Gongol.com Archives: August 2009
Brian Gongol


August 20, 2009

Health The problem with science news
The need to summarize complex information in digestible formats can cause the wrong conclusions to be drawn. A study published in the British Medical Journal suggests that the approaches currently used for mammograms and breast-cancer screening are not the most effective ones that could be used. But when that becomes a newspaper headline in the Los Angeles Times, it reads, "The trouble with mammograms: The exams lead to overdiagnosis, causing women to go through treatment for breast cancers that wouldn't kill them." And that, in turn, is likely to be remembered by some as "Mammograms aren't worthwhile." And that's not the point of the study at all.

Science and Technology The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
The true value of a free society is that it allows the occasional genius to flourish. We need the works of those occasional geniuses to make progress occur.

Aviation News Team America: World Police
The 132nd Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard in Des Moines employs more than 1,000 personnel and has 18 fighter jets. By comparison, the entire Irish Air Corps has just 850 members. When just one of three units of the National Guard (not the active-duty Air Force) in a state of three million people is larger than an entire European nation's air force, that perhaps explains why the United States is considered the world's police force.

Broadcasting Find the top musical hit on your birthday
And then view Awkward Family Photos

Water News Upper Missouri basin hits a 10-year high

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