Week in Review: Reporter’s Notebook

Technology has made our lives easier, but it hasn't done much for common sense.

During a recent visit to a Henderson park with his family, a reporter noticed a broken irrigation line that was spouting water all over the place. Remembering a story he wrote a few months earlier about the city's new iPhone application for reporting problems, he returned to his car, retrieved his cell phone, downloaded the app, snapped a picture of the water leak and uploaded to Contact Henderson with GPS coordinates attached.

Only then did he actually take a look at the problem: a drip emitter that had come loose and fallen off.

It took about five seconds to screw it back on and stop the leak. No 3G cell phone service was required.

HENRY BREAN

School Board Trustee Chris Garvey tapped into both her Northern Nevada roots and her computer skills to lobby on behalf of public education when she and her mother drove out to a ranch in Spanish Springs to visit with an old high school classmate, Ira Hansen, who also happens to be a state assemblyman.

Hansen, incidentally, is a member of the National Rifle Association and a staunch defender of the right to bear arms.

Garvey said that contrary to her mother's fears, Hansen "did not shoot us, and we actually had a very long conversation for about an hour and a half, which was nice."

Chalk up another social-networking success story.

"You might want to Facebook," Garvey said. "You never know what's going to happen to those people you grow up with. You would be surprised where they land."

JAMES HAUG

TWEET OF THE WEEK: @blaskyrj (Review-Journal reporter Mike Blasky) If we can't see Bin Laden photos, I at least want to see the porn he kept. #transparencyisimportant

BONUS TWEET OF THE WEEK: @pourmecoffee: When someone tells you / Put your pants on and go home / Put them on and go #haiku #ensign