Gongol.com Archives: 2015 Weekly Archives
September 6, 2015

In China, "It is better to hit to kill than to hit and injure" because the incentives are on the side of killing a pedestrian rather than causing injury. The costs of burial are less than the costs of compensating the injured person for their medical care. Always look to the incentives created by laws, rules, culture, and other systems to anticipate the likely outcomes or to explain ones that seem perverse.

There are things that the new "identity" does well, but the logo itself is nothing impressive

Only the Facebook application itself is more widely used. Forcing people off the messaging service built into the broader Facebook app and into the dedicated service certainly gave them another product to tout -- though it doesn't necessarily mean they have any broader total reach than before.

People are escaping war by boat and on foot. Pope Francis has gone so far as to implore every Catholic parish in Europe to take in a refugee family.

September 5, 2015

Fortune: "The companies in the US that have a high impact on job growth aren't newest firms -- they're companies that are at least 15 to 20 years old on average"

Low elevation, high population density and growth, and porous bedrock

(Video)

(Video) Cubs fans have waited far too long to get players who crush grand slams
September 3, 2015

If your reaction to the death of a child who drowned while trying to escape Syria is anything but heartbreak, you need to readjust your thinking

Human-caused disasters in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and Northern Africa are leaving tens of thousands on the run

They're coming soon to a mass market

A guaranteed 11% return on equity is a huge incentive to reinvest. That's contributed heavily to Iowa's wind-generation boom.

September 2, 2015

2,500 people have died trying to cross the Mediterranean this summer. If six Boeing 747 jumbo jets had crashed this summer, we'd be paying attention to the problem. But somehow this story is falling through the cracks. And it's not a single disaster featuring 2,500 casualties -- it's 2,500 individual calamities, including two involving innocent little boys who drowned on a Turkish beach. The pictures are absolutely heart-wrenching. But the reality is even worse. Millions of people are trying to flee ISIS/ISIL/QSIL/Daesh and a criminal government in Syria. Where is our humanity?

0.7% from year to year, according to the BLS. That's better than zero, but not by much.


People who look to predict the future of business by the movements of stock prices are playing financial astrology

September 1, 2015

A vast repository of spies and subjects is being created, it would appear

A triumph of over-simplification. Where's the energy in the new look? Wholly dull, milquetoast, and uninspiring.


The Gazette Co. is selling off the standalone station
