I get lost so much while driving to cover different stories that I finally asked for a GPS navigational device for my birthday this year.

It’s been awesome to have, but it’s not without problems. I always keep in mind that the thing is just a small device strapped to my dashboard that cannot detect traffic accidents, road construction or differentiate between which is faster during rush hour, H-1 or King Street.

When I saw this story on TV on Friday, I couldn’t help but laugh .. nervously:

(CBS/ AP) A GPS device led a convoy of tourists astray in southern Utah, finally stranding them on the edge of a sheer cliff.

With little food or water, the group of 10 children and 16 adults from California had to spend a night in their cars deep inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

They used a global positioning device to plot out a backcountry route Saturday from Bryce Canyon National Park to the Grand Canyon.

But the device couldn’t tell how rough the roads were. One vehicle got stuck in soft sand, two others ran low on fuel. And the device offered suggestions that led them onto the wrong dirt roads, which ended at a series of cliffs.

The group was so lost it couldn’t figure out how to backtrack and started to panic. Kids were crying, and one infant was sick with fever, according to a member of the party.

It sounds like a nightmare, but this seems to me to be an example of blaming technology for what is really poor human judgment. In this case, the bad judgment was relying on a device that cannot detect rough terrain in a potentially dangerous area.

I wondered, as I drove to the Obama rally on Friday, if cars had yet been invented that could be put on autopilot according to a route mapped by a global positioning system — and how much trouble we’d be in for if that were the case.

I love my GPS, but there’s a reason why I still keep my eye on the road and a map book in my car.

Hawaii-born Sen. Barack Obama is in town. And it’s going to be chaos.

The Obama campaign announced late yesterday that the presidential candidate and his wife, Michelle, would make a *FREE* public appearance at Ke‘ehi Lagoon Beach Park at 12:30 p.m. today.

That’s good news for folks who were grumbling about a previously announced fundraiser dinner for the candidate — at $2,300 a plate.

Obama is scheduled to talk to media at the airport at 2 p.m. before heading to the park, so we’re expecting him there at 3 p.m. at the earliest.

Anyone interested in attending is being asked to RSVP with the campaign here.

I’ll be at Ke‘ehi Lagoon live blogging the event, starting this morning from this new blog site, or you can follow me on Twitter.

Are you planning to be there? If so, what’s your strategy for getting there/parking/ditching work early/taking a 4-hour lunch break?

When I was in college in Massachusetts, Jet Blue Airways was considered the affordable airline. You could fly from city to city for less than a train ride would cost. But with the company’s Monday announcement that it would start charging $7 for a blanket and pillow set, that image may be changing.

Jet Blue officials have said that the move is not just to sustain profits in hard times — they’re being environmentally friendly by doing away with millions of disposable in-flight pillows, and probably millions of gallons of water that go to washing those blankets.

This from the AFP:

JetBlue in its marketing strategy for the new, seven-dollar surcharge said they have created “The World’s Cleanest” travel pillow and blanket kit, made from “a fabric that blocks all micro-toxins … such as dust mites, mold spores, pollen and pet dander.”

The “take-home travel kit” fits in a carrying case “for use on future trips,” the airline said in a statement.

“Replacing our old, recycled pillows and blankets with this state-of-the-art, high-quality take home kit is an eco-conscious, health-conscious and customer-conscious decision,” said JetBlue Airways General Manager of Product Development Brett Muney.

Skeptics may scoff, but the airline does have an entire section of its web page dedicated to its “green” strategy. The site includes a Carbon Footprint Calculator and lists steps the airline is taking to reduce its own footprint, including doing away with in-flight magazines, eliminating paper tickets and offering smaller boarding passes, installing lighter aircraft seats and LED lighting, and recycling spent jet fuel and oil and oil/fuel filters.

No doubt many of these moves are also driven by economics. But, as the airline industry struggles, could “going green” also help cut costs?

I’m getting nostalgia for the olden days, when headsets and drinks were free, when every seat had a pillow and blanket. It’s strange, but I even miss those mushy in-flight meals.

As I discovered recently on my trip to Chicago, flying has become a mind-numbing strategic maze that starts when you pack your suitcase.

The way I figure — why would I carry a pillow and blanket on the plane when all I’m allowed is one personal item and one carry-on, which are both already holding most of the stuff which used to go in my second suitcase since each additional bag became $15 to check in?

Maybe I’ll just avoid red-eye flights from now on. Or — anyone know of some really good books?

image: Jet Blue Airways via nytimes.com.

I hesitated whether to post this one, but figured, why not.

Paris Hilton has made an actually pretty funny video for Funny or Die in response to a McCain campaign ad that compared her to Barack Obama. Or Barack Obama to her. Whatever.

For some reason I can’t embed non-YouTube videos using Wordpress, so view the video here.

She already has celebrity status, an energy policy, good looks and that girl power quality. Plus, she’s up to her ears in the biggest campaign factor: MONEY.

AND, she can sing! Well, sort of.

So… loves it?

While we’re on the subject of embarrassing Facebook photos, here’s a notorious culprit: beer pong.

JV Games was all set to release a virtual version of the game for Nintendo Wii as the first game in its new Frat Party Games series. But, as Time Magazine reported last week, parents and others complained.

So, the name of the game was changed to “Pong Toss” and the virtual sport altered so players now toss balls into “pixelated cups of water,” according to Time.

Also called “beirut” back East, beer pong is immensely popular among college students, including at my alma mater, where beirut tournaments were weekend events.

The game involves two sets of six or ten plastic cups filled with beer arranged in triangular formation on opposite sides of a table (or an old door, if you’re out of tables). Players standing on opposite sides of the table try to land a ping pong ball into the other team’s cups. If the ball lands in one team’s beer-filled cup, a member of that team has to drink it.

Seems we had a similar debate about Grand Theft Auto IV in April between video game enthusiasts (often teenage boys), and parents and other responsible adults who don’t want the virtual world to influence real-world behavior. With GTA-IV, it was shooting cops and propositioning hookers. With Beer Pong, it’s underage drinking, or just getting drunk in general.

The name change and the water-filled cups may have placated some critics, but underage kids playing Pong Toss won’t easily forget its origins. Beer pong by any other name would still get you wasted.

(Hat tip to Rich Figel, who noted this story on Addicted To on Friday.)