Gongol.com Archives: November 2005
Brian Gongol



Computers and the Internet (11.30.2005)
Printing a Book Straight from an HTML Web Page

Business and Finance (11.30.2005)
Think You're Not As Upwardly Mobile As Your Parents Were? You're Probably Right.
Intergenerational economic mobility has "return[ed] to typical historical levels" after an ultra-high rate of mobility from 1940 to 2000. It's time to bring back high growth rates.

We All Need a Little Humor (11.30.2005)
Dairy Farmers: "Stop Cooking with Cheese"
Hilarious tongue-in-cheek commercials say that good cheese is better than bad ironing and gaudy decorating.

News (11.30.2005)
Canada Back into Election Season
Vote is coming in late January. In the meantime, the Conservative party leadership has already made it one of those unpleasant social debates. Margaret Thatcher knew that wasn't the way to win elections.

We All Need a Little Humor (11.30.2005)
Lego Camera
With this much innovation and creativity running around, why haven't we found the cure for cancer?

We All Need a Little Humor (11.30.2005)
Clever Send-Up of Local Television News
KRAP-TV newscast is just a little too real for comfort

Broadcasting (11.30.2005)
FCC Chief Likes the Idea of Cable a la Carte
It doesn't really matter whether the FCC likes it, the market is going to force per-channel subscriptions to happen, probably within 5 years. Broadband Internet access and WiFi allow online narrowcasting in a way that was impossible before. Traditional channel bundling (which is how the cable networks ensured that a la carte pricing never emerged before) is headed the way of the dodo, now that Netflix and iTunes have proven that people will go straight for the content itself without regard to the channels of distribution. The problem is the underhanded threat of censorship that the FCC chief makes, which is profoundly misguided.

We All Need a Little Humor (11.30.2005)
CIA Realizes It's Been Using Black Highlighters All This Time
(Onion spoof) "Perhaps the documents were extremely important in every detail, or the agents, not unlike college freshmen, were overwhelmed by the reading material and got a little carried away."

We All Need a Little Humor (11.30.2005)
When Terrorists Foil Themselves
(Onion spoof) "The only thing this weapon of mass destruction is destroying right now is our ability to kill infidels."

Computers and the Internet (11.30.2005)
"Highly Critical" Security Patches Released for Apple OS X
Viruses and malware: Not just for Windows machines anymore. Thirteen big vulnerabilities listed.

Socialism Doesn't Work (11.30.2005)
London Olympics, Seven Years Away, Already Aggravating Londoners
With higher taxes and higher Underground fares among the ways they'll suffer for the next half-decade, a reasonable person might be upset

Health (11.30.2005)
World's First Face Transplant Carried Out in France

Aviation News (11.30.2005)
Scissors, Screwdrivers to be Allowed on Airliners Again
TSA wants screeners to spend less time on sharp objects, more time on explosives. Some flight attendants complain, saying it reduces their safety, but airlines have the discretion to impose tougher security rules on passengers. If it's a rational concern, they should do something about it.