Gongol.com Archives: May 2017

Brian Gongol


May 26, 2017

Computers and the Internet Defendant loses Israeli case because she texted with too many emojis

By peppering her text messages to a prospective landlord with a bunch of happy emojis, a judge concluded that she intended to show positive intent to rent, and now she has to pay a few thousand dollars in damages. There's a reason the written word beat out the pictogram millennia ago.

News A winning strategy

It may seem quaint, but just being against something (like an unlikeable President) still isn't enough to motivate winning coalitions of voters -- at least not reliably.

Business and Finance Among all the other reasons to worry, now China's taken on too much debt

And a heavy debt burden threatens the prospects for growth, which in turn could destabilize the country if it doesn't liberalize its politics. It's a whole basket full of alarms.

Threats and Hazards Murders in Portland apparently tied to racist attack

Just awful

Threats and Hazards New York Times conducts spectacular forensic reporting on the Turkish protest violence

The report makes it clear: Officials of the Turkish government brought violence to Washington, DC

Threats and Hazards Not only is Russia hacking, it's faking some of the outputs

What better way to take advantage of the "leaks" resulting from their hacks than to deliberately falsify or modify some of the leaked materials in order to do even more damage?

Business and Finance President Trump accuses Germany of being "bad, very bad" for exporting goods

Trade is less about "We sell, you buy" and more about how complex things come together. The President's abject failure to understand how this works is his own deliberate fault, and it is inexcusable. A world that trades voluntarily is a world that delivers material well-being to its people and peace among its nations.


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