Gongol.com Archives: September 2011
Brian Gongol


September 1, 2011

Business and Finance Corporate taxes are a canard, but many executives are paid far too much
We have two counterproductive patterns at play in American business: One is a tax structure that's punitive towards many otherwise sane and sensible capitalistic behaviors (like distributing dividends to shareholders). The other is a pattern of ratcheting up executive compensation to heights that serve only to stoke the fires of ego and not to demand outstanding performance from the overcompensated.

News Britain's RAF is literally flying bundles of cash into Libya
They're trying to restart the economic market there. One might call it the ultimate experiment in monetarism.

Science and Technology Could the greenhouse effect be counteracted by artificial volcanoes?
It's known that ash from volcanoes can cause global cooling -- the "year without a summer" proved that. But it really sounds like a dicey thing to try to create artificial volcanic effects in order to cool the planet.

Computers and the Internet What's taking Google Plus so long to catch on?
The service really does have a lot of features that are great in theory, but so far there's just very little momentum outside communities of enthusiastic technophiles. At least two forces should be propelling it more than they seem to be: One is Facebook's hubris, the other is Google's increasingly serious need to find ways to make money after the search-engine boom runs out.

Weather and Disasters Flood recovery continues in the Midwest
The railroads are attempting to get things back together after an awful summer due to Missouri River flooding...not that the media headquartered in places like New York paid even the slightest bit of attention.

Health New analysis says the awful 1918 flu epidemic could have been manageable
...Manageable, that is, if today's methods had been applied. That's good news, considering we still live in fear of another influenza pandemic.

News Why the Chicago Bears should be a much more valuable franchise than they are
Family ownership within a family that doesn't have a lot of other income-producing assets does tend to keep the team's hands tied, among other problems

Iowa Competition from Megabus entices incumbent bus service to drop prices

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