March 2008 - Newsletter
March is shaping up to be a busy month, with plenty of action in Rossland at work, the snow melting rapidly, and a couple of big events.
One of the big themes at the moment in my life is Emergency Preparedness. As one of the managers in the City, I am responsible for part of the coordination during an emergency. On the 6th of March, I am observing a scenario being run by the Regional District of Central Kootenay, in Nelson. I hope this is a good opportunity to see how things are done differently in this part of the world.
Family Happenings
On the 8th of March, I have three big events on, and it's lucky that they are all close to each other. Firstly, I am judging at the regional science fair. I judged at the School District level last year and really enjoyed interacting with the kids and teaching them something about science in the real world.
After this, as it is Engineering Week, the local APEGBC branch is holding a popsicle stick bridge competition. At this stage it looks like Robyn and I will submit a bridge, and we're hoping that Eden can use her creative genius to compete in the junior category.
While the judging of the bridge competition is on, I'll have to duck across to the airport to pick my mum up. She's visiting us for almost a month from Australia, so we're hoping for some good weather to be able to show her around.
Development News
On the development front around the Kootenays, Red Resort has applied for Preliminary Design Review on an 18 lot subdivision (the first phase of approximately 70 lots), at the base of the ski hill. With some innovative trail and lift arrangements, this development should grow into a pleasant neighbourhood in the next couple of years.
blog
I love using the internet to communicate. But despite the hype, often it is difficult to work out what services your friends and colleagues are using. Many people have been using Facebook for friends and something like LinkedIn for business. But now LinkedIn is getting into the Facebook game with more features like "answers".
So I thought I'd ask a general question, feel free to leave comments or contact me if you'd like to connect.... what sites do you use regularly?
Here's my list in order of usage...
- del.icio.us for bookmarks
- twitter for microblogging
- zooomr for photos
- googletalk for IM Chat
- facebook for friends
- linkedin for business
Some of these get regular attention, others only occasional, I think that's the nature of relationships in general, some take more energy and time than others.
How do you communicate online? Is it just by email, or do you use other sites? Feel free to drop your user names if you want to collaborate!
The past two months have seen an increase in the number of media references I've seen relating to the housing bubble and resulting foreclosures down in the states. In Canada we seem to feel a little immune from the major effects of this situation, but economically, whether we like it or not, we are tied to the States for much of our national well being.
What is of interest to me is how much media coverage this is getting, compared to say the idea of sustainability or climate change. Given the long term nature of climate change, and the fact that an ex-presidential candidate even made a movie about it, wouldn't you think that Americans might have an interest in it? Certainly the media has covered it, but looking at the following graphs of search and news trends from Google Trends provides an interesting picture of the relative search-worthiness of the terms.
Looking at Trends
Comparing the following two graphs, note that the News Reference Volume, (measured on the bottom graph) shows the term "climate change" was much more active in the news than "foreclosure". However, the main differences are seen in what people in America have been searching for, compared with the whole world. The first graph shows the trend of all searches across the world for the relevant terms. The second show the trend for America. What this clearly shows is that "foreclosure" was almost exclusively an American search term in 2007, while Americans searched for the term "climate change" approximately four times less frequently. Read more after the jump... read more »
While we worry about foreclosures and the price of gas, it seems like there is a disaster unfolding in China that is almost un-reported in the West.
Snow disaster leaves 1.6 mln people frostbitten in NW China province _English_Xinhua
Severe snow disasters have left 1.65 million people snowblind and frostbitten, 500,000 livestock and wildlife dead and 3.1 million others on verge of starvation in Tibetan prefectures of northwestern Qinghai Province. Since October last year, consecutive low temperature had gripped the province. The temperature plunged to minus 36.3 degrees centigrade, the record lowest in January in the province, said the provincial meteorological bureau.
I'm sceptical of anything published in China, but this one is troubling. Check out some of the photos and video on this page. Sure it's propaganda, but the scale of effort required is huge.
To me this sounds far worse than the New Orleans disaster of a few years ago, but being in China... well it doesn't make the news unless it's a nuclear test right?
Technorati Tags: China, snow, weather, snowblind, frostbite, Qinghai, Tibet, Tibetan, New Orleans, propaganda
The next ten years will say a lot about the provincial and federal support for healthcare facilities in rural areas.
With the average age of the population increasing, something needs to be done to ensure that adequate healthcare for the elderly is available in rural communities. It is not appropriate to suggest that elderly residents should have to move away from their hometown to find a bed in a care facility or hospital that caters to common elderly issues.
The Situation in the States
A recent article from down in the states points out how much investment has been pumped into the health care system in many states. We're talking billions of dollars in upgrades and new construction. This is a massive turn around from the seventies on, where there had been a decline in many areas in healthcare infrastructure spending.
The most significant expansion and replacement of U.S. hospitals since the post-World War II building spree continues to fuel a red-hot construction market. With hundreds of additional projects in the planning stages, it’s a trend that’s expected to last through the rest of the decade.
Read more after the jump... read more »
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