Brian Gongol
Rural residents trust groundwater twice as much as city dwellers do
October 2, 2008 edition of the Future Scale
Cedar Rapids flood plan comes to fruition
Banking crisis or not, there's a real food shortage out there
It's hitting poor countries hardest, which should surprise nobody. While the food shortage is quite serious, anthropomorphic cannibalism is not.
The life of Galileo, in summary
Letterman: Why is NBC letting Leno go?
Letterman himself wants to keep doing "The Late Show" for at least a little while after his current contract runs out in 2010.
Life magazine to be resurrected online
"Dying is expensive, not living longer"
Just about everything we need to know about the rise of great longevity can be summed up in one quote from the head of a British gerontology group: "The short, deadly diseases that used to kill us off are being replaced by conditions such as arthritis and living after a stroke. They're not life-threatening but they affect our quality of life."
Hey...these aren't my vacation photos!
28-year-old package carrier buys a Nikon Coolpix camera on eBay, then tries to download some vacation snapshots. Discovers a bunch of secret files from MI6, the British secret intelligence agency. Gets visit from the authorities and cash for a replacement camera. Turns into another case study in why trusting the government with your private information -- like with biometric ID cards -- is probably a bad idea. If they can't protect national security secrets better than that, how could they be expected to do better with stuff that isn't even classified?
Power comes back for Galveston
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
Be careful whom you deify
(Video) Craig Ferguson calls out the cult of personality that makes this election a little creepy
Combat rising energy prices with better DO monitoring
One non-governmental solution to credit problems: Making mutual funds really mutual
For decades, John Bogle has been a passionate advocate of mutual funds built exclusively around the interests of the funds' shareholders. His ideas are quite reasonable; mutual funds should be structured so that the interests of the shareholders come first. That's one of the reasons why Berkshire Hathaway has done so well; Warren Buffett has most of his money in the company, so what's good for him is good for other shareholders, and vice versa. So when he puts $5 billion into Goldman Sachs and gets a 10% guaranteed dividend, he's making money for everybody on his end of the bargaining table. The de-mutualization of mortgage savings institutions in the UK may also be to blam for many of their troubles, too. Related: The tightrope that the Federal Reserve will have to walk is between making sure that there's enough liquidity in the economy without creating high inflation. It's no small risk; the $700 billion bailout package alone represents about 5% of the entire US GDP. Once again, we ought to expect a spirited debate between inflation hawks and their opponents -- kind of like the gold-vs.-silver debate of about a hundred years ago. Also interesting: An OSU study suggests that the biggest losses in the mortgage industry have had nothing to do with individual families and their homes.
Cedar Rapids brings its wastewater plant back online
Knowing your core mission
The US Air Force is going to slowly re-introduce a program that will train Air Force Academy cadets how to fly. One would imagine that should be the kind of mission that stays central to the mission of the institution...kind of like GM remembering to build cars.
How Governor Culver thinks he can skip consulting the other branches of government
Socialism is no grand solution; just ask Venezuela
Since putting Hugo Chavez into power, Venezuela has experienced shortages of important goods, high inflation, black markets for labor, government theft of private property (like oil fields), and dictatorial powers for the president which are being used to sideline his opposition. And yet, because the US government has been far too ignorant of our Latin American neighbors, we're losing allies to Chavez.
Blame online Scrabble for productivity losses at work
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - September 28, 2008
Topics: The bailout proposal reaches a vote...feeding astronauts and poor people...Chrysler's electric car...and an audio highlight/podcast
Remaking USA.gov
A designer with a free-market bent remakes the Federal government "gateway" website USA.gov in anticipation of socialism ahead