One the hallmarks of our 21st Century media is the "news spin" – stating information in a way that emphasizes the message that the sender wants delivered, even if the facts don't quite line up. United States Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano's recent visit to New Zealand offers us a classic example of the spin. […]
A short time ago I wrote about the public outrage over "pink slime", the beef additive used in most ground beef products for over ten years and certified as safe by the USDA. As I mentioned, a combination of circumstances had caught the public attention, forcing many companies to stop using it. As with many […]
As any of my friends will tell you, I'm an action movie buff. Good or bad, new or classic, I go to see them or watch them on DVD pretty regularly. However, the one genre of action films I'm generally not too excited about is disaster films. It's not that I don't like them, I […]
Phillip K. Dick's short story, Minority Report, later made into a hit movie with starring Tom Cruise and Max von Sydow, tells the story of a law enforcement program set up to prevent crimes by predicting future criminal acts. The story centers on a man who believes he is falsely accused and must prove he […]
I'm constantly amazed at the things that the government seems to have time to think about. Thanks to the good folks over at the Consumerist blogsite, I am now in a position to advise you on your need for a social media will. It seems someone over at USA.gov took time out from solving the […]
Over the years I've posted a number of blogs on "security theater", the use of security measures that serve no purpose other than to make the public think an agency is actually doing something. The Transportation Security Administration has raised this to a fine art with its Byzantine passenger screening protocols. Case in point is […]
April 18, 1906 – it's a date that holds special meaning for us here in San Francisco. This year is the 106th anniversary of the earthquake and fires that destroyed much of the city, killed thousands, and displaced over a quarter of a million people. But our our modest commemorations aren't concerned with the disaster […]
There's an interesting experiment being conducted by the National Weather Service. Five weather stations in Kansas and Missouri will be using plain terminology to warn people of impending hurricanes. One of the interesting phenomena we see in emergency management is that people do not respond to warnings immediately but seek verification before acting. They tend […]
"Pink slime" – sounds disgusting, doesn't it? And yet Americans have been eating it for some time. If you've been following the media buzz lately, you'll be aware that "pink slime" is a derogatory term coined by a USDA microbiologist in 2002 (that's right, 2002 – pink slime was approved for use in 2001) to […]