Brian Gongol
A billion dollars, for what?
North Korea's beligerence has the United States sufficiently concerned that we're going to beef up our missile-defense system on the West Coast. A billion dollars will be spent on the project. It's probably a rational response to a completely irrational game. A billion dollars could do vastly more good in many other ways, but because of Stalinist hot-headedness, we're blowing it on a defensive tool that we can only hope will forever sit idle. Mitt Romney made a good point in a speech this week when he noted that, despite having the world's mightiest military, the US hasn't gone around using it to plunder other countries.
A much better March Madness bracket
Making the "bracket" a radial diagram rather than a space-consuming bracket chart makes a lot of sense
We need better flight simulators
A pilot suggests that current simulator technology doesn't do enough to help pilots get a grip on stalls like the one that caused the Air France crash
Chinese police detain a British news crew while they're live on the air
Surprisingly good marketing advice from an article with a spammy title
The title "Why your marketing campaign sucks" suggests that it's purely a Google-bait piece. But it's actually a surprisingly good look at how many folks in public relations and marketing don't understand rule number one: "What's in it for me?" People don't care about jargon-thick statements of corporate principles, and reporters don't want to wade through the nauseatingly spammy press releases they get every day from people who think they're entitled to "earned media". But when there's a real offer of value from one party to another (i.e., from the company doing the marketing to the public or the media), then there's a reason for a reciprocal act to take place. You have to offer something of value before someone will return the favor.
