Brian Gongol
Show notes from the WHO Radio Wise Guys - April 26, 2008
Do urban centers really matter?
While some economists think public policy should continue to pursue agglomeration economies (concentrating lots of similar firms into a single geographic area). That might be an error. Certain agglomerations will happen whether public officials want them to or not -- but given the enduring growth in worker mobility, particularly given the miracles in Internet access and telecommunications services of the last few years, it seems almost quixotic to try to consciously influence how those things will evolve. Besides, too much concentration isn't necessarily a good thing. Of course, these sorts of matters are ideal for civic debate.
High taxes and an overgrown entitlement budget are de-motivating British workers
But perhaps the cruelest irony is that even though big disincentives are discouraging people from working more, many are trying to consume more, even if they don't have the money to do so, just to feel better. That's a bad recipe. Tax freedom day is June 2nd in Britain (it just happened on April 23rd in the US). Related: It's not good news that former Soviet states could be hit especially hard by some of the troubles working through the world economy at the moment. Civil society still has a way to go in quite a few of those places -- that is, unless you don't mind newspapers being shut down because they criticize public officials.
Microsoft plans to declare war on the Yahoo board of directors
The deadline for Microsoft's "friendly" bid for the company expires this weekend, and the next step is to move into an aggressive campaign to oust the board of directors. In a fascinating bit, some people think that Microsoft has to make a big move now or risk falling into a downward spiral. That's a pretty amazing and bold statment for a company ranked #44 among the Fortune 500. Not that it couldn't happen, of course. Creative destruction has taken down some incredibly powerful companies. It's entertaining enough that Microsoft has been making loud noises about the antitrust implications of any deal involving Yahoo and Google.
Convoluted transplant surgeries remain necessary until bio-engineered organs become widely available
A six-way kidney transplant just happened at Johns Hopkins -- which is a remarkable feat, once one considers the number of people who had to be involved (donors, recipients, and medical staff) simultaneously. And the recipients are certainly better off for the task. But the world will be better off when we can successfully manufacture replacement organs from a patient's own cells. Researchers are working on it already.
10,000 pieces of tiny art make up one digital $100 bill
Because who could live without a CNN t-shirt?
The TV network is selling plain t-shirts with recent headlines emblazoned on them for $20 apiece
Stealth fighters enter retirement
The single-seat, radar-evading F-117A is being mothballed after 25 years of service. And the 56-year-old B-52 continues to fly.
Gorman-Rupp announces $52 million expansion
No more black ice?
The weather/motoring phenomenon of black ice can't actually be done away with, but a French company is working on developing road paint that changes colors just above the freezing mark, which could offer real-time warning to drivers that road conditions may be perilous, without any complicated or expensive sensors.
AIDS researchers turn pessimistic about finding a vaccine
The good times are over at Deutsche Bank: No more putting prostitutes on expense accounts
The absurdity of some people's behavior in the financial industry has made the strong backlash against their failures seem at least a little bit justified. But the real scare comes from some of the strange and irrational proposals being made by elected officials who think they can make things better by punishing the prudent and rewarding the gamblers.
Javascript just keeps on looking like more trouble than it's worth
An estimated 100,000 websites have been hit by a huge Javascript attack, including MSNBC.com and some sites from the UN. Javascript has some terrific uses, like providing interactive calculation tools, but it's also heavily (and needlessly) used for things like site navigation. Most people would be well-served by using Firefox and loading the NoScript extension. It's worth noting that crooks are attacking lots of file formats these days, including PDF -- which has long been perceived as relatively bulletproof.
Son hires drinking buddies for father at $15 an hour plus expenses
Related: An Atlanta bar owner has built a robot to chase away the homeless who hang around near his pub
Labor strike means no school for a million British kids
Ornate tapestries meet the digital age
Computers can now stitch tapestries that took our predecessors hundreds of person-hours to complete. Technology continues to make life better all the time.
Infrastructure and Earth Day
Illinois lawmakers can't wait to make criminals out of ordinary people
By proposing a ban on talking on a cell phone while crossing the street, they have assumed that the nanny state's role must be to intervene in case of any perceived danger (its reality notwithstanding), making ordinary behavior a criminal offense because it might -- might! -- lead to danger. Life is so much less dangerous now than when we lived in small tribes, fearing death at the jaws of wild animals. Maybe we should keep that in perspective. Technology is making life better all the time. Perhaps we can swallow an inconvenience or two along the road without making a legal situation out of it.
Bankrupt ultra-cheap airline took economic-development incentives down with it
Workforce stratification makes LA a "Third World city"
Robbing from the future to give to the present
That's all we're doing with the "economic stimulus" package that was rushed through Washington earlier this year. At some point, all the bills we as a nation have been ignoring are going to come due...with interest.
Nebraska farmers plan fewer corn acres in 2008 than in 2007
It'll still be a larger number of acres than in 2006, but new ethanol plants are coming on-line at a slower pace, so farmers are cutting back on new production
Why people want alternatives to chlorine gas
Rising rice prices cause dietary changes
Liberians, for instance, are starting to eat pasta in place of rice. That, it appears, is a big cultural change. The World Food Program says this is the biggest food crisis it's ever encountered. Moreover, there's no way to separate a spike in food prices from a spike in energy prices -- after all, food is simply energy for human consumption. And since all energy (except perhaps nuclear power) comes ultimately from the sun, the only difference between food and fuel is really how the solar power it stores is delivered. Unfortunately for the US, we're in a negative feedback loop on energy prices, and breaking out of it won't be pleasant. We're going to have to pay more for energy as time rolls along, whether we choose to do so passively (by paying higher prices dictated by the world market) or actively (by investing in new means of capturing energy and conserving it).
Small company gets hit with intellectual property lawsuit, but fights back like a big firm
The budgetary future is anything but rosy
Ohio, for instance, is facing a common triple-threat: Medicaid costs (which come from the budgets of the individual states) are rising rapidly, while public education and the corrections system are also costing more. Meanwhile, we're on the verge of seeing lots of people exit the workforce, which will probably hurt income-tax receipts in a lot of states as well. Meanwhile, oil prices continue to rise and Congress continues to ignore the pending calamity of entitlement spending. It's not a good recipe for Ohio or Iowa or any other state.
Reservoirs along Missouri River are six years of rain away from normal
Is the future of biofuels in young trees?
E-mail scam targets business executives by embedding a keystroke logger in a fake subpoena
The days of being able to shrug off a lack of knowledge and savvy about dealing with the Internet and its many and varied hoaxes needs to go by the wayside. The Internet is now nearly as vital as electricity itself to the conduct of most American business, so anyone anywhere along the chain needs to be aware of the perils that lurk out there.
Northwestern University neurobiologist says Cubs fans are trained for disappointment
He's even written a book on the psychology of fandom among one of the nation's most cursed teams. The same team that watched its World Series chances evaporate in 2003 but for which a fan reaching for a foul ball took all the popular blame.
An argument against buying cameras based on megapixel ratings alone
Troops may be bringing drug-resistant bacteria back home from Iraq
Forbes says Des Moines has the best drinking water in the country
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - April 20, 2008
Ford didn't really redesign its logo, but the prospect makes one think
Some companies change their logos all the time, thinking it'll change their image and reputation. But a logo hardly does that. That's why Ford, GM, and others have logos that last practically forever...even if a hypothetical update looked good.
Number-crunching suggests fraud in Russian election
Transparency of any sort tends to increase honesty -- and even though the Russian government may have done a lot to block any foreign observers from trying to monitor the election, some math can perform a similar service after the results are published.
Food storage: It still matters
A 1923 article talking about putting an entire meal into a pill brings up an important and far less-fanciful point: We've become very good at expediting food preparation. Sure, we're not pulling dinner out of a meal synthesizer, but it's quite possible to get a good meal 21 times a week without ever having to do any more work than pressing a couple of buttons on a microwave and waiting for two or three minutes. That said, it's astonishing that with all the gains in food production we've managed to achieve over the last century, we store practically none of it for long-term use, particularly in the proverbial seven years of plenty, seven years of famine paradigm. That seems absurd in 2008.
Midwest earthquake could have contaminated some water wells