Brian Gongol
Recession has reversed Midwestern "brain drain"
Well-educated people are migrating into states like Iowa and Nebraska, even as the broader economy hits a rough patch. The anecdotal evidence has it that the migrants either discovered or re-evaluated the value of quality of life, and find the benefits of the Midwest attractive. Moreover, the Midwest hasn't participated vigorously in many booms, so thus it doesn't tend to be hit very hard by the busts, either.
China has built the world's fastest supercomputer
It's believed to hit 2.507 petaflops in calculation speed. Japanese scientists thought back in 2007 that we'd have a 10-petaflop computer by next year, but if we're only at 2.5 by now, that sounds like it might be a stretch. Regardless, the fact that China now possesses the fastest supercomputer in the world serves as a reminder that the level of competition is always rising, and we're going to have to work hard to keep up, whether we like it or not.
Carbon fiber and the new Boeing 787
New materials make lighter, safer, more efficient planes possible
Opposition says this weekend's elections in the Ukraine have been corrupted
They're specifically calling out illegitimate ballots being printed where they shouldn't. It would be enormously disappointing to see the Ukraine lose more of the democratic free ground it appeared to gain in the Orange Revolution.
Hundreds killed in new Indonesian tsunami
Once again, as in the 2004 tsunami, lives were lost because early-warning systems didn't work. We (as a species) have to keep getting better at this. Nature often wants us dead, and we can't drop the ball on fighting back.
Great bloopers from the vault at KCCI-TV
(Video)
The true size of Africa
A creative visual depiction of the continent's true geographic size
