Brian Gongol
Government Motors, the original
Back under Soviet-style communism, the Eastern Bloc got reminder after reminder of what happens when the government is in charge of doing too much. Production of goods, like cars, was slow and inefficient, and showed very little spark of innovation. What we see today in China is something a little different, but not necessarily less depressing. They encourage a great deal of production -- shortages aren't the problem. But, lacking the will to prove that they could innovate on their own (as the Soviets often seemed to want to do), the Chinese have become shameless copycats. The production of counterfeit and knock-off goods in China is going at full throttle. The problem, though, is that there's a whole lot missing when one just tries to duplicate what has already been made. Lacking the knowledge of why things are done the way they are, the producers end up making goods that don't make sense. It's just like what happens when a kid copies work from another student in school. You may end up with a test that has the right answers, but you can't explain why -- which, in the world of production and manufacturing, means there's no capacity to innovate further, or to support the customer when it's needed.
If you post it anywhere online -- anywhere -- expect that it could be found with enough effort
A security glitch in Facebook allowed people to view photos marked with privacy settings they weren't authorized to see
Mikhail Gorbachev calls for a do-over on the Russian election
He's weighed in on the status of things several times since leaving office when the USSR dissolved. It's probably somewhat less dangerous for him to speak out against the Putin government than it is for most other people, considering that it would be pretty obvious if Gorby were to be hauled off to the Gulag as a political prisoner. But at the same time, he does deserve credit for speaking up about the likely injustices of the electoral process there.
India asks Google and Facebook to filter content
We're used to this kind of behavior out of governments like that of China -- which, as it turns out, is in the process of cracking down on microblogging -- but it's a little different when it's coming from the world's largest democracy.
Apple plans a gigantic new headquarters
It's going to be a giant ring with a whole lot of park-like landscaping. The renderings of the proposal are quite beautiful.
