Brian Gongol
Graphic of the day: Stealth
EPA introduces new website for agricultural regulations
Illinois National Guard troops returning home will have to take mandatory PTSD tests
It's an effort to identify trauma and brain injuries early, and it's probably a good idea. In other medical news, the American Cancer Society is organizing a 500,000-person study of cancer prevention.
British flood damage could cost more than $3 billion
That's huge, yet it's still less than half the recent sale price of Chrysler Corporation
Why zealots shouldn't get government power
Malaysian singer is harassed by Islamic religious police (a branch of the government) because her shirt doesn't completely cover her back
Ethiopian businesses want Western help in blocking fake goods from China
Credit-card thieves use charitable donations to test card numbers
Credit-card fraud is a real mess, and it's a violation of the basic rules of trust that we rely upon to make a free market work. Businesses that take orders online can provide a first line of defense against the crooks who perpetrate identity fraud, but consumers need to be educated, too.
Musical hands: The talent differential
(Video) Man plays "Classical Gas" using only his hands. We can put this on the Internet, but we still haven't gone back to the Moon?
Bring enthusiastic futurism back
Was 1997 the year that the collective consciousness gave up on the concept of an ever-better future? Sadly, it may have been. But there's no reason to give up hope: Things really are getting better all the time in ways we can't really perceive, since so many of them are incremental. But we can thank technology and markets for making it so, and when we look back on this time a half-century from now, there's a very good chance that our obsession with terrorism (and overreactions to it) will be overshadowed by the contributions that many peaceful people made to making the world a better place -- even if they were doing so purely out of personal greed.
Symantec counts 15,000,000 "Fourth of July" virus attacks
An appallingly large number of people still call themselves "subjects"
In honor of Independence Day, it's worth noting that a huge share of the planet still (at least nominally) bends the knee for a couple of winners of a genetic lottery who get to call themselves the "royal" family. Even worse, perhaps, is that a billion people are still oppressed by Chinese Communism, 18 years after Tienanmen Square.
Only four days until Des Moines votes "no" to Project Destiny
The well-intentioned but mostly harmful plan should be rejected, and voters should demand fundamental tax reform in Iowa instead.
