Brian Gongol
"Keep flying to defeat terrorists"
CBS Evening News live stream link
CBS has decided to stream the evening news live online in video. Katie Couric's first day on the job included a strange juxtaposition of images in a Jim Axelrod piece that included images of Hitler and Stalin alongside President Bush. The broadcast also included a new graphics package, new theme music, and a very different flow among stories than on other newscasts. The voice-over introduction at the start sounds like Walter Cronkite. The Internet stream includes both the Eastern/Central Time and Mountain Time feeds, so the newscast plays twice in a row (the second feed was a repeat of the first, which was given away by Couric's stumbling over the word "soil" in one piece). Related: A long list of streaming video and audio links.
HPV immunization could halt 75% of cervical-cancer deaths
A friendly reminder that technology is good and that we don't have to succumb to nature. Certainly, though, there will be some people who object to the use of the vaccine since it prevents a sexually-transmitted disease; those people should not prevail should the distribution of the vaccine become a matter of public policy.
Ford will no longer drive Ford
Bill Ford is stepping down
Iowa pouring more tax money into startup businesses
The problem is that the money comes at the expense of dollars that should have been spent on the core educational missions of the state universities instead. The problem, as previously noted, is that spending money in the hopes of getting superstar performance out of a few startups is a really lousy way of supporting economic growth. It makes much more sense to work on the fundamentals of improving higher education in general and staying out of the "economic incentives" business so that more people are better-educated and have more chances to take their own risks. Organic growth beats out state-supported business every time.
Iowa manufacturers have a sunny outlook
66% say business is growing
Helicopter pilot escapes death twice...18 years apart
Pilot manages to land two different helicopters that, all else aside, should have crashed
Rapid changes in biotech makes computing evolution look comparatively slow
How to replace incandescents with LEDs
Higher efficiency and longer life are promised
Google thinking about eavesdropping on users to customize ads
Context-relevant ads to be supplied thanks to Google monitoring of the sounds caught by PC microphones. The Register calls it "cool but dangerous." Skip the "cool." It's just plain dangerous.
US troops eligible for reimbursement for personal body armor
The real question is why anyone was sent into combat without adequate government-issued body armor in the first place
Sonora
Persistent drought pounds Great Plains