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This week in making money and having fun
Notes forthe Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio for June 16, 2013

This week in sports



Having nothing to hide
Some people say "You have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide." Those people need to explain why they still have window blinds and curtains.

Australian army chief lays down the law about sexual abuse
(Video) Worth watching to see what happens when a leader gets unequivocal

How to make airships practical for carrying cargo
Variable buoyancy might be just the trick

Angela Merkel thinks labor should get more mobile
Europe has a problem with unemployed youth; some of them undoubtedly could do better by moving.

Tornadoes in Belmond, Iowa, on June 12
(Video) Very clear footage

Live updates on the fires in Colorado Springs
A helicopter pilot shot some aerial footage of the damage. Containment of the fire is still quite minimal, at least officially -- just 5%.

Surveillance in the news ought to heighten awareness of ransomware


Gannett buys Belo television stations



The President's Council of Economic Advisers is an all-Harvard team
There are some fine economists from there -- but isn't a little more heterogeneity in order?

How much do cities owe their growth to the industries already there?
According to one research paper, not as much as we'd likely think. The argument for what are called "agglomeration economies" is that a town with a specialty in one industry should try to attract other businesses from the same industry because that will enhance the economic growth of the city. Des Moines, for instance, is an insurance town. Agglomeration economics suggests that trying to get more insurance companies to reside here would make the city grow, attracting more insurance companies, in a virtuous feedback loop. But, aside from a few outlier cases like Los Angeles, it turns out that the feedback loop is only one of many factors, and not the most important one.

Facebook adopts the hashtag
Hashtags got their legs through use on Twitter, but all kinds of other services are starting to adopt them. While occasionally useful, they mostly just make things difficult to read.

Recording a three-overtime Stanley Cup game...not so easy with a DVR

Apple's new iOS looks almost...Microsoft-ish
Yet nobody's really gotten on the Windows Phone bandwagon

A prize for terrible art
The "Turnip Prize" rewards terrible art that doesn't try too hard



Should cars get Gorilla Glass?
The material that has shown itself to be enormously popular for smartphone screens might also have a place in the windshield

An avalanche of information about the state of Internet use today
Operating systems, what's being shared, who's online...all of it in one entirely overwhelming presentation

Vaccinations save lives
There's no escaping the facts: People who feed on paranoia about vaccines are putting themselves and others at risk, including innocent children. It's unconscionable, when the science is clearly in favor of vaccination.

Wildfire destroys homes near Colorado Springs
It's big

Was government surveillance unconstitutional?
A semi-secret court will allow the release of a ruling on some of the data-gathering activities that hadn't been previously disclosed to the public

Microsoft, Facebook, and Google want to report on what they're sharing with the NSA
One would think that's a good first step towards greater transparency in the process

Who owns Iowa's farmland?
"62 percent of Iowa farmland was owned by non-farmers last year, up from 60 percent in 2007". That number undoubtedly includes both disinterested investors as well as family members who inherited a piece of the family farm but who moved to the city.

Des Moines/West Des Moines has nation's best outlook for jobs in coming months
Says a survey by Manpower, reported in Forbes.

A big load of updates in Microsoft's Patch Tuesday this month
Of high importance: The ones that refer to "remote code execution", since that's how other people can hijack your machine.

News Corp. divides itself in two



Apple overhauls the iOS for iPhones
Version 7 is a lot less cluttered, at least on first appearances

Incredibly low interest rates may be fueling bad behavior on Wall Street again
The easier it is to access something as addictive as cheap money, the greater the danger that it leads to addiction.

Photographer somehow turns traffic into a great short film

When the history of the fall of Western Civ is written, this video will play a role
(Video) A "dancing queen" that will leave you with nightmares



The left may be regretting the choice for President Obama
The administration's approach to national security and other policies doesn't seem to be living up to the promises of openness and freedom that were made in 2008 and in 2012. The NSA promises that its data-sniffing system is operated carefully and that they correct errors, but who can really know whether that's the truth when everything is conducted under cloaks of secrecy with no meaningful civilian oversight?

Iowa is already well ahead of 2012's year-end totals for precipitation

US Airways is really taking over American Airlines
They announced plans for most of the new management team to come from US Air. American Airlines will emerge from bankruptcy with its old name but under new management.

Unnamed company plans $140 million data center for West Des Moines

Twitter finally expands list options
Any user can now have 1,000 lists (as opposed to the previous limit of 20), with 5,000 members of each list (previously capped at 500). This is long overdue and a major improvement to Twitter's functionality.



June 2 to June 8, 2013
May 26 to June 1, 2013
May 19 to May 25, 2013
May 12 to May 18, 2013
May 5 to May 11, 2013
April 28 to May 4, 2013
April 21 to April 27, 2013
April 14 to April 20, 2013
April 7 to April 13, 2013
March 31 to April 6, 2013
March 24 to March 30, 2013
March 17 to March 23, 2013
March 10 to March 16, 2013
March 3 to March 9, 2013
February 24 to March 2, 2013
February 17 to February 23, 2013
February 10 to February 16, 2013
February 3 to February 9, 2013
January 27 to February 2, 2013
January 20 to January 26, 2013
January 13 to January 19, 2013
January 6 to January 12, 2013
January 1 to January 5, 2013

Fourth quarter 2012
Third quarter 2012
Second quarter 2012
First quarter 2012



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