Local news, tools to carry in car

[Stormin Mormon]

Jesse Jackson's phone number.

[Stormin Mormon]

Jumper cables battery jumper pack compressor tire plug Lug wrench / torque wrench for lugs

What I've used this year....

[Unquestionably Confused]

Silly Mormon... That would be "Looka me me me me me me"

He'd have corrected you himself but he's busy this weekend visiting his disgraced son in prison and asking him to please keep quiet.

[Stormin Mormon]

Wonder if we can get him appointment with Michael Jackson's personal physician?

[krw]

No, that's Obama's cell phone number.

He'll get paid off for taking the fall.

[dgk]

I keep tools in my car, but not just to fix the car. Since I'm often where the car is, it's always nice to have the tools just in case I need them. The extra weight in the trunk doesn't seem to have a major effect on gas mileage so why not carry them?

[=]

Since running over a cast-off piece of truck tire on the interstate a few weeks ago, I've added a couple of things to my car tool kit.

One is a utility knife to cut the fender liner away from the fender and another is a set of bungee cords to tie up the dragging pieces of undercarriage shield which partially ripped away from its mounting screws.

Tomsic

[nestork]

Seriously Guys, my sister used to work as a sales representative for Nordic Pharmaceuticals. 3 or 4 times per year, she'd have to drive up to northern Manitoba and northern Saskatchewan to visit the doctors up there to explain what the new pharmaceuticals Nordic was offering would do, what their side effects where, and where they were appropriate and inappropriate to use.

This was every bit of 25 years ago, before there were cell phones, and there were places along those roads where you were 50 miles or more from the nearest house.

If you are ever planning a trip where you might be in a similar situation, then:

1. If your car konks out on you, STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE. You stand a much better chance of survival if you are protected from the wind and wild animals inside your car. Besides, search parties will be looking along the highway for your vehicle first because they know that spotting a person walking in the bush from the air is almost impossible.

1. Food is important, but you can survive for almost a month without food, but only a few days without water. Bring a piece of small diameter plastic tubing that will allow you to suck up water from small puddles that would be too shallow to otherwise drink from. If you're driving in the winter, take a long something which will allow you to start a fire easily, like a lighter, and a container you can melt snow in, like a tin can. Paper matches are useless if they get wet. If you choose to bring food, bring peanut butter. Peanut packs a lot of calories, which is what you need to survive.

2. If there is room for it in your car, take along a pair of well insulated cover alls. Covering the whole body is the best way to keep your whole body warm, especially when you can get out of the wind by staying in your car.

1. And, it's always a good idea to take wilderness survival courses if you have the time. My sister took several of these, but luckily she never had to use what she learned. My nephew is a pilot who flies to northern Manitoba with Perimeter Airlines. I've been badgering him to take some wilderness survival training, but the Metro II plane he flies is equipped with a GPS, radio and radio beacon so that he can radio in his location and bearing if he has to crash land, and the radio beacon will bleep for several days thereby pinpointing the crash site (if that ever happens).

[Stormin Mormon]

Once in a while, we get example like the James Kim death. The guy made a series of mistakes. Going off the highway to take a short cut, leaving the vehicle, poor sinalling.

You have great wisdom. For the car kit, I'd add a couple sheets or towels, to hang from the door. White cloth is a fairly well known "HELP" signal. Red is good, too. I'd also add to store some of the gear in the back seat. Easier to reach than trunk. Candles in glass can be good for heat and light.

I'd prefer not to drink out of puddles, tube or not.

[RobertMacy]

hear, hear.

In wilderness survival the priorities are:

1. shelter - translates as keep dry and have blankets. Hypothermia can kill you fast!
2. water - after 5-7 days even if rescued, you can lose your kidneys
3. food - hey, we're all dieting now, right?

Conclusion, ALWAYS tow a second car. If redundancy is good enough for NASA, it ought to be good enough for me.

[Robert Green]

Sometimes only the valves stems get bent and the pistons survive. DAMHIKT.

[Jimbo]

That sounds gay. What sound did the seal make, when you blew it?

[Robert Green]

Good sir, I must protest in the name of my news biz bros. (-:

When, many moons ago, I was a reporter I was also making my own furniture, rebuilding 3 rotten Solex bell-type carbs on a Jag I was restoring and developing color prints in my own darkroom, wired, plumbed and designed by me. Some reporters have reasonable technical chops, including, oddly enough, weatherman/meteorologists. Don't tar them all with the same brush.

I will agree with you that not a *lot* of technical stuff is done 100% right, but *guaranteeing* it to be wrong is, well, *almost* guaranteed to be wrong because it allows no exceptions.

That's a little unfair, too. I guess it depends on the market. In "the majors" you'll find a lot of the chaff has blown away and you're left with the exceptionally good-looking and the exceptionally talented and occasionally a person who has both - in the interest of full disclosure, I wasn't in either category.

However, when I wrote a how-to piece, it was pretty well researched and documented. A good news director/editor will have plenty of disgruntled reporters and stringers on staff wondering when their piece will run. He does that precisely so that he isn't forced to run something that's clearly wrong. Of course, with the drastic changes the Internet has brought about, TV isn't nearly as well-off as it used to be. Except for the NFL that has local governments pay for stadiums and then privatizes the films made of activities made therein. Such a deal!

I don't know what Micky saw on what channel, but I can guarantee you (almost) that if he was watching public access cable (and he watches weird stuff late at night like Highway Patrol, just like me!) then anything could go.

He said: "I suppose this was on the local TV news, or some place like that." is not a lot to go by to evaluate the validity of what Micky had seen. Are we certain he saw the piece from the beginning? That could have a real effect on his interpretation of what he saw.

If only he had a video recorder of some sort. (What's the matter with you, Micky? Are you a Luddite? ) I can't understand how anyone can watch real-time TV anymore, it's so ad heavy. The TNT Star Wars marathon had commercial breaks of 7 minutes for every 10 minutes (it seemed - I have a 1 min skip button on my DVR). /rant over

[Stormin Mormon]

Oh, man, yes, that sounds awful. I've been trying to think of something comical I can reply, but nothing good enters my mind.

[clare]

Didn't hear it, but it made a big oily cloud and covered the back of the trailer in tranny fluid.

[Unquestionably Confused]

Too bad it's too late to get an appointment for either one (or both) of them up with Dr. Kevorkian

[Tegger]

"Robert Green" wrote in news:l7jeh4$2ks$ [e-mail]:

I tar all those who write general news articles, including those published in the "Lifestyle"-type sections; they're universally clueless. I'd add "dishonesty" to my accusation, but that would presuppose competence to recognize error from fact.

I read newspapers on a daily basis (at least two a day, plus various magazines). I stand by my generalizations.

General news is often wrong and distorted. For the REAL news, you need to

1) read the /last/ paragraphs of any news article (which is where the reporter hid the stuff he has to put in but doesn't want you to actually read), or 2) read the OP-eds, which is where the /real/ differences are found between newspapers.

YOU did. Precious few are like you. Most live and die off press-releases: Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, a bit of tweaking, and off to lunch.

And he's gonna know it's wrong...how? When was the last fact-checker laid off? 20-years-ago? Editors are as technically-clueless as their underlings.

[Stormin Mormon]

I think you're right about the priorities.

Reminds me of a story of a father and teen aged son, who broke down while on the road. They run a lawn service. The son finally says why not take the riding mower to town, and get help. And, so they did. Ive heard of people ride a mower to the bar to avoid a drunk driving ticket. The cops write them DWI on a motorized vehicle.

Would be nice if everyone carried basic gear in the car with them. But, sigh, doesn't happen.

[Ralph Mowery]

With the cars now about all you need is a set of jumper cables, cell phone, and gun.

You can jump off a dead battery and that is as far as most can do with a car now. use cell phone to call for help,and the gun to defend against any robbers and thughs.

[RobertMacy]

Great! can you share any stories of being 'coerced'? Example, lady reporter covering Waco, having all their film confiscated, being hit in the stomach, told to keep back, and the events she just saw she didn't see. that kind of thing. Or, the reporter in San Jose, CA covering an historical site, a church on Santa Clara St [main st], burning down noticed the firemen were doing NOTHING to stop the fire, [he got hit several times at the scene and escorted away for pointing that out] turned out developers have been after that site for a long time, sigh. But, you NEVER saw that side of the story in the evening TV coverage.

As a side note, the BEST news coverage, and really enjoy, is 'breaking news' coverage. The news is raw [that's ok], not 'sanitized, nor homogenized' [that's great, get some real info], and best of all ...no chance for shaping with that effective 'sound-bite' technique. [Really get to hear the EXACT sequence and the EXACT words said. Not purported sequence, nor purported words put into their mouths.] end of rant.