Wanna be Bear Grylls, Ray Mears or Ranulph Fiennes? Then it’s time for Explore, the annual fieldwork and planning weekend at the Royal Geographical Society in London on the 18th through 20th of November.
It’s an amazing opportunity to meet those who’ve just come back from expeditions, those about to go, and those just working up the courage. You’ll find inspiration, like minds, planning sessions for your trip and opportunities to raise money, film it, talk to potential sponsors or take part in someone else’s adventure. Everything from tracking whales to discovering the 21st Century equivalent of the Galapagos islands to solo expeditions across land, ice, and sea and outreach with the remote cultures, it’s all there to be had, you’ve only get there.
For full itinerary of speakers and workshops, go here: Explore 2011.
Even better yet, join the society and receive monthly updates on expeditions you could take part in and change your life forever.
Remember to drop me a line when you do!
This year’s Explore weekend will be chaired by explorer and broadcaster Paul Rose, Vice President of the Society, who will also be on hand to provide advice.
Speaker topics include; an expedition across Iceland to study remote glaciers, environmental fieldwork in Mozambique studying giant elephant shrews, and journeying the length of the Amazon River. The full Explore 2011 programme (PDF), including speakers and topics is available to download, along with our media release (PDF).
The weekend begins with a Friday night lecture by the Atlantic Rising team – 2009’s recipients of the RGS-IBG/Land Rover ‘Go Beyond’ Bursary – who undertook a 28,000 mile journey to discover how climate change is affecting communities around the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
If you enjoyed the How to Hotwire Cars chapter in How to Drive a Tank then you’ll love this add-on from my friend, dbase guru and lifehacker, Steve Smith. Here he’s compiled a list of YouTube tutorials, demos and documentaries on car entry, everything from hi-end difficult to crack security to popping the lock with a tree branch (I kid you not).
So enjoy, and let us know what works for you when you lock yourself out next time.
1. With a piece of string:
2. With an air pump/wedge, and a piece of wire:
3. With a coat hanger:
4. With an old fashioned hammer:
5. With a specialized car key-blank a.k.a. a Jiggler:
6. With a claw hammer and a bush branch:
7. And if you want to watch something more in-depth with hi-tech crims stealing hi-tech $100,000 cars and the very best security to order:
Golden rule is: get an alarm.
All of the kit you see in these vids, including key cutters, diagnostic tools, key/dash scanners and editors can be found online at shops like the following:
Coat hangers, branches and hammers can be found in all the usual places of course. Although I would always opt for a centre-punch over a hammer any day. As always I’ll try out all of these techniques for myself in the coming weeks and post the results here.
Earlier in my career I worked as an investigative journalist, I’d have jumped at this ad in the Florida newspaper the Sarasota Herald-Tribune posted on March 14th.
We want to add some talent to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigative team. Every serious candidate should have a proven track record of conceiving, reporting and writing stellar investigative pieces that provoke change. However,
our ideal candidate has also cursed out an editor, had spokespeople hang up on them in anger and threatened to resign at least once because some fool wanted to screw around with their perfect lede.
We do a mix of quick hit investigative work when events call for it and mini-projects that might run for a few days. But every year we like to put together a project way too ambitious for a paper our size because we dream that one day Walt Bogdanich will have to say: “I can’t believe the Sarasota Whatever-Tribune cost me my 20th Pulitzer.”
As many of you already know, those kinds of projects can be hellish, soul-sucking, doubt-inducing affairs. But if you’re the type of sicko who likes holing up in a tiny, closed office with reporters of questionable hygiene to build
databases from scratch by hand-entering thousands of pages of documents to take on powerful people and institutions that wish you were dead, all for the
glorious reward of having readers pick up the paper and glance at your potential prize-winning epic as they flip their way to the Jumble… well, if that sounds like journalism Heaven, then you’re our kind of sicko.
For those unaware of Florida’s reputation, it’s arguably the best news state in the country and not just because of the great public records laws. We have all kinds of corruption, violence and scumbaggery. The 9/11 terrorists trained here. Bush read My Pet Goat here. Our elections are colossal clusterfucks. Our new governor once ran a health care company that got hit with a record fine because of
rampant Medicare fraud. We have hurricanes, wildfires, tar balls, bedbugs, diseased citrus trees and an entire town overrun by giant roaches (only one of those things is made up). And we have Disney World and beaches, so bring the
whole family.
Send questions, or a resume/cover letter/links to clips to my email address below. If you already have your dream job, please pass this along to someone whose skills you covet. Thanks.
Matthew Doig
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
1741 Main St.
Sarasota FL, 34236
(941) 361-4903
matthew.doig@heraldtribune.com
In these troubled times for real journalism big bloody hurrah to Mr Doig for writing it like it is. Still my favourite moment in journalism was when I wrote up an underhanded quote from a lobbyist to the EU who then threatened my editor for printing it.
I was more than happy to send my editor the transcript and recording of said lobbyist letting loose with secrets, and then watch him sweat. Good times.
Recently our son had a long bout of soaring temperatures ranging from 39 – 41C (102-106 Fahrenheit). Normally the body runs at around 37C/98.6F, dangerously high is considered anything over 40C/104F – this is where febrile convulsions happen, organs fail, and worse.
So if your baby’s temperature is 39C/102F or above you should already be on the phone to the emergency services in your country. In the UK that’s 999 (or 112 from a mobile).
After four scary visits to A&E we found it was a urine infection with possible renal reflux (it was eventually diagnosed dual RR, I’ll write more on this) and a course of antibiotics was prescribed which we will now have to keep him on for 3-5 years.
We were taught how to manage his temperature for ourselves when it reaches these extremes. Here’s how:
Take temperature, use a timpanic (in-ear) gauge for preference.
In-Ear Thermometer
Remove outer clothing, leave on vest and underwear. This allows air to circulate across the body and cool it down while keeping the core organs stable so that shivering doesn’t start and raise the body temperature further. NOTE: I found cradling my boy on my lap with my arms either side a good way of keeping the extremities warm if they cooled too much. Also very calming for the little man.
Dose with baby paracetemol. 2.5ml under six months/5ml after that.
Wait for these actions to start lowering the temperature. If no response after 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours or the temperature continues to rise dose with ibuprofen (2.5ml up to 1 year, 5ml for 1-3 years).
From here on in your doctor needs to give you the correct dosing regimen. So if you’re reading this and have an overheating child you need to call emergency services, your doctor, or NHS Direct (0845 4647) NOW. This post may help you in a jam but it is no excuse for not calling. I’m not medically trained and the doctors will be able to tell you how to maintain appropriate treatment for your child and your child’s specific illness.
Sometimes it seems like every agent or publisher wants their next book to be written by a big chested celeb with no writing talent – I guess that’s what ghost writers are for. But there’s a good reason for this seemingly annoying need. In a nutshell, if you already have a public profile or ‘platform’ then you increase the marketability of any book proposal, and, therefore, the potential sales for your book.
Why do publishers want this? More marketing bang for each buck they spend, that’s why, for example:
A single ad page in a newspaper like the Daily Mail will cost you more than £32k for one day. Advertorial – an article written by them (with the word ‘promotion’ in the corner) – upwards of £45k. Reference: http://www.mailconnected.co.uk/uploads/files/Daily-Mail-Ratecard.pdf
So ask yourself this, what’s the value of a regular column in one of these publications to a marketing department? How about if you regularly feature on TV? Rates to advertise on TV start at the £1-5k range for low-cost local networks to £30k for multiple high volume day time slots or £100k+ for heavyweight prime time national coverage.
What amazes me is that more TV personalities don’t publish books.
But how can you, the fledgling author who has neither the time, money, skills or resources to raise your profile go about it? Using myself as an example. For my first book How to Drive a Tank I managed to score with a range of medium sized media outlets. I secured a NatGeoAdventure web channel (40k viewers) and mailshot to their subscribers on publication date (another 40k+). A review in Top Gear magazine (300k readers per month), 20 or so local and national radio interviews, and maintaining this blog, (around 12k readers). My own personal biggest hit was while working with the Bedouin Heritage Project in Jordan we used a hotwired car. I asked one of the Bedu guys to film me while I showed how to hotwire the vehicle – which was one of the examples I gave in the same chapter in the book. It went viral on Youtube (160k+ viewers) and has driven new north American audiences my way.
As I move into a new phase of pitching and writing it’s time for me to up my game a little further. I’ve recently shot a showreel with the guys who set up the original Strictly Come Dancing line up. Although I worked in TV for ten years previously being in front of the camera is by definition pushing me out of my comfort zone – but then isn’t that what life is all about? Ideally I will secure either a column or a regular writing gig with a publisher either online or in print with a large reach in the next few months as well.
Ultimately, I’m a writer, but in this day and age, writing, and publishing are just one form of media floating in a giant sales stream. It makes sense to connect a few of these media islands together. I’d love to hear your ideas on how you intend to raise your own platform.
Wanna be Bear Grylls, Ray Mears or Ranulph Fiennes? Then it’s time for Explore, the annual fieldwork and planning weekend at the Royal Geographical Society in London on the 18th through 20th of November.
