Brian Gongol
The Sears Tower is now Willis Tower
The name change is going to find public acceptance to be an uphill battle, but if people really care about these things, they have to start acting on the preservation of institutions before it's much too late. In the case of the Sears Tower, the time to have acted was about two decades ago.
FAA will look into maintenance practices at Southwest after 737 peels open
Fortunately, there wasn't a catastrophic failure (like what happened aboard Aloha Airlines Flight 243), but cabin pressure was lost after a football-sized hole appeared in the fuselage of the plane.
Bill Gates is buying his way to the top of the class, and good for him
Gates is in on a patent application for a geoengineering process to mitigate hurricanes by cutting off their supply of warm water. The idea itself isn't the important thing (though the idea should be addressed; more importantly, we should address how much overbuilding has taken place in storm-prone areas). The important thing is that one of the wealthiest people alive is using some of his considerable resources to do things to make himself smarter (like investigating ways to prevent hurricanes). He'll get things wrong, just as he'll get things right. But as he continues to concentrate his efforts on becoming smarter, he's refining a potent combination of intellectual aptitude and freedom to experiment. Fortunately, the indications are that he's driven to use these for benevolent purposes.
Summer Heartland Operators Conference
