Brian Gongol
Graphic of the day: Tie a Ribbon
Study suggests high manganese concentrations in water could harm kids
Where airplanes go to sit for a while
Good Web design: Surprisingly, a matter of human rights
People in countries with censorship-happy governments face challenges getting news and information from any but their governments' "official" outlets. The Internet allows them to break some of those barriers, but the cost of access is high -- so the faster they can reach the information they need, the more they can learn in their limited available time. Students, especially, have to surf "as quickly as possible" (in the words of one) just to get the news and information they want. That's material their governments would probably rather they never see. Related: In the US, the problems are less about human rights and more about intellectual property rights.
Foot-and-mouth disease found again in England
Hit man kills Oakland newspaper editor in broad daylight
Russia says it's "resuming a permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean"
Posturing? Alliance-making? Or just trying to ensure their access to the terminals of the big oil and gas pipelines being put in places like Ceyhan in Turkey? The latter seems most likely, though the other two certainly aren't impossible. Related: Russia says the US is planning to abandon the START I treaty.
Dark skies to coincide with busy meteor showers
Peak season for meteor showers in the Northern Hemisphere is on right now, and it's coinciding with the new moon to the advantage of sky-watchers
Someone's trying to organize a fan buyout of the Chicago Cubs
Finally. Whether it has a serious chance is decidedly uncertain, so the campaign to encourage Mark Cuban to let Cubs fans participate in his offer should probably continue, too. But it's nice to hear people talking about it.
Timely editorial in Engineering News-Record warned of aging infrastructure
It was part of the August 1st edition, which also became the date of the Minneapolis 35W bridge disaster. The editorial noted the problem with the prevailing attitude of "no policy without a catastrophe." Something's terribly wrong when we don't have enough money to repair bridges, but we act as though we have more than enough for convention centers and other projects. The trappings of "economic development" projects can't make up for the failure to invest adequately in the basics. It's like an elementary school teaching ballet but ignoring reading and math.
The nuts that appear to have heart benefits
According to the Harvard researchers, the list includes almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, and pistachios, along with walnuts and filberts
Mozilla security boss: "We're doing a lot of work getting Firefox 3 out"
The Twin Cities disaster-response plan
