Brian Gongol
The BBC had plans to jam its own stations in case of German invasion
Broadcast outlets can be anchors of stability (like Radio Free Europe back in the Cold War, and even today) -- or a source of trouble and disaster (like when radio broadcasts aggravated genocide in Rwanda). During WWII, the British planned to jam their own signals in case the Germans ever managed to get into the country and take any of their local transmitters.
Mr. Whipple is dead
Chinese spying is "the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies"
That's according to a report from a commission appointed by Congress. Spooky. The main problems: Chinese authorities have no problem with using cyberwarfare even in peacetime, stealing intellectual property like there's no tomorrow, and subsidizing awful businesses in order to put foreign competition out of business.
Letterman and Leno may return to TV without their writers
The TV writers' strike is now putting the incomes of non-writing staff members (like camera operators) at risk, so they're going to have to get back on the air soon. It's hard to find a likeable side in the strike dispute: The Writers Guild is just that -- a guild, or an organization designed to artificially inflate its members' salaries by keeping new talent out. But on the other hand, the production companies certainly appear to be trying to erode the writers' intellectual property rights by using their content without paying for it.
An excise tax on exported ethanol?
