Brian Gongol
Germany celebrates 25 years of reunification
Capitalism won. Communism lost. And yet market economies only work if they are actively defended every single day against well-meaning idiots and malicious statists.
The "farmer wave" gets its own week in Iowa
When Iowans give other drivers the one-finger salute...it's not the same finger as in other parts of the country
Putin says he expects a "catastrophic" lull in oil prices, but reserves can handle it
Russia has long ridden natural-resources bonanzas (thanks to the country's enormous size, it has access to more of those than most nations do). But you can't build a durable economy on natural resources without a real market strategy. Very few countries get this right.
Compensation consultant: Best job in the world?
Get hired by a corporate executive to come up with a way to justify the highest possible amount that very executive should be paid. America needs more actively-involved (and slightly management-hostile) shareholders.
Kurdish group says ISIS/ISIL/QSIL has 200,000 fighters
The longer the group holds its positions, the more entrenched they become in the public mindset -- and that's what the group wants
More signs of trouble that the Chinese economy is slowing
Big consequences could result for the rest of the world
Show notes: The Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - November 16, 2014
Today: Drones give us unprecedented views of the climb up a TV tower
Tomorrow: Drones will do dangerous work (like climbing towers) instead of people
Show notes: Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - November 19, 2014
Filling in for Simon Conway
The US military has very low faith in the political sector
By historical standards, that's a bit of a problem. Countries usually need a system of trust with arm's-length detachment between their military and political sectors in order to do well.
Facebook plans a business edition, it appears
Why is college so slow to get online?
Bill Gates shares some observations on the long, slow haul to get post-secondary schooling on the Internet
Who among the world's richest people made it themselves?
The harvest is in, and the crops did well
But it may not quite be the blow-the-doors-off record-setter that people had expected
Circuit-court judge says Illinois can't adjust state-employee pensions to fix the state's budgetary train wreck
Something has to be done -- Illinois is in dire distress, and the pension obligations involved are no small cause
"Legislative branch not included"
Cartoonist Jeff Koterba nails the problem with the executive branch expressing its frustration with the legislative by moving unilaterally. If you don't think the President should be allowed to commit troops to war without Congressional approval, or if you think that it's important for the laws to reflect the will of the people, then you shouldn't be applauding the Obama administration's unilateral action to change the immigration system. It's inconsistent policy.
The transitive property of the NFL
HS runner with MS doesn't feel pain while running
It may confer a competitive advantage, but nobody would voluntarily pay the price to get it. The girl deserves credit for the effort.
China's central bank cuts interest rates to give the economy a boost
Their economy is still growing, but the rate of growth is slipping. The slippage is the problem. The country is flush with cash (thanks to years of exporting much more stuff than they have imported), but it appears they're running out of good ideas for domestic investment. That's going to spell trouble: If the Communist Party can't deliver consistent and fast economic growth, they're going to have a lot of trouble keeping a lid on political rebellion.
While America slept...
Chinese hackers attacked NOAA's computers in late September. Why? Don't know; don't care -- other than to know that it's a piece of critical national infrastructure, and should be taken as seriously as an attack on any other piece of infrastructure, in the physical world or the digital one.
Republican governors are the party's best shot for the White House
Republicans who are either sitting or past governors are almost certainly the GOP's best prospects for electoral success in 2016. Americans tend to lean Republican in our executive-branch politics when it becomes clear that the adults need to be in charge for a while.
If China's economy slows, a lot of raw-materials prices could drop
Perspective on the scale of America's energy boom
We're enormously lucky -- the job now is to be smart and convert that good luck into a durable advantage
Putin doesn't want a revolution