I think they were taking issue with making a handle out of an aerial (or vice versa), no-one was denying basic physics and the only people I see confusing them appear to be intentionally doing so to muddy the water.
Off-topic but while at Daring Fireball I notice he hasn't updated his story about Android customer loyalty to reflect the real figures:
http://blog.yafla.com/Lazy_Surveys_Enable_A_Lazy_Press/
That's becoming something of a pattern for him, as he jumps on every negative Android story that comes up even if they later turn out to be misunderstandings.