Brian Gongol
Notes from the Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - July 20, 2008
Ireland dumps the EU constitution...Katrina Cottages for Cedar Rapids...and new prizes for energy innovations. A podcast is available.
Why would Ireland want to put the kibosh on the EU constitution?
The vote has really aggravated a lot of the other member nations of the EU. The Irish prime minister is begging his countrymen to reconsider, and the EU is applying pressure by sending French President Sarkozy over for a campaign visit. It makes plenty of sense for Ireland to have voted "No" on the constitutional referendum -- Ireland's economy is one of the strongest in Europe, and the proposed constitution is pretty heavy on bureaucracy. It will be interesting to find out whether that lesson will come from the Sarkozy listening tour.
The automation of education takes a surprising step forward via iTunes
Medical researchers have been using PDF files to distribute new research findings quickly and efficiently for a while now, but one of the drawbacks to the format is that it's really hard to categorize the files in a way that lets users find them quickly. But some researchers have figured out that iTunes can manage PDF files, letting users add tags and labels to files so that they can be organized in a useful way. The better we get at this sort of surprising practical application of technology, the better off our future will be.
