gongol
Show notes from the WHO Radio Wise Guys - March 22, 2008
A podcast of the show is also available
Iranian elections called fraudulent
Authorities claim high turnout; opposition says it was inflated by almost double. Even though most of the liberal reformers were prevented from running for the parliament, they still managed to pick up a bunch of seats. The Supreme Leader trumpeted the elections as a major showing in favor of democracy, but the EU says the elections were "neither fair nor free."
China's trying to fix its bad translations before the Olympics
Cedar Rapids: Home of Crunchberries Day
It's the City of Five Seasons and the home to so many food-processing plants that there's always a scent of something being cooked
500-year flooding hits parts of Midwest
The problem with planning for lesser catastrophes is that 500-year events end up happening anyway, and unless you've spent the money and effort to prepare for them, they end up devastating practically everything.
Waterloo borrows $3 million to rebuild floodwalls
Today is self-exam day
Take a minute or two and conduct some basic self-screenings for cancer. Early detection saves lives.
Climate data confirms suspicions: It's been the coldest winter in years
NOAA says it was the coolest winter overall since 2001 -- but it was still warmer than the 20th Century average
Chicago Tribune staffers win first prize in Sun-Times video contest
Sam Zell's lunatic idea to sell the naming rights to Wrigley Field has gone over like a lead balloon with just about everyone in Chicago, including his own employees. Still no word on whether the Wrigley Company will just pony up the dough to buy the naming rights themselves, which seems a little extortive but may be the only easy out.
"Danny Boy" like it's never been performed since
(Video) A heartfelt rendition by the three Muppets no one can understand
NOAA says much of the Midwest should prepare for spring flooding
Are Americans individually in worse shape than Bear Stearns?
17% of consumers tracked by one credit agency are the human equivalents of junk bonds. We need more saving and more investment...and much less consumer debt.
Much of the country is at high risk for flooding
Dear Federal Reserve: What happened to the free market?
In the words of Greg Mankiw, a thoughtful economist in his own right: "[M]y knee-jerk reaction is to be deeply disturbed whenever the government comes to the aid of reckless rich guys." Paul Volcker, too, questions the decision: "[I]s this what you want for the longstanding regulatory support system? My answer is no." The Fed's bailout package is the size of the market losses when Enron went bankrupt, and four times the size of the Chrysler buyout in 2007.
Ranking the potential GOP Vice-Presidential candidates
Since the Presidential nomination has been locked up, the Republicans can move on to finding a good VP nominee. Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty appear to rate pretty well on such a scale.
E-mail can be so fleeting
Guerrilla Mail offers e-mail addresses that expire after 15 minutes. What kind of liability they might be incurring by offering a service that clearly has the potential for serious abuse? Of course, the other side of the equation is that such a service might be ideal for opposition groups in authoritarian countries who need to organize themselves and fight oppression. Once again, the technology itself is mostly value-neutral. The moral judgment comes down to how the technology is used.
Robotic pack mule can carry 340-lb. payloads
The robots coming into our lives today don't look or act much like Rosie from the Jetsons, but they're finding lots of new places to be of use. The video shows that the movements involved are almost exactly like those of a real-life dog.
After-action report on the Barton Solvents fire
Polk County Emergency Management has reviewed the event and listed recommendations for improving Des Moines-area emergency response in the future
92% of Nebraska's water use is for irrigation
The online campaign to discredit Scientology
The stock market is anything but rational
"Irrational" may also be the word for the current Federal Reserve leadership. They appear to be chasing the economy at large rather than doing their first and most important job, which is keeping the money supply under control. Related: Visualizing the mortgage situation with the help of computer graphics.
What the computer-literate need to teach the computer-limited
Lots of the people who are relative novices to computers and computer security may be taking part in unsafe activities online that they would reject completely if they were presented with the same risks in real life. For instance, they'll forward any chain letter or cutesy message they receive via e-mail, when they'd never think of relaying a chain letter that arrived in the real-world mailbox. And yet the risks are even greater, since it's really hard to get a computer virus by opening a hand-written letter. But the payloads that can be attached to things like chain e-mails can be huge hazards to one's computer security. Perhaps it's worth the time for the computer-savvy to spend a few moments teaching computer novices how to behave safely online. On a related note, even when we're security-aware, there still may be serious hazards to our online security.
New crops for Nebraska
WHO Radio show notes - Brian Gongol filling in for Steve Deace - March 17, 2008
How green is Ireland to be?
Crude oil prices drop $3 a barrel
But what's a $3 drop anymore? It's twice the price of just a year ago. And anyone who thinks it won't be at $200 a barrel in a few years is missing the point. So what are we going to do about it? History will not easily forgive President Bush for dropping the ball on this matter: In the immediate wake of 9/11, most Americans would have done anything they were asked if it had been shaped in national-security terms. But it wasn't. And one of those rare moments of colossal lost opportunity, we're just as ignorant about energy policy now as we were on 9/10/2001.
Would you fly a Mitsubishi?
The Japanese industrial conglomerate is planning to build a mid-range airliner, the size of which is heavily used in places like Des Moines, and have it in the air by 2012. China's already trying to build its own airliners, and Japan doesn't want to lose ground to its powerful neighbor. Toyota's even thinking of getting in with a $100 million investment. The planes wouldn't really compete with Boeing's bigger airliners, but they would belong to the regional jet category, which has grown considerably over time. On a related note, the FAA is in the process of hiring 1,400 to 1,800 new air-traffic controllers each year for the next nine years. 12,300 are expected to retire over the same period of time, and the FAA is trying to add 1,600 new controllers on top of the replacements. Air-traffic control is hardly the only business going through this kind of skill crunch.
Legitimate websites attacked through Javascript
A good reminder for people to keep their computers on limited-access accounts and to keep Javascript privileges to a minimum. NoScript does this rather reliably for Firefox, as long as the training period can be tolerated.
CitiMortgage will lay off about 200 employees in Des Moines
Ten teams are officially in the running for the Lunar X-Prize
The plan includes a $20 million prize for the first team to make it to the Moon using private money if they can do it before 2013. It sounds challenging, especially because NASA hasn't even figured out how it's going to get into space once they retire the Space Shuttle in 2010, but inducement prizes work. Meanwhile, things are rancorous over at NASA over the government's plans to get back to the Moon. Important? Why, yes -- particularly since China and India are trying to get there soon, too.
Bugging moves to a whole new level
DARPA is funding projects to create insect-robot hybrids that could be used to perform spy functions. No, really. They're talking about using the evolutionary capacities of insects to skip all of the technological work necessary to create microscopic flying machines. Instead, they'll just wire the bugs with, well, bugs, and send them off to do surveillance for us. On one hand, it sure sounds like a good way for us to track our adversaries...but on the other hand, it's profoundly creepy. Espionage has become surveillance.
What if the Atlanta tornado had been a lot bigger?
The tornado that hit Atlanta this past weekend was rated an F2, which is in the middle range for strength. If it had been a lot stronger when it hit the Georgia Dome, the death toll could have been shocking.
Irish bishops moved St. Patrick's Day to the 15th this year
Because Easter lands so early, all saints' days are pre-empted by Holy Week. So rather than cancel the holiday altogether, which would be blasphemy, they just moved it back a few days.
Being married to Paul McCartney is worth $34,000 a day
At least, that's how the settlement between McCartney and Heather Mills works out. It's about $50 million for their brief (four-year) marriage.
Show notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - March 16, 2008