Media Watch

My printer inexplicably generated a paper airline boarding pass bearing my name for a flight I didn't book. I immediately checked my bank account online for any charges that might be related to that purchase, but I found none. I called the police, the airline and my bank to investigate this potential fraud. I had all working feverishly on this most alarming matter. Long story short: the email address associated with my HP printer's ePrint account is apparently similar to that of another person sharing my name, who evidently inadvertently gave the airline my ePrint email address. United then emailed his boarding pass to the address given, which was then received and processed by my printer, handily, albeit mysteriously, producing a paper boarding pass that landed on the printer receiving tray. Longer version. I called United Airlines. After sitting in a queue for nearly 40 minutes and after ascertaining identifying information from me, they confirmed that the person who ...

Drone technology is shrinking, which should terrify you. More so even than the small aircraft we've been seeing on the news. When the technology is so easily available to hobbyists, then organizations and individuals can handily eliminate their threats without personal risk, we have a problem. When thew can overwhelm you, there's literally no defense; no guns or toxins will stop them. Today's hobby style RC (radio-controlled) planes, tricopters and quadcopters are capable of delivering payloads of insect-sized microdrones in significant numbers. And the term radio-controlled is an enigma, really, because these drones can easily be made autonomous using cheap programmable computer modules and sensors. Arduino is one. See how cheap . Others are developing rather fast, like the newer Hobbyking KK2.0 Multi-rotor LCD Flight Control Board . Think of it as advanced avionics capabilities for electronics novices. Armed with one of these inexpensive controllers, you command y...

I was enjoying watching Iowa radio talkshow host Simon Conway and Iowa Dept. of Education director Jason Glass go at it this afternoon in a Twitter war. @ simonradio1776 dude, switch to decaf & stop being a goon. I don't think there is a need to question my patriotism or knwldge of country. — Jason E. Glass (@jasonglassIA) January 31, 2013 Formed by the framers as a republic in which only 6% of the population were allowed to vote, the United States has taken on some democratic attributes over the years. It might be said that we have a democratic republic, or even an indirect democracy, but at its foundation the country is in fact a republic, with at least some protection against the tyranny of the majority. But this is not the amusing part of the story. How does the state representative on education look when he addresses a member of the media as "dude" and calls him a "goon" on Twitter?

I find recent news reports on the lawsuits being filed against Subway for selling shorter-than-12-inch subs curious. Why are people concerned with the actual length, which to me seems somewhat arbitrary? What if I promised you a foot of gold but delivered on 11? How much does an inch of gold weigh? How much less sandwich are people receiving in an eleven-inch sub compared to a 12" sandwich? I imagine it matters whether you judge strictly by length, as opposed to volume or weight. For my money, I'd rather use the weight of the various parts, bun and contents, to determine the answer. Length can be affected by shape or density of the bun without affecting weight, assuming strict adherence to portion control of the dough is maintained. If I were asked to decide the damages, I would demand to know what criteria the plaintiff values and at what rate. I might also ascertain whether the plaintiff bothered measuring depth and width, because those dimensions could make up for a...

Atheists state that it may not be said that there is no god, but that it may be said that there is no reason to think there is one. It is an extraordinary claim which would, under reasonable circumstances, require extraordinary evidence, according to author and noted atheist Christopher Hitchens. He says deists Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Payne and Albert Einstein may wish not to abandon the idea that there must be some cause for the universe. Even if you can get yourself to that position, which unbelievers maintain is always subject to better and more elegant explanations, all your work is still ahead of you. If you advance from deist to theist, you must believe god cares about you, knows who you are, minds what you do, answers your prayers, cares which bits of your penis or clitoris you saw away or have sawn away for you, minds who you go to bed with and in what way, minds what holy days you observe, minds what you eat, minds what positions you use for pleasure, all your work is sti...

Received this via forwarded email.  The author is unknown. We're ticked off at your Neanderthal attitudes and politics and we've decided we're leaving. We in New York and California intend to form our own country and we're taking the other Blue States with us. In case you aren't aware, that will include New York, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the rest of the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation and especially to the people of the new country of The Enlightened States of America (E.S.A). To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Andrew Cuomo and Elizabeth Warren. You get Bobby Jindal and Todd Akin. We get the Statue of Liberty. You get OpryLand. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss. We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and ent...

I sincerely hope that the video I shot of Gov. Mitt Romney  (R-Mass.) and Iowa radio talkshow host Jan Mickelson five years ago can finally die a dignified death.  An edited version of it was recently resurrected and posted on YouTube in an apparent attempt to expose a prickly side of the former Massachusetts governor and Mormonism. I'm tired of seeing this clip show up partly because it's always mischaracterized by the press who toil over it, getting even the basic facts wrong.  No media has contacted me for several years about the facts surrounding the shooting of this video, so I'll answer a few claims here. Claim: The exchange was off the record. False.  There were no less than eight people within earshot of the governor, with various affiliations, so even if an assurance had been extended, such a promise would have been impossible to keep.  The host stated at one point: "While we're off the air..."  The camcorders were not p...