Brian Gongol
Show notes from the WHO Radio Wise Guys - April 12, 2008
Grand Island residents worry about storm drainage
Problems with American's MD-80 fleet will probably cost company more than $30 million
They had to cancel almost 600 flights today alone, including 40% of their MD-80 flights. But they're very, very sorry. Related: Why in the world did it take American until January 2008 to set up a mobile edition of its website? Given how long people have been using mobile Internet browsers, and how many of them are air travelers, shouldn't something like that have been a high priority?
"[I]f anyone should attempt to disrupt or undermine the torch relay, then they will be dealt with severely"
That's China's policy on free speech in Tibet. Imagine Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger making the same declaration in California. Reporters are being kicked out of Tibet. There is some speculation that China's central government is especially interested in cracking down because it has fears of a national dissolution...a breakup of China as we know it. If Tibet is allowed even a little autonomy, then what of the long-standing dispute over what happens with Taiwan? The notion of using nationalism to bind people to the central government is hardly anything new, and the question of a broken-up China has emerged before, particularly after its rocky history of occupation by other countries into the 20th Century.
How to get fat without really trying
Men's Health magazine documents the most unhealthy fast foods in America -- including an appetizer that probably exists solely to advance the business interests of cardiac surgeons everywhere. The simple fact is that Americans eat too much food, and too much of it is high-fat, low-nutrient stuff that just ends up creating a calorie surplus without actually satisfying any of the body's actual nutritional needs. Important? Yes: Especially because the global price for rice is up sharply -- 50% over just the last two weeks. Expect more food riots around the world, and expect that to drive hostility towards the Western countries -- even if that's not rationally justified. Unfortunately, some people are going to blame free trade and globalization for the problem...when, in fact, trade is one of the few things that can make the situation better.
The dishonor of being Hugh Hefner
Time to check sump pumps
Hibernation for transplantation
Scientists are working on ways to shut down the human body in a state similar to hibernation in order to prevent tissue damage in the event of major trauma -- or organ transplantation
The Mona Lisa of gas stations
It has a concrete roof in an inverted arc, which makes it distinctly modernist in its own way. Now, whether it's really a Mona Lisa in its own right is probably an overstatement, but there's definitely something to be said for putting a little style into the ordinary -- including gas stations. Speaking of the Mona Lisa, researchers think they know who she is.
The most patriotic rock in western Iowa
Cosby's message to the black community really applies to the entire country
He calls for better parenting, more responsibility for one's own health, more encouragement of education and particularly higher education, and more entrepreneurialism. That's an appropriate message for everybody.
"We need to get money out of government. Only then will money not be important in politics."
Probably the most important thing Rep. Ron Paul has ever said. Unfortunately, his Presidential campaign took a sad turn towards isolationism and nativism, which really undercut his cause.
Tax season is the perfect time for a reminder: Back-up your computer files
Murphy's Law prevails nowhere more than with the personal computer: At just the moment you need your data the most, there's always a chance that something will go horribly wrong. Critical files should be backed up frequently -- monthly at the very least, if not weekly or even more often. Portable hard drives cost practically nothing anymore, and they can provide an unbeatable safety net.
Nebraska bill would require more fluoridation
Estimated 28,000 lost bags sent to Italy after new Heathrow terminal goes haywire
Revenge of Dr. Seuss...kind of
Related: The automatic anagram generator would serve any children's author well
What happens in the Iowa Legislature when no one's watching
Government website intends to bring consumer education to health care
TSA gun holsters for pilots could make accidental discharges inevitable
(Video) Related: Sniper fire or not?
IMF estimates losses from bad lending at $1 trillion
The big question remains: What will keep people from forgetting this lesson just a few years down the road? Debt financing can be a powerful tool for spreading out the cost of something over the time during which it will be used -- which is why municipal bonds are a perfectly reasonable way to build schools, or a (rational) mortgage is useful for paying for a home in which a person will live for 30 years. But when it's routinely used to put off the notion of paying for current expenses at the current time, then it's a serious threat to stability. And when big banks just stop writing mortgages because they've gotten into so much trouble, it's obvious that the punch bowl stayed open at the party for too long. Speaking of threats to stability, protests and even riots in Haiti over the rising cost of food are a warning sign: People in poor countries and rich countries alike are paying higher prices than ever for their food. It's easier to absorb the cost increases in places where food makes up a smaller share of one's normal expenses. But in poor countries, there isn't a lot of other spending out of which to adjust for food hikes. And even though the use of certain crops for biofuels are only a part of the reason for rising food prices (a growing world population and rising living standards in places like India and China are significant factors, too), they represent an easy point upon which people can fixate: It's much easier to blame a rich person driving a car using corn ethanol than the comparatively nebulous concept of rising living standards in China. And that will strain the rich countries' position in the world. The US is not helping itself by using the Federal Reserve to try to smooth out natural bumps in the economy -- we're just getting more inflation out of it -- and conflict with oil-producing countries isn't making life better, either. A related threat then becomes the breakdown of law and order -- manifested, for instance, in recent outbreaks of piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Durham of HDR passes away
The ads of the past for the products of today
Idle thought: What would've happened if Michelangelo had lived in the era of the Photoshop contest?
Not every photo is deserving of publication
Sometimes a stream of foam coming from a fire hose is just a stream of foam. But it probably shouldn't be photographed with the hose hidden behind a bystander, right at waist level.
Don't ignore the obvious
CNN features a story on a married couple who both lost their jobs in the sub-prime mortgage business. Despite having first-hand knowledge of exactly how out-of-whack lending had become, they built a lifestyle of more than $120,000 a year in expenses, overpaid by at least 20% for their home, took out home-equity loans, and apparently saved very little. While it's sad that they lost their jobs, it's pretty astonishing that they were so oblivious to what was going on all around them. We've wandered a long (and unfortunate) way away from Ben Franklin's warnings against debt: "[T]hink what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty."
Biblical literalism not recommended
God prohibits wearing blended fibers in your clothes. You read that right: No poly-cotton blend for you. That is, if you insist upon a literal interpretation of the Bible. Perhaps the divine rules regarding the treatment of slaves ought to give us pause to consider the concept of inerrancy, too: Who thinks their Creator approves of slavery?
Severe Weather Awareness Week slaps Iowa upside the head
The creepy history of the Olympic flame
Perhaps the free world should do a relay with a "flame of liberty" every year, to remind ourselves that billions of people are still living on this planet without their fundamental human rights -- like freedom of speech and peaceable assembly. That would be a positive message, and might be better than just protesting the Olympic flame when it's carried in honor of authoritarian regimes.
The days of the well-paid TV news anchor may be waning
One of the top weather forecasters in Twin Cities television (Nielsen market #15) has been abruptly fired. It appears that the days of making six figures in local television news may be on the way out. Douglas was smart, starting his own businesses on the side. That's really going to be the future of broadcasting: People who work part-time on the air, but rely on something else altogether for their real income. Douglas created and sold an online weather-forecasting business.
"South Park" takes on the Writers' Guild
(Video) Pretty funny to see what a couple of people who have built a successful franchise on their own have to say (through their characters) about being held back by a labor strike
Researchers track stormwater recharge into the Ogallala Aquifer
Margaret Thatcher more popular than any other prime minister since Churchill
The first lady of personal liberty still resonates today. Perhaps that's why there's such an uproar in Britain over the torch-running protests, since the world should still be ashamed of the Chinese government's behavior regarding personal liberties -- especially in places like Tibet.
81% of all e-mail sent in March was spam
Worse, spammers are using dirty tricks like forging the "From" address using real addresses in order to get extra mileage from their attacks. If a piece of spam gets bounced from one site and the return address given is a legitimate one, then the legitimate address gets "returned" spam that it never sent in the first place. The resilience of the crooks behind spam is a good example of why people will probably remain pretty skeptical of "uploading" their brains, as some futurists have suggested will be the path to immortality. As for extending life expectancy, it's probably safer to bet (at least for now) on regenerative therapies, bionic organs, and nano-scale robots that can clean the arteries and attack cancer cells. The subject of longer life got some unusual (but timely) attention in a Barbara Walters special last week.
Sweet, refreshing beer: The 75th anniversary of its return
Prohibition was a stupid idea, because it took a perfectly legal behavior and made it illegal. The result? A bunch of normally law-abiding people became criminals, and the only supplier became the black market. A lesson that seems to escape lawmakers quite often today.
Notes from the "Brian Gongol Show" on WHO Radio - April 6, 2008