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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Jan. 14, 2010
OK, let’s start with a trivia question. Where and
when did the only successful slave rebellion in history take place? No peeking;
the answer will be just a few sentences below. A hint for you: this former
colony of a European former superpower experienced a 13-year revolution
culminating in full independence in 1804. All the while, nation building in the
colonizing country following its own revolution led to neglect of its colonies.
Having lost this island colony as a base of operations in the new world, and
needing cash to fund his war machine, Napoleon (oops, giving it away now)
subsequently sold about one-quarter of the present United States of America to
his buddy Thomas Jefferson. Suddenly the new, small country of former slaves
was alone, with no allies or trading partners and few resources for building a nation.
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Concerned about drinking |
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Written by Johnny Stork
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Jan. 6, 2010 – The small town of Squamish, B.C., has recently been
dealing with the issue, and subsequent media storm, around firefighters consuming alcohol on firefighter property and our mayor's
support of such drinking as a means to retain volunteers and to allow them to "self -medicate" from the stress of their jobs.
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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Dec. 8, 2009
On Sunday I was doing Dad's Taxi duty, waiting in a North
York, Ont., shopping centre parking lot while my daughter attended one of her
lessons. I don't mind these duties a few times a week for piano, theatre, choir
or the track club. There is often a coffee shop or some other place with a WiFi
hotspot, or I can use the time to grab a burger, get some work done on the
computer or just read the newspaper. So I sat in my car with the weekend paper.
I saw a fire apparatus parked on the other side of the lot and noted that it was
parked out of the way of the lot's traffic flow.
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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Nov. 18, 2009
Something I thought was a bit bizarre was on the news this
week from south of the border. The
U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is recommending against women in their 40s
having routine mammograms because false positives can lead to unnecessary
biopsies, while not improving the overall odds of survival. It seemed to be a
step backwards, but this apparently brings the American recommendations in line
with what the Canadian Cancer Society has been saying for some time, which is
that women in their 40s should speak to their doctors about individual breast
cancer risk and whether they should be screened.
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The H1N1 conundrum |
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Written by Laura King
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Nov.
9, 2009
I signed up a couple of weeks ago for e-mail
updates from the regional health authority in Halton, which includes the Town
of Oakville, where
I live. Yesterday, I got an e-mail saying H1N1 clinics had been cancelled
because Halton is out of the vaccine.
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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Oct. 21, 2009
In an earlier piece, I presented several instances
of obsolete documents and procedures that were still in place, and explored the
consequences of not keeping such things up to date. I finished with, “Remember,
if you consistently fly under the radar for years you should remember that the
trees beneath you keep growing taller.” So, to avoid the treetops, you either
have to fly higher or cut down the trees.
I’ll leave the choice of altitude to you; today I’m a lumberjack (and
I’m OK).
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Flashpoint blog: Sept. 2009 |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Sept. 23, 2009 - A few years ago in Indianapolis I had the honour of
being included in a panel discussion on reducing firefighter injuries and
fatalities on the fireground.
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Flashpoint blog |
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Written by Peter Sells
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July 21, 2009,
I remember the booklet that used to sit in a box behind the captain and driver in every truck when I first came on the job. It was a set of procedures to be followed in the event of an actual or pending nuclear attack on the city. We used to joke about it periodically. One of the strategies recommended was to evacuate the apparatus and all related equipment out of the city to a specified parking lot of a shopping mall about 45 minutes north. That way the apparatus and crew would survive the blast and remain intact to respond back into the smoking ruin that used to be Toronto.
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