Brian Gongol
Why you should look both ways when crossing the street
(Video)
Revisions on the way to the ridiculous color-coded homeland-security terror alerts
It was evident at least four years ago that the color system was stupid and pointless. Maybe it can finally be put out of its misery.
Checklist for buying a laptop
Will it tell you which laptop to buy? No. But it should help the new computer buyer start to narrow down which laptop is best to purchase.
Nebraska state officials looking into the NRD model
Don't believe people who talk about "economic multiplier effects"
Robert Barro, a Harvard economics professor, reports on a research paper he's doing that says new government spending tends to reduce the overall size of the economy by choking out private spending and investment. People who talk about "multiplier effects" are usually either misguided or deliberately trying to enrich themselves at public expense.
How to care for someone with H1N1 flu
It's a really brutal flu. Everything you've heard about how awful it is...is probably true. So sayeth the voice of experience.
A "heated argument" is no excuse for flying 150 miles off course
...with 12 dozen passengers aboard. Definitely no excuse.
Michelle Obama doesn't want you to "supersize" anything
How Mormonism has influenced Glenn Beck as a broadcast host
The strange evolution of Beck's schtick over the last couple of years has been disappointing. A few years ago, he was a funny and clever topical talk-show host. But with much of his time diverted to his work on cable television, Beck has become exhaustingly political. It's almost inevitable that most talk-show hosts will be driven to overdose on opinions, but Beck seemed to have things under control when he was working on radio alone. By adding television to the agenda, he stretched himself out over so many obligations that originality has been sacrificed.
How college football is like going to church in ancient Rome
Open-source type font families
Because they're open-source, they don't cost any money -- and some are quite attractive
Small jet fuel spill raises alert at Quad Cities airport
Facebook agrees to let Bing deliver search results based on Facebook status updates
Supposedly, it will apply only to people with public profiles. But errors, glitches, oversights, and unintended consequences in the public/private profile rules on Facebook have occurred before and they'll occur again. And even if the agreement presupposes that Bing will not be allowed to store old status updates in its records, that will hardly affect the decisions of third parties who might choose to catalog comments, just like we might catalog some of our favorite quotes. Once a cat of this type gets out of a bag, it stays out.
"Blue" roses created through gene splicing
Honestly, they look purple
"Balloon boy" hoax is just another example of why news reporters have to learn to make important stories more interesting
Says one observer: "No, I don't blame the media for covering balloon boy. I do blame them for not finding ways to make these other stories just as scintillating." Exactly right. It's not as though Americans resent intelligence -- the main characters in TV shows like "House", "Lie to Me", "How I Met Your Mother", and "NCIS" are all clearly supposed to be smarter than everyone else around. Flawed, perhaps, but very smart. Our news reporters can show the same intelligence and still draw a big audience. Vin Scully is a master at telling a story about a baseball game in a way that can be superior to showing the same game on television.
NPR comes out with a radio-like wireless Internet device for picking up Internet streams
And here we've always been taught that gambling and pornography have driven online innovation. Turns out that insufferable blowhard Garrison Keillor might play a role, too.
Grants available for stormwater management
Twitter, Facebook, and the like make saying things in the public sphere perhaps a little too easy
The instantaneous nature and abbreviated format mean that people can end up saying things -- including damaging things about other people or institutions -- without a lot of thought or useful context. And that's a problem, because people are still sued for slander, libel, and defamation all the time. Radio and television personalities have generally been educated about the boundaries -- but the average Twitter user probably hasn't.
How life might have originated with rocks involved in chemical reactions
Precision farming with the help of GPS and other recent tools
Wired has an article on the use of new technology to make farming more efficient. They mention the use of UAVs to provide precision imaging of fields, which is a sincerely appealing notion -- but nobody's making the necessary rules for UAV use in domestic airspace to ensure that useful purposes like crop dusting and field imaging can move forward while we simultaneously protect ourselves from the many dangerous uses to which UAVs could be put. Ignoring the technology doesn't make it go away.
Tongue piercings may put people at risk of brain and heart infections
Omaha upgrades water pipes from 1895
StubHub sees the future...maybe
A computer error caused ticket broker StubHub to send out an e-mail inviting Chicago Cubs fans to purchase Cubs playoffs tickets. Of course, the Cubs aren't in the playoffs this year, so maybe someone at StubHub has seen into the future. Others found the error more depressing.
From where the jobs have come and gone
A geographic review of the comings and goings of jobs across America since 2004
A history of chemotherapy
It's only been around for about 60 years.
Grand Island fire hydrant set aflame
Today is self-exam day
Take a minute or two and conduct some basic self-screenings for cancer. Early detection saves lives. There's lots of misinformation about cancer that finds its way around the Internet, largely because we've been trained to wait expectantly for some sort of magic-bullet solution to cancer. But cancer risks can be significantly reduced through a balanced diet, exercise, and early detection and treatment. Meanwhile, science is making great progress towards improving genetic detection, which holds great promise for some types of cancer. Instead of forwarding hoax-ridden e-mails about "cancer cures" and false threats, people should instead remind their friends and family to assess their health once a month.
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - October 18, 2009