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College newspapers move to a digital-first model
The biggest problem will probably be whether the lack of a highly specific nightly deadline causes journalists (collegiate or otherwise) to take the foot off the gas. Conversely, by releasing journalists from form-dependent work (that is, laying out a physical newspaper), perhaps a digital-first model will encourage more meaningful storytelling.
Which Americans have been paying down credit-card debt?
Show notes: The Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - April 13, 2014
What is "news", and why does a serious definition matter?
Trouble in Ukraine is far from over
Gunmen have taken over police buildings. The smart money is on Russian involvement.
Lab-grown organs are already a reality
A Lancet study says that four women in the US have had vaginal transplants from lab-grown tissue
Fixing distracted driving with better fonts
Will Chicago get a George Lucas museum?
Lucas has a huge collection of art and memorabilia, and he wants to make a museum of it. His first choice is San Francisco, but they're not opening up the space he wanted, so Chicago is gunning to be the backup location.
Russia withheld information on the Boston bombers
Are we giving up too much by giving up ICANN?
The United States has managed much of the Internet's structure with a sort of benign dictatorialism. But turning it over to the world at large? What guarantee have we that it will work?
How different generations can work together
Supposedly advice for family businesses, but widely applicable. Generational labels are often over-done, but there are definitely lessons to be learned across age groups.
Hazards to the EAS
How broadcasters might be vulnerable to exploitation of the nation's emergency-broadcasting system
Russia starts threatening Europe over Ukraine and natural gas
Chief Justice John Roberts and the leadership of conservative thought
"Heartbleed explained"
Why everyone's going to need to reset their passwords soon
China declares: We will not be contained
Saying that the Pacific is big enough for two great powers, they're certainly signaling that America's military-industrial complex will have work for plenty of years to come
Don't let down your guard, Los Angeles
The right earthquake in the right spot could be catastrophic, because "downtown L.A. and Hollywood are packed with old, vulnerable buildings, including those made of concrete"
The ideal length of almost everything online
A guide to shamelessly manipulating your audience...because someone else will try to do it anyway
Anchorage Daily News surrenders to online competitor
The oil tanker that was just too super
An oil tanker that was too large to safely navigate the English Channel ultimately proved no match for economics. It was too big for its own good.
"A contrived pretext for military intervention just as we saw in Crimea"
Secretary of State Kerry tries to call out the Russian government for making a mess in Ukraine -- quite literally by fomenting insurrection. So, here's the question: Why does this all appear to be happening while the White House scrambles to patch together some kind of response? How did we get here? Why didn't we see this coming, and wasn't there something that we could have done to prevent it? Is there a systemic failure we need to address? Are there individuals who should be fired for gross incompetence? Wagging fingers at Russia now seems like a response that isn't anywhere close to getting the right outcome.
Think through the consequences
A Cityview story on gang problems in Des Moines (yes, Des Moines) notes the widely-acknowledged correlation between youth unemployment and gang trouble: "No kid that has a legitimate opportunity elsewhere is joining a gang". This relationship should always enter the conversation when people talk about doing anything that restricts entry into the labor force -- including raising the minimum wage. Barriers to entry mean more young people with no better alternatives, and that enhances the risk that some of them will get caught up in criminal activity. 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds with low-wage but legitimate jobs are a far better thing to have than 21-year-olds who still haven't gotten into the labor force. And the higher the barriers to entry, the worse the effects down the road, since the longer a person goes without establishing some kind of a working history (no matter how menial it may appear), the harder it becomes for them to get moving up the economic ladder.
Chicago and the state of Illinois struggle to fix pensions
Too many promises made for too long and not enough set aside to keep them. Chicago's not alone -- this is a very widespread problem.
The suspected depth of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
We tend to lack both perspective and basic knowledge of the depths of the oceans, or of their topography.
"Like sharing a waterbed with a baboon that's just been doused in itching powder"
(Video) Jeremy Clarkson's take on the worst of giant American sedans
WHO Radio show notes: Brian Gongol Show - April 6, 2014
Studies nobody needed to perform
Researchers conclude that users of Twitter are more narcissistic than users of Facebook
WHO Radio show notes: Wise Guys - April 5, 2014
What Americans think are the biggest threats
Is it hard for international students to make friends on American college campuses?
Amazon rolls out "Fire TV"
Skydiver and meteorite nearly collide
(Video)
Iowans land in middle of state/local tax rankings
9.3% of income goes to state and local taxes, says the Tax Foundation
NATO looks to protect Ukraine
It's being said that Russia could invade at any moment, and there's no question that the mainstream of Europe would be opposed to an invasion on their doorstep. Meanwhile, the former president of Ukraine is backtracking on his embrace of the Russian incursion into Crimea. This whole affair is turning into a real test of just what "Western" values really are and how much those values are capable of overcoming the enticements of power.
Newspapers continue struggling -- hard -- with the transition to a post-paper era
What's changing under Microsoft's new CEO
When humans become computer-enhanced, it'll be because of DARPA
David Letterman announces retirement (coming in 2015)
Poland is asking for troops
Russian activity of late is making them nervous, and they want NATO's help
Ron Howard and Discovery are spinning up a production company focused on online products
Google stock is splitting in a way that forces the S&P index to have 501
Microsoft announces a new Windows Phone
One that appears to take some cues from Apple's Siri
Malaysian investigators say airline passengers have been cleared
They say that none of the passengers are suspects in any foul play
Can the President really be used as an advertising prop?
Certainly not in good taste. Poor form, David Ortiz and Samsung.
Book review: "Impatient Optimist: Bill Gates in His Own Words"
High-frequency trading gets the spotlight
High-frequency traders aren't doing anything of net value to society. It doesn't mean their activity should be illegal, but it does mean they're parasites. And when challenged, watch how emotions escalate.
Where to find the nation's baseball allegiances
Facebook has been collecting and analyzing the data
COO Sheryl Sandberg cuts her stake in Facebook
Conventional executive pay at Facebook dropped last year, but the real concern is how they've been launching enormous bags of cash at acquisitions. One gets the sense that some of the shine has worn off as the company has tried to remain both socially relevant and profitable.
How Google celebrated April Fool's Day
Seems like it's pretty much a company holiday
How to lose a wing-eating contest
(Video) If you're up against a ringer, you probably don't have a chance
Just a little windy in Iowa today
Peak gust: 57 mph in Stanhope. Des Moines had 49 miles an hour.
How Kansas City got Google Fiber
Cadillac and Ford show signs of fight
Ford's out with an ad that spoofs a Cadillac ad. A good rivalry can bevery good for sharpening businesses.
Stock market reacted badly to Facebook's latest acquisition
The people who should really be upset are the ones who were suckered into crowdfunding Oculus in the first place. The tech-company acquisition spree shows no sign of petering out. Facebook may just be trying to diversify in anticipation of troubles ahead monetizing their classic marketing options.
Backup cameras in all US cars by 2018
Montreal sure seems to want its baseball back
American colleges have to change. Now.
Maryland and "House of Cards" fight over production tax credits
Oh, to live in a world where states stopped giving in to demands for tax breaks -- especially for the "sexy" industries, like high tech and filmmaking. Everyone else ends up footing the bill anyway. Though one might note that an eminent-domain claim against the property of the film company is a violation of ex post facto: You made the deal with "House of Cards", Maryland, and just because they might choose not to continue it gives you no right to go back on the terms of the original agreement.
Vin Scully even narrates earthquakes with aplomb
Income's a bit up; savings are trending downward
The personal savings rate was in the 5% neighborhood in mid-2013; it's down to the low 4% range now
Japanese sales tax rates jumping from 5% to 8%
That's one way to create a surge in sales
Delta wants to turn flights into pure networking events
In-flight "mentoring programs" are here
Just how bad would the worst solar storm be?
UNI needs a different funding structure from Iowa and ISU
A school that serves mostly in-state students isn't going to have the same funding needs as the ones bringing in more out-of-state money
Microsoft/Nokia deal on hold until April
TechCrunch says Google is folding Voice into other products
538 calls out Paul Krugman as a data-provable opportunist
Keeping the natural-gas bonanza to ourselves
Most people probably don't realize it, but the huge bonanza in natural gas -- which has sent prices into the tank -- has been a major competitive advantage for the United States, and if it continues to offer cheap feedstock to the chemicals and plastics industries and subsidizes cheap electricity, it's going to be a major contributor to the US economy for some time to come. But prices are so low that producers are trying to export the gas overseas. Chemical companies like Dow aren't quite so enthused.
Does the world need another video-streaming service?
The Wall Street Journal says that Amazon is about to launch a service like Hulu, with free streaming supported by advertising. Amazon tells CNet that's not true. Regardless, online is undoubtedly where to find more and more users all the time, so we're surely going to see others get into the game.
Sign of the times: BBC moves a major channel to online-only
BBC3 went on the air in 2003 and will go off the air (in the conventional sense) once the plan works its way through the bureaucracy. How much will the over-the-air signal actually be missed?
Twitter goes beyond the 140 characters
They're letting users put as many as four photos in each update
NLRB says Northwestern football players are eligible to unionize
Pretty major news for college football
Blame Chicago CTA crash on sleeping operator
Why do we not have more faith in automated control of things like cars and subways? Sure, put people in place as a backup set of eyes and ears, but let's trust the computes and machinery that are clearly good enough to do the job.
Should auto dealers be protected by law?
Facebook keeps on making it rain for startups
After spending more than the company's net worth on WhatsApp, another $2 billion now for a virtual-reality product maker. If it's just a ploy to get some news headlines, it's an incredibly expensive vanity move. Buzzfeed calls it a "moonshot".
Mudslide in Washington kills more than a dozen -- or possibly many more
Warnings of the instability reportedly go back years
Nestle opens food-safety institute in China
The more we see imports from China on American grocery shelves, the more we should want to see this kind of private-sector supervision take over where government supervision clearly has not
A scientific look at why many men can't dance
The most over-the-top Wikipedia entry ever?
Nobody needs that much detail about a novelty song
A subtle de-escalation of "@" replies and hashtags might just help Twitter go even more mainstream
The service's ecosystem of hashtags and insider jargon are unquestionably off-putting to new users and non-users
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
Turkey faces global backlash for blocking Twitter
Turkish users can still use the SMS-to-Twitter approach, and the rest of the world is amplifying the outrage
There are no brackets left in the running for $1 billion
March Madness: The one month a year when Americans try to understand statistics
How to clean up the cache in a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx
One of the problems with Android phones is that they need cache dumps on occasion for both the apps and the browsers
Don't overpay for Internet consulting services
There's certainly a lot to learn, but there's no reason to get ripped off by "social media experts" and their ilk
Rabbits' uprising
Bill Gates: "Silly" startups an acceptable price for needed innovation
Maybe the problem isn't so much that people are being attracted to ridiculous projects, like pointless smartphone apps, but that there isn't adequate incentive to put useful brainpower to use solving really important problems. Innovation prizes might be a way to help with that. There also could be a case made for improving the social status of real scientific and technical problems (as opposed to the sex appeal of working for something vaguely related to "Silicon Valley").
LinkedIn is cutting the "products and services" tab from company pages
If you don't want to fall victim to the whims of an outside vendor, you have to figure out how to do things for yourself...especially on the Internet.
The Sinatra Group
(Video) Still one of the best SNL sketches of all time
President Obama still concentrating on a minimum-wage hike
Very thoughtful people have made strong arguments in favor of expanding the EITC and other means of helping the poor without distorting entry into the labor market -- which is a very serious consequence for young people. If there isn't a path upward to economic mobility, then we all suffer.
No state produces more eggs than Iowa
It's not even close
Why every smartphone should have antivirus protection
To be discussed on WHO Radio at 5:00 CT. Also available as a slideshow for those who don't like reading.
The argument for an electrical fire on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
There's still a mystery to be examined and resolved, but this explanation passes some of the initial tests for making some intuitive sense
How LinkedIn keeps chugging along
By getting users to create the long-form content (via the "Influencers" section) that gets people to stick around, LinkedIn aligns its interests as a business with the interests of users who want to be discovered for their talents. It's a more durable model for profit than many others on the Internet -- like the kind of incentive that alumni have to keep up the good name of their alma mater, long after graduation.
Another Facebook news-feed redesign is pending
Because why not continue to change things on users?
Welcome to the mist tunnel
Public pension overpromises are going to hurt -- a lot
There is some needless over-alarmism in Michael Moritz's commentary on the subject, but the truth is that people lived through the 1980s and 1990s gaining the impression that investment rates of return could always be assumed at 8% to 10%, and that's just not reality. Unfortunately, the longer we ignore that fact, the harsher the consequences.
Sen. John McCain's plan for Ukraine
What we've done so far seems not to be doing much good
Google wins fight to keep e-mail privacy lawsuits separate
Had the plaintiffs been able to aggregate their cases, they probably would have stood a better shot in court. Of course, if you don't want to run the risk of Google scanning your e-mail to help target their advertising, you can always use another service or build your own e-mail system.
Remember: Windows XP will no longer be supported by Microsoft after April 8th
An upgrade to Windows 7 is probably the path of least resistance for most users. Of course, there's also the huge number of hidden XP computers, like 95% of the world's ATMs. That could be a bigger problem.
Who gets journalistic privilege when everyone's a publisher?
A hedge-fund manager wants to know who wrote things on Seeking Alpha that may have hurt his business. Trade secrets or legitimate reporting?
Take two minutes for a self-exam today
Take a minute or two and conduct some basic self-screenings for cancer. Early detection saves lives. There's lots of misinformation about cancer that finds its way around the Internet, largely because we've been trained to wait expectantly for some sort of magic-bullet solution to cancer. But cancer risks can be significantly reduced through a balanced diet, exercise, and early detection and treatment. Meanwhile, science is making great progress towards improving genetic detection, which holds great promise for some types of cancer. Instead of forwarding hoax-ridden e-mails about "cancer cures" and false threats, people should instead remind their friends and family to assess their health once a month.
China's Twitter plans a US stock-market listing
Interestingly, so does China's Google
The case for Putin-as-rational-strategist
Rather than Putin-as-barely-contained-madman, which is a more convenient way to paint him, but probably not as accurate
Google has stopped underlining hyperlinks in search results
It's probably assumed that the value of the visual cue no longer exceeds the cost of the visual clutter
Canada is still at risk of a breakup
The political party that wants Quebec to separate from the rest of the country is in very healthy shape right now. Americans should not ignore the prospect.
A pretty comprehensive recap of what's known on the missing Malaysian Airlines flight
How the THX "deep note" was invented
What holds back South Africa
It's one of many nations that could find itself hurt when the Federal Reserve backs off on an easy-money policy. The important thing for all of these vulnerable nation is to get good at things other than pure extraction economies (like diamonds, oil, gold, or other things that come out of the ground). Skilled work forces producing goods and services -- and getting better at doing those things all the time -- mark the path to durable economic growth.
Vaccinate your children. Celebrities can be idiots.
How science puts (believable) curly hair on computer-animated characters
Costs and benefits of running background checks on employees' social media accounts
"Seinfeld" when nothing really does happen
Show notes: WHO Radio Wise Guys for March 15, 2014
Amazon delivers a big test in demand elasticity
By hiking the price of Amazon Prime from $79 a year to $99 a year -- and doing it with a week's notice -- they're really going to test whether consumers care a lot about that $20. Bold move. But Amazon isn't a very profitable company -- they lost money in 2012, and shares currently sell for more than 600 times last year's profits per share. Remember: A sky-high stock price can be totally disconnected from profits. Perhaps this is an effort to jolt some profit-making into the bottom line.
We've been underestimating the risk of a giant earthquake in northern California
Business planning for the long term
A BBC report observes that the lack of quarterly reporting by Chinese companies may free their managers to concentrate on the long term. But the decision whether to build ultra-long-term business plans isn't really shackled by whether the SEC requires the filing of paperwork on a regular basis.
Violent flare-up in Venezuela is a reminder we've ignored Latin America for too long
Northwestern seeks to raise $3.75 billion
In part for a lakefront football practice facility "likely to exceed $220 million"
Is online education actually still being stigmatized?
If so, then we're idiots. Obsessing over how an education is physically delivered is like caring whether your milk comes in a carton or a jug. It simply doesn't matter.
The world's power companies are considering 1200 new coal-fired electric plants
China crackdown on social messaging
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have
California starts work on driverless-car regulations
Smart move; they're coming soon, and governments rarely act quickly
Measles outbreak in New York City: Blame the anti-vaccinators
It's happening in Manhattan and the Bronx, and some people have been hopitalized as a result. Two of the cases were in people whose parents chose not to vaccinate them. Contagious diseases like this can be transmitted most easily to the vulnerable -- like people who are already sick and in the doctor's office for other reasons. There is really no legitimate dispute about the costs versus the benefits of vaccination. It is unconscionable that people use excuses based upon completely rejected claims of side effects to justify the decision to put their own children and others at high risk of harm. People who don't understand the importance of herd immunity do not have the right to put others at risk based upon their ignorance.
The cost of tax breaks
Coralville gave a big tax break to Von Maur to get the retailer to build a store there. This year, the store is getting more than 50% off its tax bill.
Who's got offshore profits banked up
Why small businesses may not always be open
We still have a strong strain of proprietor-capitalism in America, and that means a lot of people devote countless hours to their small businesses -- hours that never really get counted or noticed by others.
Sponges may be the key to explaining jump from no-animal Earth to animal-populated Earth
Their ability to live on very little oxygen may signal the bridge
Movie-trailer voice icon Hal Douglas has died
Without question, one of the best voices of all time
Speed-reading for everyone
Some technology developers think they've cracked the code to speed-reading for everyone, without training, using a method of identifying the place where the eye should land on a word for maximum comprehension. Quite interesting. Possibly promising. The name ("Spritz") may leave a bit to be desired.
The trouble with special tax breaks
What troubles Google about smartphones
Too many people using games and apps and not browsing the Internet (and using Google to search it)
Accounting jargon watch: "COROA"
"Cash operating return on assets"
Where is the real Mason-Dixon line?
Omaha Hilton shows the risks of municipally-funded private-sector projects
The city financed the hotel to help spur convention business...but now it's in danger of losing money
"Sometimes being a fast-follower is better than being a leader"
Analyst commenting on how Lexus may have stolen some of Acura's thunder
Why we have (and need) safe-haven laws
A woman is looking for the mother who left her as a newborn in the bathroom of a Pennsylvania Burger King. It is absolutely essential that people know that every state has a safe-haven law allowing mothers to relinquish their infants unharmed, no questions asked. The window of time available and the acceptable locations vary by state, but the fact that protection is universal should be known...universally.
The solar system, to scale
Plus some amusing commentary in the spaces between the planets
HPV-related cancers have increased in Iowa in recent decades
All the more reason to treasure the HPV vaccine as a real advance
America's electoral system means we form our coalitions before the general election
In many other representative democracies -- especially those with proportional-vote systems and weak executives -- they wait to form governing coalitions until after the general election, in which it's every party for itself. Our first-past-the-post approach and strong executive branch naturally wedge us into a two-party system -- so we get factions within two mainstream parties, rather than lots of highly-differentiated parties that form temporary governing coalitions. Is it better for America's Republican Party to have primary fights between "Tea Party" types and "Main Street" types than to face a chaotic German-style vote in which direct votes and proportional votes are mixed, with 34 individual parties in the chase? We just form our coalitions earlier than our more parliamentary counterparts.
What might make Google worry about smartphones
In general, Google will have to make an incredible number of right decisions over the next ten to fifteen years if it wants to match any of the success of its first decade and a half. That's going to be a really, really tall order...and the chances of them making it without major pain aren't great.
Experian may have let loose an incredible amount of consumer data to a crook
A word about 80s awareness
(Video) Kevin Bacon shows up with an important public-service announcement
"We left the keys in it..."
(Video)
Visa and MasterCard want you to get a next-generation credit card
Instead of magnetic strips, they want your cards to use the EMV chip
Newsweek is trying to return to print
And they're trying to make a splash by claiming to have discovered the creator of Bitcoin. In the long run, does Bitcoin really matter? No.
Time to change smoke-detector batteries
And the ones in carbon-monoxide monitors, too
Omaha may have a coming glut of office space
They might have the equivalent of 15 years of overcapacity to fill, if all the talked-about projects come to fruition
Iowa DHS victimized by 2,000-name data breach
Show notes: Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - March 9, 2014
Listen live at 9:00 pm Central
Do you feel 0.5% more productive than in 2012?
If we want the economy to grow, we have to see faster gains than that
BBC will move one broadcast television network to online-only
In the times of YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu, why not? Purists will be upset, but lots of viewing is already time-shifted.
Taking some personal productivity tips from Toyota
Computer viruses spreading via WiFi -- like human colds
Kids discover a rotary phone
(Video)
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
Des Moines is firing on all cylinders
A news report by a TV station in Fort Wayne might as well just be the new Convention and Visitors' Bureau ad
Waking up in a body bag is probably still better than not waking up at all
It just happened to a man in Mississippi
No, giant walls across Tornado Alley won't stop tornadoes
Astronaut remains calm as his helmet fills with water
A nightmare only barely kept from turning to tragedy
How the Irish language was lost
Columnist draws an interesting contrast between Irish Gaelic and Hebrew
Study suggests that wind farms hamper hurricanes
Seems a little hard to believe; more study definitely needed
Your language affects how you think
Not just superficially -- it turns out, rather deeply
For her 100th birthday, a return to the skies
A woman who served as a WAVE during WWII gets another flight
Survey says: Majority of Americans are OK with same-sex marriage
Yahoo chats may have been snooped-upon by the spooks
The mayor who wins Twitter
Stripping the Ukranian treasury on the way out of town
Hipster brands, de-hipsterized
And in fact, mightily corporatized
Digital librarians claim science is expanding three times faster than in the mid-20th Century
How journalists drive scientists up the wall
Do remember, dear scientists, that at least the journalists may be trying. And if they stop, woe be unto all of us.
Delta turns frequent-flyer program on its head
The press may not be all that free in Hong Kong
Always have an offsite, offline backup of your most valuable photos
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
Are newspapers failing their communities?
Public power district discovers its waste sand is worth a fortune
Someday, America's landfills will be highly treasured for the resources they contain, too.
Income inequality by city
Obsession with inequality for its own sake isn't particularly productive. But if it is a symptom of other concerns, then knowing where it's large or small may be valuable.
There's over-sharing, and then there's being over-shared
Why smoke to get lung cancer when you can just breathe in China?
Rich democracies have the best environmental protection
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
The "word gap" in children's brains
(Video) Research suggests that kids from higher socioeconomic backgrounds get a huge head start over kids from lower-status backgrounds, just based upon the larger vocabularies of their parents. The gap appears incredibly early (before 18 months) and appears to be durable well into older age.
Microsoft drops Windows 8.1 cost to $15 for some OEMs
They're hoping a big cut in price might help stave off competition from Apple and Google
They may actually go ahead and build the Chicago Spire
A 2,000-foot tower in the Windy City. Necessary? Not in the least. But people do like a good symbol.
UIowa basketball coach tells players to suspend their Twitter accounts
There's been some unreasonable reaction by "fans" to some recent play. It's the behavior of unreasonable, immature jerks. But those people exist, and the Internet allows them to step up on a very public soapbox. For the time being, it may make sense for the coach to order his players off the virtual field in order to stop the bleeding. But it's really about time for universities to realize that the genie is out of the bottle and focus on training students (including student-athletes) to know what to say and when online. Prohibitions never last forever.
CNN is dumping Piers Morgan
And not a moment too soon. He lacked any sense of humility. His problem was not that he was a Briton looking at American politics and issues -- it's that he was so utterly and openly contemptuous of so many American ways of doing things.
Radio notes: Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - February 23, 2014
The "And then China takes over" edition
Skills gaps in the workplace
Is it the employer's job or the employee's job to fill the gaps?
DoD puts $70 million into Chicago manufacturing institute
Head of Mexican drug cartel captured
The sooner Mexico can break the backs of the drug cartels, the better
The disruption obsession
USA Today columnist Michael Wolff looks at the return of Bill Gates to a technical role at Microsoft as a case study in "a new kind of business distinction: the super cool and the woefully uncool". That's not quite the problem. What's really going on is that there are plenty of successful, profitable firms that have done a poor job of conveying their 30,000-foot view of the company's mission and the large goals they have along the way (the core of the "Built to Last" thesis), and at the same time, there are lots of popular stories being told about "disruptive" companies and projects that capture too much of the public's imagination. What's really the greater mission: Creating the software that makes modern commerce possible, or blowing through a bunch of venture capital in an effort to disrupt some niche market with no real path to profitability? To be sure, we need both evolutionary progress and revolutionary innovations. But just because someone can cobble together an app doesn't make them smarter than someone who can figure out real-world, hands-on problems that don't get them tweeted-about in the "silicon" tabloid circles.
Google says it wants to bring fiber-optic service to nine more US metro areas
They're in Provo, Kansas City, and Austin already; Portland, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, San Antonio, Nashville, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and Atlanta are all under consideration
Kids in an Omaha neighborhood learn programming early
At a pre-teen age. One parent is teaching the classes. Terrific story.
The cost (in increased unemployment) of a higher minimum wage
Ice on the Chicago River
Time-lapse video converts slow motion into something much prettier
Bill Gates: "[P]olitics needs to focus on the problems rather than attacking the other side"
Spoken like a true technocrat -- a type of influencer that has fallen out of favor over time, but that we need to bring back to the table. There aren't many engineers, programmers, or microeconomists who feel comfortable weighing in on public policy from a purely pragmatic perspective...but we could use them. It's not sensible to just occasionally point vaguely in the direction of "scientists" when arguing about subjects like global warming. We have legions of technically-trained people who have helpful ways of analyzing and addressing local, national, and global problems, and we should be eager to get their input.
Who makes the law for the Keystone XL pipeline?
The degree to which different authorities have their fingers in things makes it tough to cut through
Brian Williams (unwittingly) performs "Rapper's Delight"
(Video)
The dangers of using apps to look for love
Leaving a breadcrumb trail of the places you visit -- especially when signaling that you may be single and unaccompanied -- could be a really bad idea
A novel approach to caring for people with dementia
Creating a safe, enclosed space in which they are protected from wandering-off incidents, but can remain surrounded by familiarity
Should Apple buy Tesla Motors?
Apple has a massive stockpile of cash, but is this their smartest potential investment? Car companies are a tough, tough business; there may be lower-hanging fruit.
The trials of women's sports
(Warning: Strong language) The Onion reports on the US women's hockey team like no other source can
Are those who delete their past condemned to repeat it?
US News deletes its online archives from before 2007. Apparently, they don't believe in the "long tail" effect.
US Airways CEO makes a hefty profit on stock appreciation
The December merger of American and US Airways left him with a big profit on US Airways stock he bought on the open market in 2008.
Good reading on entrepreneurship
Some countries have a lot of small businesses because it's too hard to get big.
Americans are back to borrowing a whole lot of money
The reign of good behavior (paying down debt and socking money into savings) may be over. Consumers borrowed a quarter-trillion in the last quarter of 2013.
The science of a good harmony
Strangely, we don't quite seem to understand why a really good musical harmony can trigger the goosebumps, but sure enough, it's a widely-recognized phenomenon. Odd how there are so many things that are practically universal that we just plain don't understand at all...especially involving the brain.
The comparatively poor performance (and price) of US broadband Internet access
Facebook goes on the counterattack against Upworthy
Take two minutes for a self-exam today
Take a minute or two and conduct some basic self-screenings for cancer. Early detection saves lives. There's lots of misinformation about cancer that finds its way around the Internet, largely because we've been trained to wait expectantly for some sort of magic-bullet solution to cancer. But cancer risks can be significantly reduced through a balanced diet, exercise, and early detection and treatment. Meanwhile, science is making great progress towards improving genetic detection, which holds great promise for some types of cancer. Instead of forwarding hoax-ridden e-mails about "cancer cures" and false threats, people should instead remind their friends and family to assess their health once a month.
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
"[W]e elect governments that are happy to be extorted"
...by companies with enough cachet that politicians don't want them to leave
UN commission wants North Korean regime brought to trial for crimes against humanity
On that point, they are right. But the commission muffled the criticism with this erroneous line: "These are not mere excesses of the State; they are essential components of a political system that has moved far from the ideals on which it claims to be founded." There is no such thing as an "ideal" in a Communist state. Communism is an exercise in putting a "people's movement" face on a naked power-grab by the leaders of the Communist Party. It has never been anything but. The fact there are 200,000 people in the North Korean gulag system for political "crimes" is proof enough of that.
Peugot is about to become one-third Chinese-owned
It's another example of the sale of Western assets to China, which is a trend that will continue and accelerate as long as Western countries continue to borrow more than they save and import more than they export. France has a large trade deficit, and that means, on net, they're exporting Euros...which are finding their way back to Europe in exchange for ownership stakes in European companies. ■ If that's a bad thing (and it may be or not, depending on whether you prefer consumption or ownership), then thoughtful people should do some thinking about how to change course. (It should be noted, by the way, that some net-exporter countries, like Germany and [sometimes] Japan, have themselves made big investments in the US, which is why Volkswagen has plants in Tennessee and Toyota has plants in Indiana. ■ Foreign ownership isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least not by definition. And it's a bad move to play politics with the export success of our allies, as the Obama Treasury Department has done with Germany.)
How to really help low-income workers: Expand the EITC
Minimum-wage hikes don't tend to really put more money in the pockets of low-wage workers. And they have a negative side effect: They reduce the number of options for young people to get after-school jobs, which depresses their future earnings prospects and can run the risk of leaving us with lots of unemployed teenagers hanging around with nothing productive to do (and that doesn't usually end well -- just ask France). Moreover, raising the minimum wage does away with options for people who want supplemental income to their regular jobs. If the point is really to help poor people, we should do what actually works -- and that's consider an expansion of the EITC. Skepticism about the value of a minimum-wage increase doesn't mean the skeptic is against helping the poor -- it may just mean he or she thinks there's a better way.
Abandoned school buildings in Iowa
There are many. And many of them were constructed solidly, so the bones and the shells of the buildings are still in fine shape. But lots of them were constructed using means and materials (like asbestos insulation) that make them hazardous and expensive to return to good use (perhaps repurposed as apartments or office buildings). It's a good example of why we should think about requiring demolition bonds to accompany new construction. ■ We can't perfectly match the lifespan of a building to its useful life, so instead of leaving abandoned buildings standing where they can become health and safety hazards or diminish the value of their surrounding neighborhoods, why not pre-pay a small amount at the time of construction to ensure that there's a set-aside fund available when it's time to tear down the structure? ■ It's not just an American problem, either: Japan faces enormous costs to remove old buildings that are abandoned and unsafe -- including some, for instance, that don't meet earthquake safety standards. Given how hard it is to get people to pay for maintenance and upkeep without deferring some of those costs out of convenience, responsible societies should think about forcing pre-payment of those costs so that they don't accumulate needlessly and burden later generations with the cost of cleaning up old buildings they never used in the first place.
Revealed preferences on Facebook: Who's in a relationship?
There's a pretty predictable pattern -- people's patterns of posting with their counterpart change dramatically (on average) as a relationship begins
"[W]hat does a good boss do better than a poor one? In a word, teach."
A Stanford study measures the productivity of teams at a large company and finds that replacing a bad boss with a good one does more to improve productivity on a team than adding a whole new worker.
An argument for academic relevance
Not relativism, but relevance to the real world. Nicholas Kristof makes a strong argument in a New York Times column that the highest stratum of academia "glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience" and needs to spend more time on Twitter.
There has to be a better strategy than praying we don't get obliterated by space rocks
Any strategy to protect our fragile existence on this planet has to include a plan to prevent a catastrophe caused by the arrival of a large asteroid. That plan would have to include surveillance (knowing where the threats are and when we might face them), prevention (some approach for deflecting, destroying, or otherwise reducing the impact thereof), and mitigation (figuring out what our greatest vulnerabilities are and how to buttress them). And whatever goes for space rocks goes double for threats like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes -- things that are also bound to happen that we (unfortunately) still don't understand well.
Security breach at Kickstarter
Another case that should remind people of the importance of having different passwords across different websites
The cultural importance of the Midwest
How Presidents judge other Presidents
Gnarles Barkley recorded "Crazy" in one take
Interpreting stock charts the wrong way
Someone pointed out to CNBC that a chart of the stock market in 1929 looks a lot like the chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 2012 until today. There are so many things wrong with this interpretation: First, there will be uncanny similarities and eerie patterns in stock charts all the time -- because they are fractal in nature. They can be self-similar at wide ranges of scale (that is, a minute-by-minute chart, stripped of the time scale, can look a lot like a month-to-month chart with the same number of data points). The prices mean nothing in isolation -- prices matter only in relation to fundamental matters of value (and, by the way, the DJIA of 2014 has virtually nothing in common with that of 1929 other than its name and the highly arbitrary way in which it is calculated). And, above all else, it is not really the "price" of the market in aggregate that counts, but rather the individual prices of many different companies, each in relation to its intrinsic value. People who look to charts like some magical set of tea leaves are only asking to be buffaloed by self-proclaimed wizards who know nothing but their own chart alchemy. The truth of the matter is that there are many over-priced companies in the US stock market right now, at a ratio of perhaps 2:1 over the number of under-priced or fairly-priced securities. But that's something far different from a market on the brink of a crash.
Iowa suffered a big drop in farm income from 2012 to 2013
The importance of manufacturing to Africa's future
The danger of out-of-touch business executives
Wearable computing: Still finding its way in the world
Lots of users lose interest and stop using them after just a matter of months
Time for "Le Selfie"
Nobody seems impressed by the decorum of the French press corps along for the ride to Washington this week
Telephone or text: 918-2-GONGOL (+1-918-246-6465)
Comcast announces plans to buy Time Warner for $45 billion
That's a premium of 50% over the intrinsic value of Time Warner, but the compulsion to get bigger can compel a lot of bizarre decisions. If Comcast were actually seeking to spend $45 billion in optimal ways, buying Time Warner for such a premium price would not be the way. As usual, there's talk of savings from synergies, but here's how to tell something about this is a raw deal: it's an all-stock deal. Those only make sense when the acquiring company thinks its own stock is wildly over-priced by the market and the target company is unreasonably cheap. That can hardly be the analysis here -- in fact, while Time Warner is overpriced, Comcast is quite fairly priced. That's like going into a store and not only paying full retail price, but paying a premium on top of the retail price, and doing it on a credit card that doesn't even offer rewards points. (And, again, someone used the word "synergies" in the press release. That's usually a huge red flag.)
Slowing down high-frequency traders by delaying press releases
It might be a sensible first step
Natural-gas production is through the roof, but storage and distribution are choke points
Betty White is everywhere
(Video) Including in-flight safety briefings
Does your candy match your politics?
How Facebook is putting people inside dangerous echo chambers
Everything's a trade-off
For the cost of the Sochi Olympic Games, Russia could have just bought every team in the NFL and the NHL
The risks to radio as it ignores personality development
A $15 million mansion at Okoboji
Mexico is about to become the #2 exporter of cars to the US
It's overtaking Japan and could soon beat out Canada, too
Atlanta's snow catastrophe: It was forecast...but the people who should've listened didn't
Robber picks the wrong Casey's store
An Iowa DCI agent was in the parking lot
The US power grid needs better cybersecurity
One-paragraph review of "Damn Right! Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger"
Jay Leno moves out, and Jimmy Fallon gets ready to move in
Leno may have been hard-working and successful in attracting (and keeping) an audience, but he never really used his five hours a week in the world spotlight to do much of anything to elevate the human condition. He had a tremendous soapbox on which to stand, and never really said anything really sincere or deeply thoughtful. It doesn't have to be a Charlie Rose kind of show every night, but you don't have to look any farther than Craig Ferguson to see occasional examples of moments that are both entertaining and thoughtful. Instead, Leno's usual routine was bland and lowest-common-denominator, based largely upon pointing and laughing at someone else for being stupid (see "Jaywalking").
GDP is just one among many useful measurements
It's roughly like the measurement of airspeed in an airplane: Absolutely essential, but not the only thing that matters. So, those who would jettison GDP as a measurement of well-being are just being blinded by some ulterior distaste for economic growth (or an unhealthy obsession with equalizing outcomes), but anyone who cartoonishly ignores every other measure for sake of GDP alone is also missing the point. It's an imperfect measurement, but it's also one of the most important, by far.
Former "McGruff the Crime Dog" actor is going to prison for 16 years
Railcar graffiti: If it isn't yours, don't paint it
But at a cost of $1,000 to repaint a car, owners sometimes don't want to bother. One could wonder whether there's a way to channel the work of the frustrated artists who are just looking for a canvas (as opposed to the gang members and criminally-oriented taggers).
Burlington Northern will spend $5 billion on capital improvements in 2014
A huge amount of America's infrastructure is actually privately-funded and privately-maintained. But if one railroad can spend $5 billion in a year, are we doing enough to keep up with our public-sector infrastructre spending -- or are we just deferring much-needed maintenance and hoping it fails after we're gone?
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