Brian Gongol
"Today's children are the worst ever"? Hogwash.
"Appeasing tyrants does not buy them off, it only buys their contempt"
And other thoughts on the stupid saga going on in Iran over the kidnappings of British sailors. One interesting related question: What would Winston do? It must be remembered: The people of Iran didn't start this mess, their government did. The US government is at serious fault for ignoring the news and information needs of the people there, and now we pay the piper. Related: A site called Wikileaks is being developed that promises to smooth the process of political dissent for groups living under repressive regimes.
Why Google's YouTube is still having trouble with conventional media
Morse code kicks text messaging's butt
(Video) Shouldn't be a surprise; Morse code was specifically created to accelerate the transfer of information and text messaging is based on a cell-phone keypad layout that doesn't have anything to do with ergonomic advantage. But it's funny to watch nevertheless.
Iowa farmers to plant most corn since 1981 this year
It's the most corn acreage since Reagan lifted the Soviet grain embargo
New West Des Moines water tower going up
Weather Service report: Abuse of capital letters kept people from getting tsunami warning
The news media, military, and weather agencies have long abused the use of capital letters. The practice probably started as a simplification measure -- the news media, for instance, needed to be able to move information down telegraph wires and later dedicated news wires with a minimum of excess data -- but now that practical limitations like that are really no longer a barrier, it's bad practice to continue WRITING EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS, since it's widely documented that people don't comprehend all-caps as well as they do regular mixed-case lettering.
Graphic of the day: Take Me To Your Leader
April edition of the EconDirectory
Not many major changes in relative positions, though a general decline in traffic of maybe 5% to 10%
