Word: leatherman
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Hurricanes kill people because we refuse to settle out of their way. Nowhere was that more apparent than in New Orleans, built in a bowl between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. "It was a fool's paradise," says Stephen Leatherman, who has studied hurricanes for 30 years and runs the Hurricane Research Center at Florida International University in Miami...
...news: across a big swath of the globe, the sea is still rising, eroding what for low-lying places was already a slim margin of safety. Making the problem even worse is the loss of what Florida International University coastal expert Stephen Leatherman calls "living landforms," which would otherwise buffer that rise. Consider the wetlands that are an integral part of all river deltas, he says. Plants trap sediment from floodwaters flowing downriver, and the more they trap, the higher these wetlands grow. The problem is, people don't much like floods, so they build levees, which keep sediments from...
...Leatherman 830040 New Wave Multi-Tool with nylon sheath, $70, packs pliers, wire cutters, bit drivers, a saw, a serrated knife and more into one compact unit. At amazon.com
...shrapnel. Suddenly mortar rounds are screaming in, landing all around the Americans. Sergeant David Gilstrap is bleeding; he has been hit in the face. A jagged dart of shrapnel protrudes from Specialist Robert Heiber's arm. It hurts like fire, but Heiber mostly feels anger. He uses his Leatherman pliers to yank out the shrapnel and keeps on firing. When a medic tries to take Heiber back with Gilstrap to the firebase for treatment, Heiber refuses. He is a sniper and has spotted a curl of smoke from al-Qaeda mortar tubes above a rock gallery, some 600 yds. away...
Bottom line? They're my children, and I love them all, but it's still Leatherman by a needle nose. Why? Better engineering. The parts fit perfectly, the locking mechanism is simple but effective, and the blades are top-quality high-carbon steel--the saw really saws, and I know from experience that the blades hold their edges over time. So when the unexpected comes along, you'll be prepared, diamond-coated file, wire stripper and lanyard attachment at the ready. Batman always is. Hey, we all have dreams...