I always find out where the nearest convenience stores are and their opening times. This also applies to moving house! As for the hotel room I too usually fiddle about with where the sockets are, back in the day it was essential to know if I could plug in my dial-up modem and what the local PAYG ISP was. Lame. As for news stories, I think the first one I remember was the Gulf War starting. I broke my arm and was took to the local A&E by a very annoyed father, the nurse joked they had their first casualty of war as the TV in the waiting room blurted out details of our scud missiles. I think it was the first time my attention was ever pushed in the direction of news, as at 6 O'Clock time I was usually playing (hence the broken arm).