. . . 70mph! Nonsense!

That's well under the base speed on the QEII or Highway 63 on a Friday night (Alberta).

FYI: Notes for the understandably confused -

--- QEII is the fast pipe between Edmonton and Calgary which, every weekend, appear to exchange urban populations at a rate limited only by asphalt, wind resistance, and whatever protective limits are programmed into engines.

--- Highway 63 is the deadly route between Edmonton and Ft McMurray (oil mines)

The RCMP set up speed traps but it's a bit like swatting snowflakes in a blizzard.

70mph same same 113 km/h

In Alberta, you can usually travel at 10km/h over the limit (100 or 110 on most highways) without getting a ticket. On the QEII where the limit is 110, if I travel at 120 km/h then I have to stick in the slow lane while vehicle after vehicle passes me rapidly.

Alberta has the second highest provincial fatality rate in Canada but pales in comparison with Saskatchewan which is 50% higher.

Yukon T. and NWT have double Alberta's already high rate.

Yeah, I agree. I did that sort of thing for a long time and it has many downsides to counter the upsides. A lot of folk make it work though but there has to be serious emotional resilience, life pattern flexibility and commitment by both partners. Kids do fine as long as they see overall stability and don't get forgotten about.

Again, companies do what they need to attract workers into positions that make serious demands on their lives. When a whole community lives that way, the community culture gets weird.

Not a one-company town . . . a mining town with lots of big players.

The similarities are:

- lots of money and opportunities for multiple players (companies). Think of Silicon Valley as a huge mining operation. There is a rich field of opportunity for players that get it right.
- many of the workers plan to work long hours and sacrifice personal time to make a bundle and become financially independent early in life
- the companies do a what they can to facilitate the 'nose to the grindstone' crowd
- the community suffers (in my opinion) from this money-work-golden-payoff culture

One of the things I noticed in San Jose (haven't been there for 10 years) was the way the community shut down early in the evening. Hard to find a place to eat after 9pm. Maybe that has changed but a restaurant manager said nobody goes out late because they are all up early. Ft Mac is the same except for the yahoo/cowboy bars. When the restaurants close says a lot about how much leisure time people in a community are allowing themselves. Also means no after-show late crowds.

Just saying that the clean living Silicon Valley industry has numerous attributes usually associated with the dirty end of the industrial spectrum: mining towns. Busing workers is part of it.
Boom/bust cycling is another.

Not perfect comparison but curious I think . . .

Oil sands workers in Ft. McMurray.

The plants send out buses to pick up workers early in the morning, pretty much door to door service. Sys admins, truck drivers, and execs. BTW: truck drivers (big trucks - 400 ton) are highly valued, more so than lowly sys admins/IT workers.

Buses come early and suburb house lights are all out by 10pm. Next day same same all over again.

Lots of money to be made and not a lot of folk believe they are in a long term position.

As much as I am in favour of eliminating environmental lead where possible, at least some research shows that firing range lead does not migrate into the surrounding environment or leach into ground water; it basically stays put. Containing and covering may be sufficient for rehabilitation purposes although leaving the lead in place may not be a good thing in the long run. You never know when there will be a price to be paid because of an unforeseen issue.

Like my mom told me: "Always wear clean underwear in case you die in an accident".

You might look at a report from 2004 from Virginia tech, although I don't know what bias the researchers brought to the study:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/11/041104005801.htm

If a complete cleanup is required then it can be costly. A 15 hectare site near Edmonton cost about 6.5M CAD to fix up in 2006.

BTW: That range had been in use for over 20 years and there was no spread of contamination off of the site on the surface or into the ground/water table.

Just sayin'

Pictures and official description at

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19869999-1

The explanation given is not exactly correct and likely is the narrative the pilot gave to keep from losing his license/job, or perhaps other consequences given the nature of the regime at the time. The pictures appear to have been taken some time after the accident (rust on panels) and it is likely not the original location. Looks like it was dragged away.

No dependency on computers necessary for people to do stupid things. We blame automation but incompetence, failure to follow procedures, complacency, and dysfunctional cultural norms (ethnic or professional) are often a major contributor to disasters.

At a desert oil production station (Gialo) in Libya in the 80's a pilot crashed an LAA F27 passenger plane carrying field workers when he attempted a landing on the old runway instead of the new one.

The day was perfectly clear: not a cloud in the sky. Visibility was extremely good. Virtually no wind.

The old runway had been dusted over with crushed white Saharan calichi which made it fade into the surrounding background of light tan hardpan and sand. To further discourage use of the old runway, loads of rock had been dumped in piles down the centre end to end.

The new runway was inline with and off the end of the old. Brand spanking new asphalt, black as midnight, complete with high contrast runway markings and looking like big black stripe on a pale background. A blindman in a snowstorm could not miss the dang thing; it fairly screamed LAND HERE.

The NOTAMs were updated properly and anyone flying into Gialo would see the runway info as the first item.

Nonetheless, the pilot made his usual approach over the station like he had done many many times previous and did not realize the mistake until he was just about to touch down. Pulled up but a wheel caught a rock pile and he pranged the nose into the old strip. Go figure.

No one was killed and as far as I saw, they all walked off. One fella (a Brit of some flavour) had been sleeping and stepped out saying 'What's all the fuss about?". We turned him about and, gazing at the bent props, crushed nose and broken gear, he said: "Felt like a regular landing to me."