Media Watch

One of my biggest disappointments is watching a video I was lured into by a very interesting topic, but then annoyed by serious deficiencies in content, composure and quality. Please seek and accept a few pointers. Stop zooming! You destroy the context and framing of your shot when you zoom in and out, not to mention drive your audience nuts! Be smooth! You can't walk your camera around a subject with shaky hands and swift motions without making at least a few people nauseous. Fix your audio! Cheap, crumby camcorders in the hands of competition shooters are acceptable because they get audo. Bad audio ruins video always. It's too faint, competes with background noise, it's overtaken by a music bed or otherwise muddy or shrill. You'll do better when you treat the internal camcorder microphone as a...that's right, microphone ! That usually means the camcorder has to be within a foot or two of the subject in order for it to be effective. Please by a cheap tripod

A group sponsored by the out-of-state National Christian Foundation of Tampa, Florida held a rally in Des Moines Friday in an effort to convince Iowa BSA delegates to vote to deny youth who think they might be gay from joining the religious organization. The ban on openly gay scout leaders will not be affected by the organizational referendum. Demonstrators for N.C.F. held placards in front of news cameras that read, "NO ON THE RESOLUTION - OnMyHonor.net." First of all, it's an ugly notion that a personal development group for American youth would ostracize and categorically oust one of its 8-year-old members after admitting to a mentor that he thinks he might be gay. How the hell does that work and how can it be rationalized? Fortunately Channel 13 was on the ground sniffing out the truth. They inform us that the Boy Scouts of America will be voting next week on whether to maintain the ban and produced an unnamed spokesperson for N.C.F. (possibly Scott Russel

I recently read a federal appeals court ruling that says cops can't stop people for merely giving them the finger. That would make Roger Roots, author of Are Cops Constitutional, proud. The case begins in May of 2006, when a man and his wife were visiting their daughter in Johnsonville, NY and came across a police cruiser running radar. Demonstrating his displeasure, John Swartz flipped-off the cop as the couple drove past. Piqued by this insulting gesture, officer Richard Insogna took off after the offending motorists. Long story short, he arrested Mr. Swartz for disorderly conduct. While that charge was eventually dropped, there were several court appearances, legal expenses and inconveniences associated with the charges. Swartz filed suit in district court seeking damages for illegal seizure, a disorderly conduct arrest and an alleged malicious prosecution, but his lawsuit was dismissed on grounds that cops are protected from civil actions based on qualified immunity.

I don't look to religion to measure a candidate’s worthiness. I could get behind someone who proposes, supports and defends public policies that respect the well-being of the people – someone who respects Constitutional principles like freedom and liberty – without regard to their faithful viewpoint. I trust no government, or candidate for an office thereto, to have a hand in the implementation of policy that would define or regulate my marriage. I believe in giving women and men control over their own reproductive systems, unencumbered by government’s meddling. As a military man, I defend your right to form private or exclusive organizations that promote various ideologies among its members under the guise of some faith, so long as it doesn't impose restrictions or injury upon those who don’t share their worldview. I've got my viewpoint. You've got yours. Can we agree that government is not an institution that could appreciate or care about either? I would prefer

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?