Matt of All Trades blog, like the title suggests, is by a Vermont author and offers offbeat musings on pop culture, media, journalism, humor, weirdness, stupid people, smart people, my life as a journalist, landscaper, photographer, married gay man, dog lover and weather geek and more. It's run by me, Matt Sutkoski, a native Vermonter living in St. Albans, Vt.
I encountered a news video of a fatal house fire in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts recently.
An elderly man recently died in this Massachusetts house fire, and an insulting computer generated "news" video just made the situation even worse.
The insulting, off the rails report of the fire showed that automation does not work when it comes to reporting on the news.
An outfit called World Today posted the video of the house fire, which was probably lifted from legitimate television news stations who were covering the fire.
The intro features some really bad dance club music, as if a tragic fire was an occasion to party.
The World Today video had an automated, computer generated voice that described the death in the house fire this way: "Police affirmed small time who lived in the house kicked the bucket thus of the fire."
Huh?
We also learned, "A working fire task was struck when firefighters touched bases as the house was immersed in blazes."
When the fire got too big for firefighters to work inside the house, the World Today video reported, "Firefighters were requested out of the building not long after arriving and are just battling the fire all things considered."
What do you mean "all things considered?" I don't even want to guess.
In reality, the fire was tragic. An 86-year old man's lawn mower caught fire, then caught his clothes on fire, and burned down his house. The elderly man died, and the house was destroyed, legitimate news station CBS Boston reported.
Here's the horrible, cringe-inducing video, but you gotta see and hear it to believe it:
Kim Novak was rescued from a burning car by Police Officer Tim Schwering, but the rescue would not have been necessary had the door locks and windows not been fully electronic. Wouldn't it have been better if the car allowed Novak to manually open the door and escape herself?
It involves a woman named Kim Novak who was driving down a street in Spokane, Washington and the car suddenly died. The engine caught fire. But the doors locked themselves, and the window controls did not work. She was trapped in the burning car.
In the old days, all Novak would have had to do is open the car door and get out. Or failing that, roll down the window using the hand crank and spring out to safety.
No, now, we have to die in burning cars because - technology!
On the bright side, technology ultimately saved the Novak. She called 911 and police were nearby.
Windows these days in cars seem to be shatterproof, so the 911 dispatcher's advice that the woman trapped in the car kick out the windows didn't work. They wouldn't budge.
Finally, a cop came and with a lot of work, was able to smash out the window with his baton. He and another good Samaritan got the woman out just in the knick of time, just before the car was fully engulfed in flames.
As you can see in the video, the "safety glass" almost killed the woman, too. The cop wearing the bodycam really had to hack away at the window for the longest time to get the woman out of the car.
Also, note some of the comments on the video from people who agree with me: Why the hell are the locks in the car fully electronic? Why can't there be manual back up?
The automatic door locks are a small but annoying inconvenience for me. Say my truck is safely parked in my driveway, and I'm working outside, retrieving tools from the truck from time to time. If the windows are rolled up, sometimes the truck just suddenly locks the doors.
If I left the keys in the truck, maybe because I was planning on going to the store in a few minutes, I'm screwed. It's another thing I have to remember: Never leave the keys in the truck because I might get locked out.
What if I temporarily have my dogs in the car with the keys. They can get lock inside. That happened to us once, and we had to get a locksmith to free the dogs. What if it had been sunny and hot. Our dogs could have died.
Car makers don't like manual locks and windows because they've convinced the public they are must-haves. And now there's supposedly no room for both manual and electronic controls on door panels.
Granted, this is a First World problem. But still. I don't like it. Automakers: Just let me do some of the work for myself. Don't do everything for me. I want to have at least a little control.
Here's the video of the rescue from that locked car in Spokane:
