Things that make you go "Hmmmm…"

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by kriesel

Or he provided them with her hairbrush or a glass she'd used recently.

This sort of thing is the most likely scenario. If you have ever been on camera, especially during a live event (and with a producer talking in your ear) you would understand how details of the source item could slip.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by tServo

<snip>
Also, already jumping to conclusions, they mentioned the building was built on a wetland and was sinking. Doesn't that include just about the whole state?
<snip>

A lot of Florida has a different subsidence problem. It sits on "karst" - limestone which is eroding due to water percolating and running through it. Underground voids form, and when the roof of one caves in, the result is a "sinkhole." The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY had the misfortune to have one open up under it in 2014.

[kriesel]

On my way home from errands well after dark, I see emergency lights in the distance on the highway, and continue, turning off to a township road that passes through wetlands and woods and contains no street lights for about a mile stretch, the more direct one of two paved routes to reach my neighborhood. This is the sort of narrow low traffic road that has no edge or center stripes, just black asphalt. In a stretch where there's wetlands both sides, and a very narrow shoulder, equidistant between street lights, there's a congregation of law enforcement, fire, and civilian vehicles stopped, with seemingly every available blindingly bright emergency vehicle light flashing, in close proximity.

Including after whatever they were responding to was cleared. Large fire trucks and other response vehicles have taken up static positions on both sides of the narrow bare asphalt road. There's been recent rain, so not much scattered light from pavement or other surfaces. There's complete cloud cover, so not even moonlight or starlight for a little diffuse illumination. So who goes to direct traffic at my end of the mess? Not the well dressed firemen with their reflective-taped jackets. Not the sheriff's deputy in his still relatively visible tan uniform. No. It is the one neighboring-village police officer at the scene, dressed all in black, practically invisible in that lighting situation. He uses his flashlight to attract attention, but not to direct traffic; for that he uses his invisible off arm. He had begun by standing at the middle of the back of a fire truck, between arrays of bright flashing lights, and moved to the opposite side of the narrow road. Seems impatient we are not sufficiently psychic to divine his intent and respond immediately.

To add to the fun, someone at the other end of the bottleneck directed traffic through too.

Guys, please, turn off the blinding flashers when the emergency event is over; ordinary running lights and reflectors are sufficient. Wear clothing such that you can be seen, not roadkill or invisible. Coordinate with others working at the scene.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

This sort of thing is the most likely scenario. If you have ever been on camera, especially during a live event (and with a producer talking in your ear) you would understand how details of the source item could slip.

Now that I think about it, it might have been something from her car. Anything in their apartment is likely to be part of the rubble pile and hard to locate and confirm identity of when in a heap of 12 floors' fragments.
And I understand from personal experience, how a reporter will run with a wrong number, even when he's corrected the second after he states a wrong estimate, by the designer of the equipment he's looking at (misgauged a 3' long auger as 7') while interviewing me. Or how an editor might mis-edit or "correct" copy so what had been right becomes wrong. They're always on deadline, and if they were good with numbers and facts many would be in a different career.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by kriesel

No. It is the one neighboring-village police officer at the scene, dressed all in black, practically invisible in that lighting situation. He uses his flashlight to attract attention, but not to direct traffic; for that he uses his invisible off arm. He had begun by standing at the middle of the back of a fire truck, between arrays of bright flashing lights, and moved to the opposite side of the narrow road. Seems impatient we are not sufficiently psychic to divine his intent and respond immediately.

The law would require an ANSI Class 2 or Class 3 vest or other Hi-Vis clothing. (Various countries have different requirements.) UK and EU police are much better at wearing them than those in the USoA.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

The law would require an ANSI Class 2 or Class 3 vest or other Hi-Vis clothing. (Various countries have different requirements.) UK and EU police are much better at wearing them than those in the USoA.

It would appear from this old opinion that government employees may be considered exempt. (expendable?)
Do you have a more current link for a requirement for on-duty law enforcement?

There seem to be other considerations than accidental vehicle/pedestrian collisions.

[Uncwilly]

It applies to them.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...l1-part634.pdf
note the semi colons as 'super commas'.

[tServo]

Originally Posted by retina

Or maybe he was her brother.

Hence my comment in the post:
"Of course Florida IS in the South so who knows?"

Or, as Jeff Foxworthy said:

"You might be a redneck if your family tree doesn't branch"
Also,
"You might be a redneck if you look upon a family reunion as a dating opportunity"

[Xyzzy]

The mosquito has killed billions and changed our DNA—and it's going to get worse