Gongol.com Archives: May 2006
Brian Gongol



Threats and Hazards (2006.05.23)
Evidence the government has been actively spying on Internet traffic
The evidence is out there; an abbreviation of the story offers a good scare

Health (2006.05.23)
Bird flu transmission from human to human "cannot be ruled out" in Indonesia
6 people dead

The American Way (2006.05.23)
Amazon Mechanical Turk
A marketplace for people to solicit others to do small tasks that humans can do better than computers

The United States of America (2006.05.23)
New uniform proposals would put USAF in high collars
There's something faintly German about the proposed high-collar uniforms

The American Way (2006.05.23)
Beautiful dollar bills

Computers and the Internet (2006.05.23)
Microsoft researchers want a computer that can measure the user's attitude

Health (2006.05.23)
UK docs send letter to National Health Service: Cut it with the quack remedies
Sad that unproven "alternative" practices have enough credibility that doctors would even have to write a letter caling for "using the available funds for treatments that are based on solid evidence"

Computers and the Internet (2006.05.23)
Household burglary leads to theft of personal data on 26.5 million veterans
Two things are evident: (1.) The person who took the data home (against policy) really screwed up. (2.) A screw-up this big is a clear sign that something is categorically wrong with the system at the VA. A vast trove of personal data like this should never have been portable. Who could have possibly thought it was a good idea to store 26.5 million names, dates of birth, and Social Security numbers on a laptop computer?

Also...
Water news: Flooding to cost New Hampshire town $1 million
Graphics: World News Roundup