Gongol.com Archives: November 2007
Brian Gongol


November 23, 2007

Weather and Disasters Two million people are in distress after typhoon in Bangladesh

Health Skin cells can be made to act like stem cells

The United States of America The New York City murder rate is at a 40-year low

News USA Today says the Pentagon isn't counting brain injuries

Aviation News Tired pilots increase travel dangers
NTSB and NASA agree that pilot fatigue is one of the biggest dangers to the traveling public

Computers and the Internet There's more spam than real e-mail

Threats and Hazards Oil cash is making problems worse in Saudi Arabia
With oil hitting $100 a barrel, those with access are making lots of money, while inflation is punishing the poor

Computers and the Internet Analysts think smartphones will outsell laptops for the next half-decade

Computers and the Internet Two missing disks put 25 million identities at risk
Britain's tax bureau made a colossal error in judgment by burning huge amounts of data to CDs and then losing them. How big a screwup is it? Try big enough to include every family in the UK with a child under age 16. The official responsible for the error is being kept in a safe house. An independent audit of the fiasco has been ordered. The really good news is that it's putting the UK's plan for a national identity card on ice, at least for a while; concentrated stores of data are a big risk, and a national identity card would be the biggest.

Aviation News Should Britain just start all over again and completely replace Heathrow?
The proposal to add a third runway to one of the busiest airports in the world doesn't seem to have ignited a passionate love affair on the public's behalf

Water News Ethanol remains a big consumer of water

Aviation News Tilt-rotor Osprey makes trouble for the US military
The concept has great potential, but the execution seems to be lacking reliability

Business and Finance Relative rewards appear to matter
Brain scans show that men like not only to do well, but to do better than others. Perhaps this is related to the same instinct that makes monkeys aware of when they're being slighted.

Science and Technology All of the know nuclear power plants in the world on one map
Given the current attention being paid to energy issues, one wonders whether we'll see the next wave of boom towns, since nuclear power is a major NIMBY motivator, and sources like solar and wind power are hardly the kinds of things that inspire land-rush behavior

The American Way Better jobs and education open new opportunities for women in India

Humor and Good News It's not quite "I am a jelly doughnut", but it's close
British opera singer mis-delivers Croatian national anthem, turning a song about love for the mountains into something more vulgar

mail@gongol.com