Brian Gongol
The world now has more fat people than hungry people
That doesn't mean the hunger problem has been solved -- just that obesity has gotten much worse. Many people are calorie-rich but undernourished...which actually sounds a lot like one of the problems people are having with their Internet use: We're hyper-connected, but we're not getting smarter.
Facebook changes...again
Along with a whole lot of changes to the user interface (many of which seem to be aggravating users), Facebook's philosophy is changing -- now they want to be the hub for people's digital entertainment use. Ambitious, but not necessary. And potentially very hazardous to the site's future. Claiming 800 million users, they're adding tools like Netflix and Spotify.
HP hopes a new CEO will turn the company around
The new CEO has a recognizable name: Meg Whitman. One of the strange things that HP has decided to do lately is to spin off or sell off its personal computer division, not because it's unprofitable, but because it's not especially profitable. Silly move. As long as it's not starving the rest of the company of useful investment capital, a profitable division should be kept around so long as it's profitable.
Economics isn't just a jumble of esoteric facts and figures
It's the reality about how people live their lives. For instance: Young people are being encouraged to get more and earlier internships, and to add useful, "practical" courses to their collegiate curricula -- like business and computer classes. High unemployment rates for young workers mean that more are living with their parents, and many are delaying the age of first marriage. These are all very serious rubber-meets-the-road effects on how we live our lives. And they're very interesting, since they'll have very long-term repercussions.
One really stupid design for a soap dispenser
What do you do with 100,000 Pop Tarts?
A student at UNI won them in a contest, and is giving a huge share of them to feed the hungry. Good work.
Some perspective on the planets
(Video)
