Brian Gongol
Durham of HDR passes away
The ads of the past for the products of today
Idle thought: What would've happened if Michelangelo had lived in the era of the Photoshop contest?
Not every photo is deserving of publication
Sometimes a stream of foam coming from a fire hose is just a stream of foam. But it probably shouldn't be photographed with the hose hidden behind a bystander, right at waist level.
Don't ignore the obvious
CNN features a story on a married couple who both lost their jobs in the sub-prime mortgage business. Despite having first-hand knowledge of exactly how out-of-whack lending had become, they built a lifestyle of more than $120,000 a year in expenses, overpaid by at least 20% for their home, took out home-equity loans, and apparently saved very little. While it's sad that they lost their jobs, it's pretty astonishing that they were so oblivious to what was going on all around them. We've wandered a long (and unfortunate) way away from Ben Franklin's warnings against debt: "[T]hink what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty."
Biblical literalism not recommended
God prohibits wearing blended fibers in your clothes. You read that right: No poly-cotton blend for you. That is, if you insist upon a literal interpretation of the Bible. Perhaps the divine rules regarding the treatment of slaves ought to give us pause to consider the concept of inerrancy, too: Who thinks their Creator approves of slavery?
Severe Weather Awareness Week slaps Iowa upside the head
The creepy history of the Olympic flame
Perhaps the free world should do a relay with a "flame of liberty" every year, to remind ourselves that billions of people are still living on this planet without their fundamental human rights -- like freedom of speech and peaceable assembly. That would be a positive message, and might be better than just protesting the Olympic flame when it's carried in honor of authoritarian regimes.
The days of the well-paid TV news anchor may be waning
One of the top weather forecasters in Twin Cities television (Nielsen market #15) has been abruptly fired. It appears that the days of making six figures in local television news may be on the way out. Douglas was smart, starting his own businesses on the side. That's really going to be the future of broadcasting: People who work part-time on the air, but rely on something else altogether for their real income. Douglas created and sold an online weather-forecasting business.
"South Park" takes on the Writers' Guild
(Video) Pretty funny to see what a couple of people who have built a successful franchise on their own have to say (through their characters) about being held back by a labor strike
