Hasta La Ideas

Yesterday Jacki wrote a post about five of her favorite organizing tools. Her post inspired me to look at the tools I depend on daily, and one really stood out as having very high utility: my pocket knife. I have two, in fact. One is the Swiss Victorinix Centurion, which I always take camping, fishing, and occasionally use for jobs around the house. It’s great, but a little big for day-to-day-carry. That’s why the tiny little Swiss Classic SD is the knife I love.

I have one of these on my car’s keychain, so it’s almost always with me. I’ve been carrying it around for about five years, and proper maintenance has kept it in tip-top shape. Swiss Army knives are the ultimate “anti-unitasker.” Even with only got five features, mine is super useful:

• Blade
• File
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Toothpick

Just today, I’ve used my knife to open a package, cut rope and string, remove tags from clothing (it sails through those annoy plastic rings!), tighten/loosen a screw, and open letters. It’s also helpful outside the home.

If you decide to buy a pocket knife, you’ll find them at nearly every outdoor store and online. There are several styles to choose from, and I’ll cover just a few here. The first distinction is a knife with a locking blade versus a slipjoint. Simply, when the blade of a lock blade knife is open, it locks open. The Centurion I own is a lock blade knife. To put the blade away, you press a little tab to release it. Meanwhile, the Classic SD has a blade that does not lock in the open position. Which should you pick? It depends on the work you’ll typically do. For light work — opening packages, envelopes, and the like — a slipjoint knife is fine. More intense work, like you might do while camping or fishing, is best done with a blade that won’t move once opened.

Also consider the type of knife you might buy. I’m a big fan of multi-purpose knives, which house several blades and other tools.

When I was younger, my grandfather had a pocket knife on his person all the time. I can remember seeing him produce it seemingly out of nowhere, just in time to cut some string, tighten a screw, remove a stubborn thumbtack, or what-have-you. I thought it was a magical thing, but today I realize it wasn’t magic and recognize it as a tremendously useful tool.

Similar to a pocket knife, Erin has great admiration for the Leatherman MultiTool (one that flips out, not slides out) she received for her high school graduation. She also sings the praises of a good set of kitchen knives because they eliminate the need for so many larger unitaskers. Now, let’s turn it to you. What utilitarian tools — real multitaskers — do you rely on in your life?

Post written by David Caolo

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The post Utilitarian tools: the pocket knife appeared first on Unclutterer.

Two MIT scientists have finally figured out the smell of rain (aka petrichor). As a raindrop falls, it traps tiny air bubbles beneath it, and if the ground conditions are right and the droplet hits the earth at a particular velocity, those air bubbles……

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Former Fox Employee Shoots Himself Outside Office Building (WSJ / Metropolis)
A former employee of a Fox television station in Texas shot himself outside the front doors of the News Corp headquarters in Midtown Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m. Monday, a law-enforcement official said. FishbowlNY The man was seen protesting Fox prior to the shooting. Cops said News Corp security heard the man shouting that Fox had ruined his life. He was asked to leave the premises. TVSpy The man previously worked for KTBC, the Fox-owned television station in Austin. A law enforcement official identified him as Phillip Perea, 41, of Irving, Texas. TVSpy Perea, a former promotions producer at the station, may have started on this path after getting in trouble for posting a picture on the station’s Facebook page. He was later dismissed. TVNewser The skyscraper houses The New York Post as well as Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, The Wall Street Journal, and other News Corp. and 21st Century Fox media entities.

The #Blizzardof2015 Won’t Stop the News (TVNewser)
While New York City missed the worst of the #Blizzardof2015, several hundred staffers of New York-based news networks worked into the night to keep the news on the air. TVSpy WNBC reporter Stacey Bell didn’t see it happen, but viewers watching live blizzard coverage on the NBC flagship in New York sure did: a car losing control in the snow, skidding and seeming to come very close to clipping Bell. “I was in the zone and completely oblivious,” Bell tweeted afterward. “I think it looked a lot worse on camera.” TVNewser The Weather Channel is carrying nonstop coverage throughout the storm’s duration, pre-empting all long-form programming. TWC has deployed 10 meteorologists to five cities in the storm’s path. TVNewser Al Roker set a Guinness World Record back in November when “Rokerthon” became the longest continuous weather forecast. With this storm,”Rokerthon” is back.

Employees Organizing Push to Unionize Politico (Washington Free Beacon)
Employees at Politico are organizing a push to unionize the news outlet, amid recent shakeups at the inside-the-Beltway publication. The effort is being led by Mike Elk, a Politico labor reporter and a strident proponent of unions who started at the outlet last year. Mediaite Driving the push to unionize are Politico’s legendary long hours — allegedly the cause of the outlet’s equally legendary burnout rate — and PoliticoPro, a section of the site that paywalls articles and prevents journalists from getting their byline into the general public.

NFL Strikes Deal to Bring Football Clips to YouTube (THR)
Football is finally coming to YouTube. The National Football League has struck a deal to bring official football game highlights and more to the Google-owned streamer. Variety The NFL, which generates north of $6 billion revenue per year, believes it has some of the most valuable intellectual property in the world. And it’s right. Re/code Starting this week, official NFL highlight clips will show up in Google’s YouTube, as well as in Google search results themselves. Google will also provide detailed information about games and scores — including kickoff times as well as the networks that are airing the games — via its “OneBox” results format, which it uses to show off extended answers to search queries instead of simple links.

Moving Day for The New Yorker (FishbowlNY)
So long, 4 Times Square! Monday marked Day 1 for The New Yorker staff at its new headquarters, 1 World Trade Center. The current issue, titled “Moving Day,” by Bruce McCall, charmingly illustrates the end of an era. Inside the issue, staff writer Nick Paumgarten writes a Comment that takes us on a trip down memory lane. The New Yorker Last week, the staff of The New Yorker made its final preparations to leave its headquarters for the past fifteen years, to join the rest of Condé Nast, the parent company, down at the new megatower in lower Manhattan. The move took place over the weekend. The New Yorker had been in the Times Square area for all ninety of its years.

BBC Launches Taster to Showcase New Ideas and Experiments (Mashable)
The BBC on Monday launched a new platform designed to showcase early concepts from across TV, radio and online. BBC Taster will be an online hub where users can play around with a range of formats and offer ratings and feedback on new ideas, such as interactive, short-form or social content. The BBC then plans to fine tune its offerings by responding to the public’s reactions. THR The U.K. public broadcaster added: “Taster is a place for the BBC to try new ways of telling stories, develop new talent and put new technology through its paces. It also allows the BBC to showcase a range of editorial and technology projects that may have previously remained behind closed doors.”

Condé Nast Enters the Branded Content Fray (Capital New York)
Condé Nast is launching a branded content studio, “23 Stories by Condé Nast,” following competitors Time Inc. and Hearst on the path to breaking down the traditional divide between editorial and business. WWD Unlike most of its rivals, however, editors will be directly involved in creating content, which could dull the reputation of some of its newsier publications, such as The New Yorker. The 23 Stories, whose name is inspired by the 23 floors that editors and creative teams inhabit in Condé Nast’s new headquarters at 1 World Trade Center in New York, will develop and produce sponsored content for advertisers and marketers. WSJ / CMO Today With 23 Stories, which launches officially next month, Condé Nast is aiming to centralize its branded content efforts so it can offer marketers larger buys across sites, including Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ. Up to now, Condé has offered native ads, but they generally are specific to a certain magazine and are written by outside freelancers or contractors.

New Deal for Today Co-Host Savannah Guthrie (LATimes)
NBC News has locked Savannah Guthrie into a new long-term deal that will keep her at the Today show for the foreseeable future. The contract is a vote of confidence for Guthrie and, like her last one, includes a clause that she remain at Today. Guthrie first joined the morning show in 2011 as an anchor on the show’s 9 a.m. hour. The deal follows a new two-year contract for Lauer in 2014.

Washington Post Video Chief Out After Two Weeks (Politico / Dylan Byers on Media)
The Washington Post’s newly appointed video director Noah Kotch has left the company after just two weeks. Kotch, a digital media consultant who once served as senior producer on NBC’s Today show, was hired as senior editor and director of video, tasked with overseeing a 40-person staff that handled video production and curation.

Indiana Gov. Pence Creates State-Run News Agency (Indianapolis Star)
Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run taxpayer-funded news service that will provide pre-written news stories to Indiana news outlets. It would also break news about his administration. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media The venture will be run a former Indianapolis Star reporter, Bill McCleery, with stories written by press secretaries. It will include an editorial board made of McCleery and the governor’s communications staff.

Inside ABC’s Botched Plan to Fire Rosie Perez From The View (Variety)
ABC has put the brakes on a plan to fire Rosie Perez from The View. At the time, the network wasn’t ready to announce the co-host’s departure. According to a source familiar with ABC execs’ thinking, fear of “an Ann Curry situation” — a reference to NBC’s botched firing of the Today anchor in 2012 — led executives to reverse course and keep Perez on the network’s 11 a.m. talk show for now.

Dateline NBC Posts Biggest Sunday Rating Since 2012 (TVNewser)
Sunday’s Dateline NBC was the most-watched Sunday edition of the show in nearly three years, since Feb. 12, 2012, and topped 60 Minutes in the A18-49 demo, tying the CBS newsmagazine in the A25-54 demo.

Facebook Lite App Launches in Eight Countries (SocialTimes)
A new standalone application from Facebook emerged in the Google Play store — Facebook Lite — aimed at bringing the Facebook experience to lower-end Android devices in several emerging markets. If the name sounds familiar, Facebook launched a simplified version of its website in 2009 under the same name, but it shut down that version of Facebook Lite in April 2010.

Ex-CIA Agent Convicted of Leaking Classified Info to NY Times (Mediaite)
A jury Monday convicted ex-CIA agent of leaking classified intelligence to a New York Times reporter, whose subpoena led to criticism of the Obama Administration’s treatment of journalists. Jeffrey Sterling, a former officer, was formally convicted of leaking information about a botched mission to thwart Iran’s nuclear program to Times reporter James Risen.

Russian State-Owned Media Involved in Spy Case, Complaint Says (BuzzFeed)
A Russian state-owned news organization was involved in the spy ring busted this week by the FBI, according to the criminal complaint against the spies. The complaint, which describes the activities of three Russian nationals in New York who have been charged with spying for Russia, says that the defendants came up with questions for an unnamed Russian news organization in 2013.

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