The Squamidian Report – Mar. 25 / 06
Issue #199
Also in this issue:
Hi All,
As pretty well everyone that listens to the news knows, BC Ferries had one of their ships go down. It’s laying on the bottom in 1400 ft of water south of Prince Rupert in the Inside Passage, just off of Gill Island. This is the same ‘Inside Passage’ that the cruise ships travel. The ferry that sank was the one that services the whole coast from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island up to Prince Rupert and over to the Charlottes. Luckily, this is not tourist season. There was just over 100 passengers and crew on board. In mid summer there would have been 700 passengers on it.
The villages up that way depended on the ferry to deliver groceries and other consumer goods. Within 12 hours of the ship going down, all the stores on the Queen Charlotte Islands had sold out of beer, closely followed by the selling out of other necessities due to panic buying. Then there is the problem of containing the environmental damage. The ship’s diesel tanks were full and there were 16 or so vehicles with gas tanks and other fluids on board. The ferry went down just after midnight on Wednesday morning. By mid day there was a large oil slick on the surface.
The residents of a small fishing village answered the distress call with their fishing boats and other craft within half an hour of hearing it. They got there in time to see the ferry go under. It took the coast guard a couple of hours to get there. This is by the way, a good example of why the cruise ships run in packs. There are always a couple of then on the same route and within a few minutes of each other. The only thing big enough and fast enough and close enough in those remote waters to launch a rescuer for a cruise ship in distress is another cruise ship. The military and coast guard are just too small and too far away. Had it not been for the fact that a fishing village was near by and that the people of that village monitor the radio around the clock, the people who had been on the ferry would have been bobbing around in their live boats for quite a while.
All the ships in the BC ferry fleet are around 40 years old. The sorry state of the fleet can be directly traced to the Glen Clark NDP government that ruled here for over a decade and tried to build the now infamous ‘fast ferries’ as a shrine to themselves while the fleet went unattended. All they ended up doing was bankrupt the province, making future replacement and upgrades to the fleet almost impossible.
The investigation into the sinking will be difficult as the ship is too deep to be pulled back up or even visited by anything other than a deep submersible type diving rig. They may be able to observe the damaged hull but they will not be able to retrieve any electronics or records that might explain how or why they may have been off course. They will not be able to retrieve the bodies of the two passengers that are unaccounted for and most likely still in a cabin on the boat.
The impact of the sinking will last a long time. The best BC Ferries can do is get a smaller slower ship onto that run in a week or so. However, the small towns on the Queen Charlottes depend on summer tourists for a good deal of their livelihood and the smaller ship will only be able to make that run every third day instead of each day. The small packing plants and other industries on those islands as well as scattered along the mainland coast have lost their ability to ship their product out to market. The remote north coast just got a lot more remote.
*
More Spam problems! Here we are on the brink of our 200th issue which will be next Saturday and I’m sitting here fuming about having my Email address flagged as a Spam source by one of those poorly thought out black-list organizations. This time its one that controls what gets onto the servers that serve Karin in Melbourne’s ISP. This has happened before as well with some other address destinations on our newsletter list. Spam filters often use key words and content as a way of identifying the stuff. But a broader and far less intelligent method is to simply assume any Email with multiple addresses must be Spam. This is what many of the blacklist sites do. They arbitrarily label an Email as coming from a Spam source if it contains multiple addresses. So my Email address has been black listed and I cannot send to or even reply to Karin in Melbourne. And there is nothing I can do about it. What is just as frustrating is that this method will not stop most Spam, they tend to find ways around it like setting up new source addresses. It does however stop small family newsletters, company information and newsletters and so on. The whole thing is as dumb as saying that if the last car to run a red light had 3 people in it, all cars with 3 people must run red lights. Go figure.
So unless Karin can affect a correction at her end, I can no longer send her the Squamidian. She would have to talk to the tech people at her ISP and convince them that we are not Spam so they could in turn have the blacklist entity lift the blockage. She can still read it and any other issues for that matter on my web site, and she can reply to something that catches her interest by sending out her own Email to those she may wish to include. She can even reply to a reply (if that initial reply included her address) as long as it came from an address other than mine. She can send in a column to be included in the Squamidian, as she has done this week. I simply cannot send her anything via my Email address. I can send to her through a web-based account such as a Hotmail or Yahoo Email, but this whole thing is so unnecessary and frustrating.
Spam and spammers need to be dealt with but by using logic and sound methods, not knee jerk ideas that penalize the rest of us. So there.
doug
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Hi All,
Well, I was reading the headlines of the Age online this morning, and there is a lot of interesting stuff on there. As you may know, Melbourne is hosting the Commonwealth Games, so, some of the headlines relate to that. One headline: Seven more athletes vanish caught my eye right away.
I haven't read this one yet, but can imagine what is happening. The way I see it, these people saw what a great country we have here, and they are hiding out, obviously not wanting to return to their own countries. I can fully understand that, because some of these athletes come from very poor lifestyles, whereas Australia would seem like paradise to them. I mean, Melbourne rocks! Not only that, but Melbourne is very multicultural. You see so many different cultures here, it is very colourful and wonderful. I mean, just the diversity in food alone, makes it really great. And considering the many races and religions here, it is amazing that everyone gets along so well.
(PS. correction - I have now read the above article now. I can't expect you to read it, if I wasn't going to read it myself...!) Here's another one that seemed to fit in with my multicultural theme: In the swim of things
I should say, that the weather has been absolutely fantastic since the Commonwealth games, which started last Wednesday. This is saying something, because Melbourne is notorious for it's bad weather. I'm sure you have all heard the saying that goes: Melbourne gets four seasons in one day. We get cold and hot on the same day, and we often get rain, rain and more rain, which is sometimes good, but would have been bad during the games.
It is Queensland which has copped the bad weather this week. Cyclone Larry has caused some really severe damage. I will just add the link to the latest report. Worse yet to come: PM offers grim outlook
I might add that I have seen some of the news coverage on TV, and it is unreal. So many people were left homeless.
Banana plantations and sugar cane have been
wiped out, so they are predicting banana prices will go through the roof for
the next two years. They were already quite expensive to begin with. Will we
still be able to afford to have bananas in our cereal? Suddenly all this talk
about bananas seems rather silly, especially, in light of the people in
Queensland who have lost their homes.
On the other hand, I am hopeful that all will be well. After all, no lives were
lost, and therefore these lives can be rebuilt. It will just take time.
Fortunately, we live in a rich country, where disaster relief funds are readily
available.
This headline caught my eye, Now the bloody Canadians are offended (and made me chuckle), since there has been a bit of controversy about the international ad campaign for tourism Australia, which cost a small fortune to make, and uses the controversial word "bloody" ("Where the bloody hell are you?")
I have heard a bit of a ruckus on the news about it. Critics saying that it's in poor taste, cost too much, waste of tax payer's money, and that it's a gorgeous ad, with beautiful pictures, but will be totally ineffective in enticing people to come here. I beg to differ. I think the word bloody was a stroke of genius. As we all know, that controversy is the best form of advertising. Just ask Madonna.
Ok, moving right along...like I said, the
weather has been great(in Melbourne, that is). Rather a bit coldish in the
mornings, and a pleasant 20 something in the daytime. Very little rain has
happened, which is a miracle in itself for Melbourne. Bad weather could
have ruined the opening ceremonies, much of it having been staged outdoors.
But the visitors to Melbourne are going to get a taste of summer in the
next few days, since it is supposed to go up to 30ish on the weekend. That's
just a tad uncomfortable, but since we've had temps in the 40's during summer, I
think we'll survive.
Well, I am thinking that's enough news for one day. I'm sure Doug will let me know if there is a problem with accessing the links. I am not sure how it works, because I am registered with the Age, and therefore have access to all these articles. But hopefully, by having me send you the link, you will be able to gain access to them.
Well, I hope you all have a great week!
Warm regards, from bloody Australia !
So where the hell are you then??? Come on down unda...
*
Just read this headline, which I found rather amusing. It is an
update on the missing athletes article I sent earlier. I don't know if you want
to add it on as a link, or just ignore it. Sorry to bombard you with so much
information.
Half of Sierra Leone's athletes missing
****
Hello my
fellow Squamidians!
I just
wanted to share something with you that both amuses and befuddles me. I have
been retired as you know for 3 years and 7 months now and had pretty much
resigned myself to the fact that it’s a permanent situation. Well lo and behold
didn’t I get an e-mail a few days ago asking me to drop into the Headquarters
Fire Hall in Waterloo when I had a minute to spare. The message said that there
was something in their possession that had been sent to them to forward to me
from the Ontario Fire Marshal. I finally got a chance to drop in to the office
yesterday and pick up the package. As it turned out, the package contained a
framed wall certificate from the Fire Marshal’s office awarding me official
certification as a “Career Firefighter”. This in accordance with the
requirements of the Ontario Professional Standards Setting Body. It was signed
by the Ontario Fire Marshal himself B A Moyle and was accompanied by a
congratulatory letter from the man himself. I guess it’s nice that the OFM
recognizes me as an accredited professional fire fighter but………wouldn’t you
think he’d have done this while I was still on the job?
Oh well,
I guess I should just be proud that I’ve been deemed worthy of such an award.
This “Certification” program was the brainchild of the wife of B A Moyle to
standardize the training and proficiency of all fire fighters in Ontario. It
was also a project of hers to support her university thesis for which she
earned a PhD in …….. something …. Who knows? I guess after hashing out all the
underlying reasons for the program, it turned out to be worthwhile and has
served to actually improve the skills of our professional fire fighters and
thus afford better emergency protection to all Ontario residents. This program
has been extended to the “Volunteer Depts” in Ontario as well so that it truly
does improve service to all. Needless to say, I was surprised by this late
blooming award but I’m happy that it did come to fruition. We toiled long and
hard to complete all the written and practical courses and exams to achieve
this lever of competence and it is indeed nice to be recognized for our
efforts. I don’t recall the number of courses that were required to be studied
and exams to be written to complete the program but I do know that it was
substantial. As the officer on my crew I had to certify the documentation of
every facet of my fire fighter’s operations. A seemingly endless list of
situations handled eventually by every firefighter in their daily duties had to
be documented by the individual crew member and then co signed by his officer.
Each of the evolutions performed by said fire fighter also had to be
corroborated by an official incident or fire report number so the individual’s
actions could be traced back and double checked by the Standard’s Setting Body.
The whole program took a huge amount of effort and paperwork on behalf of each
individual fire fighter and ended up taking a total of two full years to
complete. We submitted the results of all the exams to the OFM and I believe
that was in the fall of 2001. I retired in the summer of 2002 and to be quite
honest had forgotten all about the program by the time I left the department.
It was a nice surprise to find that it hadn’t been forgotten and all our hard
work was finally being recognized by the Ontario Fire Marshal and his office.
The certification means that theoretically a fire fighter holding this level of
recognition could take his diploma and move to any department in Ontario and do
the same job there with the same level of skills that anyone on the other
department could do. The program was essentially designed in a similar fashion
to Ontario’s apprenticeship skills program. Now as we have an educational step
by step learning and certification program to supply professional licensed
electricians and other trades people, we have the same for our emergency fire
service members. In essence, we have licensed trades people and we have
licensed fire fighters. Standardization is a good thing in most cases and I
think this applies quite so to this profession as well.
Even
knowing that this recognition has come a tad late in my career, it still feels
good to finally have it as part of my resume if I should ever need one again.
LOL!
Well,
that’s about it for this week. Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to
talking to you all again next time in The Ontarion Report.
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
What men
value in this world is not rights but privileges.
H.L.
Mencken 1956
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The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.