Brian Gongol
Graphic of the day: OPEC
"When the ratio of bankers to cannonning clowns falls below 10,000 to 1, you've got a problem"
Colorado's massive bumper crop of wheat will take 86,000 semi loads to export
Americans are the world's most productive workers -- by a long shot
Ireland comes in second, but the gap is huge: $63,885 in added value per American worker per year, versus $55,986 per Irish worker
Information insecurity could make Pearl Harbor "look like strictly a pup-tent affair"
A new biofuel to replace petroleum?
A hardy Indian weed may be capable of producing fuel at half the per-barrel cost of crude oil. Then again, there are lots of people who think we just need to use more diesel.
"Weekly World News" abducted by aliens, or somesuch
The absurdest of the absurd tabloids goes to the grave. But stalwarts like Cracked Magazine are carrying the heavy burden, with the facts: Like that Jack Bauer is a Canadian/Englishman
Putin heads to Indonesia, hunting for oil
He's also looking to put some of Russia's oil money into metals and mines in Indonesia, based on a hunch that China will continue to consume those raw materials in the near future
Hurricane Felix will probably kill with landslides
The storm made landfall as a Category 5, and with rains of up to 20", it will probably cause mudslides in areas where people are most likely to die. It's the first time two category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the same year. Canadian officials are worried that they could get hit hard by the remnants of late-season hurricanes this year.
Camera trick generates better space photos from Earth observatories than from Hubble
Researchers from Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology figured out that taking a rapid-fire sequence of photos, then assembling the clearest elements of each individual photo into a complete mosaic can produce better images than those taken from space. It's relatively cheap, and they think they can export the process to other observatories around the globe.
Study finds that teens in Mexico have trouble finding jobs
(Article in Spanish) One natural consequence of high unemployment among teenagers (assuming they aren't simply choosing not to take up jobs in order to focus on their studies) is that those teenagers will end up having harder times gaining good employment later on. Work experience is a major factor in determining wages -- which is why a high minimum wage can be very detrimental to the young.
ACLU sues, gets court-martial records from Iraq and Afghanistan released
Based on the brief summaries included in the news story, it seems evident that many of the combat troops there are being subjected to extremely high stress, which may be hampering judgement. What will be important domestically is to watch carefully how some of those who encountered the worst conditions in places like Iraq make the transition back to police work in the United States.
APEC meetings get underway
260,000-acre fire wreaks havoc on Idaho
Des Moines man arrested for assaulting father with bag of Cheetos
Police report likely the first in all of human history to include the phrase "Cheeto dust"
