PENIS SIZE / COMEDIANS / IPADS

PENIS SIZE. Yeah I know, it's all pretty silly. There are those (both men and women) who insist that sized does matter when it comes to sexual enjoyment. There are others who maintain that emotional chemistry and imagination count for more. Over the years we've all encountered various claims for predicting a man's penis size based on (choose your myth) length of fingers, hand size, foot size, length of tongue. Now a South Korean study asserts that there is indeed a visual predictor ~ "the lower the ratio between the length of a man's index finger and the length of his ring finger on his right hand, the longer his penis." More specifically, "the shorter index finger than ring finger you have, the longer stretched [meaning erect] penile length you have." It still sounds pretty vague. The sample size (as it were) in the study was only 144 men, barely qualifying it for statistical significance. And there is no explanation why the left hand is not an equally reliable predictor. For now, I think I'll remain in the emotional chemistry and imagination camp. It's comfortable here.

COMEDIANS. So here's a poser for you ~ are Comedians More Trustworthy Than Journalists? The Huffington Post article suggest that they are, to this extent ~ "with comedians [like Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, or the late George Carlin), you know they are editorializing and opinionating -- unlike 'news' outlets who do the same damned thing in the guise of reportage. Even in jest, comedians are inherently more honest than the opportunistic, corporate-controlled so-called news."

Well, they have a point. I've often wondered why it is, for instance, that on mainstream American TV news broadcasts, the stories featured are nearly identical. Are they suggesting that these are the only six or eight newsworthy events to occur on the planet? Or might it be more likely that demographic analysis and market research guides their choice of stories? The contrast is amazing between the cloned U.S. news outlets and the features you see on BBC News, any European news, or even on PBS, all of which provide broader and more objective coverage.

Of course, if you want a particular bias, you can surely tune in to Fox News for conservative opinions, or MSNBC for more liberal opinions. Sometimes that's entertaining, but it hardly qualifies as impartial reporting. Me, if I can't have PBS or the BBC, I'll take Jon Stewart's Daily Show any day. He delights in poking holes in the balloons of hypocrisy and sanctimony, across the political spectrum.

IPADS. So it appears that the FAA may finally be joining us in the 21st century. Those who fly aircraft, from private pilots in GA planes to professional pilots in commercial airliners, have for years been identifiable by the heavy, bulky flight bags they carry. The required contents? Reference material, which includes "the aircraft's operating manual, safety checklists, logbooks for entering airplane performance data, navigation charts, weather information, airport diagrams," and more. 40 pounds of backup paperwork and quickly-outdated weather and airport material.

Now, with the advent of versatile digital glass cockpits and tablet computers like the 1.5 pound iPad (see image below), all those manuals and logbooks are obsolete. Real-time weather, navigation, air traffic, terrain, airport approach plates, and dozens of other applications can be readily accessed on a device whose only limitation is its battery life. The FAA has authorized a limited number of commercial pilots to substitute iPads for flight bags, and it's about time. Ready access to information should allow pilots to spend more time doing their real job -- flying the aircraft, and maintaining situational awareness outside the cockpit.