rain man dies

The Savant (Kim Peek) who inspired the character in the movie Rain Man has died at the age of 58.

CBC has a good story on him along with many other media outlets. 

 

Who the hell is Fred Rouse?

Who the hell is Fred Rouse?.

Everywhere I go , I read about Fred Rouse and Outside the Lines....  

It turns out that I shouldn't really care. 

From Wikipedia:

Fred Rouse (born December 17, 1984) is a wide receiver for Concordia College, formerly of the Lincoln High School, Florida State University, and UTEP football teams. Declared that he would be the first player to jump straight from the High School level to the NFL. He projected himself as a 4th round pick. On January 20, 2006, it was announced that Rouse and offensive lineman Cornelius Lewis were kicked off the team for what was claimed as "conduct detrimental to the welfare of the football team" by FSU head coach Bobby Bowden. He has often been compared with Randy Moss both athletically and personally. He is gifted with spectacular speed and ability and is a decent target, but his lack of focus also made Bowden furious (also similar to Moss). During Rouse's sole NCAA season, he was in the Seminoles' starting lineup at the 2006 Orange Bowl against Penn State.
In 2006, Rouse was charged, along with former teammate A.J. Nicholson, with breaking into the apartment of former teammate Lorenzo Booker and stealing electronic equipment. Rouse has since transferred to UTEP, where he sat out the 2006 season, due to NCAA transfer rules.
On March 21, 2008 , UTEP head coach Mike Price announced that Rouse would not be returning to the team for the 08-09 Football season for personal reasons. Rouse transferred to his current school, Concordia College, located in Selma, Alabama. The school has an enrollment of 500, isn't a FCS program or Division II or Division III or even an NAIA school. They are 1-1 this season and Rouse, now a 6-foot-4, 210-pounder who is majoring in business management, has caught a pair of TDs.

Google Goggles - OMG!

This makes my brain hurt. In a good way.  Google Goggles is a new google labs offering for android moble phones. Its a visual search engine. Take a picture of an object, place, storefront, etc and google will use its massive computing grid to return results regarding that object.

Here's the proof direct from Google Google developers.



Can you imagine where this will go?  They already do facial recognition ala PicasaWeb Albums.  I can imagine an app where you descreetly take video of your day and then at the end of the day, tag all the people you met, or at least get a refferance tag the next time you see them. 

"Jane Doe...  You saw her last in the mall on November 7th.. You don't know her, but 3 of your friends do."

Or  "Bob Wilson...  Senior Engineer, ABC Corp. You met him last year at a sales confrence. He likes to drinkYingLing "

The law enforcement applications are endless too.

Every patrol car, ambulance and firetruck  could have a camera on it, and stream information back to a central location to quickly track vehicles for amber alerts.


At any rate, even just on the comercial use proposed by google today, its stellar.

I'm torn now about my future iphone purchase...

Way to go Google!

Leave Tiger Alone!

The poor bugger...  Instantly famous worldwide, rich beyond comprehension, and... he's human.

I'm not entirely sure why everyone is so pumped to see him fall.  Is it because he has had such a clean image? Because he has represented diversity in sport, because he's succeeded at such a  high level?

I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I do know that I can't buy groceries without seeing his face on every rag, or turn on the TV. Even ESPN, Sportsnet, TSN, whatever without seeing his face and name there too.

I'm sure every floozie who ever copped a feel of the tigery one is coming out of the woodwork to get paid.

No wonder he crashed his car...


Poor bastard.

Just leave him alone.

Top10 list.

I've been poking at google trends...


Here's the current top10 search list.

1.     lil wayne murdered
2.     jeffrey canada
3.     snl tiger woods skit
4.     harlem children s zone
5.     geoffrey canada
6.     bcs bowls
7.     flozell adams
8.     champs sports bowl
9.     guess who s coming to dinner
10.     bowl selection 2009

Some pretty typical stuff...  College bowls, Tiger woods. There are a few that I'm not familiar with.

Jeffrey Canada, Geoffrey, and flozell adams...   I'm going to dig into them a little more.

Amazing technology.  All hail google.

Craptastic! Winter storm warning for Brooks - Strathmore - Vulcan continued

Its a freakin' lovely day.  

Snow blowing snow and strong winds today and into Saturday. This is a warning that dangerous winter weather conditions are imminent or occurring in these regions. Monitor weather conditions...Listen for updated statements.

An Arctic cold front sweeping southeastward across Southern Alberta is bringing snow, strong winds and blowing snow. Snowfall accumulations of 10 to 20 centimetres can be expected in many regions by Saturday morning. The front will also be accompanied by strong north to northwest winds resulting in widespread blowing snow and near zero visibilities. Winds near 50 km/h and the falling snow will result in sustained blizzard conditions this evening from the Hanna Coronation region south to Cypress Hills region and then west into the Lethbridge region. Conditions will slowly begin to improve from the northwest early Saturday morning.

In the wake of this cold front much cooler air will settle over the province on Saturday.

I've got your new jaws

How'd you like to do extrication with these bad boys? Click the link to see the EBAY auction.

The new guy gets to be the pump operator...  Glamorous!  Asking price $2600.

Wow...

I'm a pretty prepared guy, and have a few bedtime routines to make sure I am prepared for the eventual 3AM fire call outs we occasionally get. I often consider myself more prepared to leap into action than the average guy.

This guy CLICK HERE takes it to a whole new level.

Pink Streamlight flashlight / keychain

Here's a nice little stocking stuffer for the female firefighter / EMT in your life.

Streamlight is one of my favorite manufacturers of all things light.

Enjoy.

Year end

As 2009 wraps up, I look back at some of the events of the year.

We had some doozies in the MVA department. Semi vs van, t-bone, rollover, rear-end. I'd have to look back to be certain, but I think we ended up having to move actually metal 10 times or more.

We made entry into 3 structure fires. Something I'm finally feeling comfortable to do with our team of firefighters.

Water rescues, hazardous materials, CO alarms, medical assists, and then... grass fires.

All in all it was another busy year. Call volumes are up again this year over last, and we may hit the magic 200 number for call volume.

And we learned some lessons the hard way this year. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt. Proper PPE use, Hazard awareness at size up time, and a few lapses of concentration all could have proved costly.

What if I got hit by a bus?

Have you ever heard the expression What if I get hit by a bus tommorow? Its usually used when talking about work and cross training etc.

I've been more concerned recently about that. 4 times in the past week, I went to calls where people were living their life, and all of a sudden. They are getting strapped to a back board and for most having the first helicopter ride ever.

A couple were drunk, and as far as I'm concerned got exactly what they should have expected. Those ones get little sympathy from me.

Its the ones who were just living their life, and bam they are now in hospital with many months of recovery ahead of them.

And, a friend and FF recently was involved in a traumatic accident and is too going to be on his back for months...

It really has made me start to question my own mortality. Driving down the hiway with my kids now results in my being over cautious about the other folks on the road. Maybe its PTSD symptoms. I don't know.

What I do know for sure is that we'd all better have our ducks in a row. Financially, personally, professionally. Make peace with yourself now as you may not have a chance to do it later.


Deep huh?


Alright. Back to adrenaline, lights and sirens.

p.s. this post was not proof read... it just kind of spewed out. Maybe its therapy. If there are grammar errors, too bad. Move along, nothing to see here.

Math

I did some rough calculations today.

Here's what I came up with.

Our service area is approximately 450 square miles or 1200 square kilometers.

We have 25 miles of Transcanada Hiway 1
We have 19 miles of hiway 24
We have 8 miles of hiway 21
We have 15 miles of hiway 564
We have 20 miles of hiway 817
We have 13 miles of hiway 901

We have a recreational lake (Eagle Lake) and the Bow River

We have the Hamlets of Carseland, Cheadle, Namaka, Nightengale, Lyalta.

We have the golf course developments at Speargrass and Lakes of Muirfield With more planned at Oxbow golf course and another major development at Eagle lake.

We are on the flight path for the international airport in Calgary

There is major commercial / light industrial development ongoing as part of the Hiway 1 area structure plan.

I'm struck when I think about the grand scale of it all by the massive potential for bad things to happen. I'm also amazed by our ability to adapt with such limited resources.

GRASS FIRE equipment.

Grass fire containment tools

In no specific order, here are some of the tools we use to fight grass fires along with some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Grass backpacks

2 Varieties of packpacks. Hard and Soft.

Hard backpacks are made from Ridgid ABS plastic.Soft backpacks are make from vinvyl/plastic. Both have nylo straps and are meant to be worn on the back. They have a large opening on top for quick filling and a very simple pump mechanism attatched to a short hose. Best suited for difficult to reach areas such as coulee bottoms . Very effective on light fuels.

Fire brooms/ swatters
effective on slow burning light fuel fires such as grass / summerfallow., not tremendiously effective in running grass fires or in brush areas. Broom bristles are made from bamboo and are meant to be soaked so tehy don't burn. The trouble is keeping them moist for a long duration results in rot.


structural hoseline

The structural hoseline generally a 38mm (1.5 inch) line with a variable flow nozzle. This gives flexibility to apply a large volume of water (60 - 125 GPM) and manouverability to reach deep into brush stands. When combines with pump and roll capabilities, the structural attack line can move up the flank of a slow moving fire with a firefighter on foot.

Bush buggy

The bush buggy is our most flexible attach unit. Equiped with 200 -300 gallons of water and a small potable pump, these trucks can attack a running grass fire from the passenger seat, and can also be used as a platform from which to fight brush fires on foot. With 10 - 24 GPM nozzles, they conserve water for light fuels, but have enough punch to cool larger fuels. The buggys are entirely dependant on the water reserves of the tankers (tenders). The could draft water froma static source, but are not configured to do so.

Pump and roll (monitor)

Our larger tanker (tender) apparatus are equiped with pump and roll capabilities and either a remote control monitor, or fixed nozzels. The remote monitor is the 'most' effective of these two configurations. It can be used to patrol road ditches which is usually our fire break but can also be used in dynamic situaltions such as brush piles etc. It can be used to apply a large volume of water at 20 - 30 feet . The fixed nozzel is usefull only for patroling firebreaks (roads).

I wonder...

Some weeks, the pager goes and goes and goes.... others, nothing.

It can get to the point where you get tired of going. MVC, MVC, CO alarm, MVC, wild goose chase, MVC, MVC, MVC, MVC.... etc etc etc...

On the average day, the same number of people are moving around the county, working, shopping, traveling. How is it that we can do 10 - 20 calls some weeks and then see nothing for weeks on end?

Phases of the moon? weather? payday? economy? luck? fate?

If you have a theory, I'd love to hear it.

I'm going to bed tonight knowing that this dry spell will end... Maybe not tonight, maybe not tomorrow, but some day soon and for the rest of my life..

09 Group photo's

Here are the Carseland and Strathmore Rural Fire Department Fire Prevention week photo's from 2008.

Streamlight Survivor

One of my favorite bits of equipment purchased and installed on our front line pumper is the 5 gang charger with Streamlight Survivor flashlights.

The flashlights are compact and durable. They clip onto a radio pocket or hook into a carabiner. The beam from the lights is bright and direct. We've had them in service for 2.5 years and haven't had to replace the rechargeable battery cells.

Because the 5 gang charger is always plugged in via shore power, there are always 5 freshly charged effective lights at your fingertips.

You can see these lights and others at your local distributor. Check them out online at www.streamlight.com.

Fit5

Some pretty cool technology here.


This article text is from Scientific American

A new grenadelike gadget—designed to quickly extinguish flames in small quarters, thereby limiting injury to victims as well as firefighters—is becoming an important part of firemen's arsenals.

More than 37 fire departments along the U.S. east coast now carry Vancouver-based ARA Safety's FIT-5 (for fire interruption technology). The device, available to firefighters since December, is a means of knocking down or even extinguishing fires in rooms, basements and attics. The FIT-5 (price tag: around $1,300) is a nine-pound (four-kilogram) red disk that resembles a land mine and is deployed like a grenade: A firefighter pulls its cord and tosses the disk into the area engulfed in flames; within seconds the FIT-5 releases a wispy cloud of potassium carbonate, a flame retardant that suppresses combustion and disrupts fire at the molecular level.

The company says the device can fully extinguish a class B (fuel-based) fire in a room 2,100 cubic feet (60 cubic meters) or less and reduce fire temperatures from 1,000 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (540 to 150 degrees Celsius) in less than 10 seconds. The FIT-5 is also designed to control class A (wood-based) fires enough so that firefighters can douse them with water. Firefighters in New York State and New Jersey have successfully contained three fires (in a room on the third floor of a house and two in basements) with the FIT-5 since it hit the market.

The FIT-5 is designed to be most effective in a contained space—the larger the area, the less effective, which is why it is not a good candidate for squelching, say, wildfires.

Most handheld fire extinguishers sold at hardware stores for home use are pressurized with nitrogen or carbon dioxide to propel powdery potassium bicarbonate, liquid water or a fluorocarbon at a fire. In addition to allowing firefighters to control fires from a safe distance, the FIT-5 could also replace halon fluorocarbons, an effective fire-fighting tool until they were banned in 1994 after it was discovered that they destroy Earth's ozone layer.

Because halon displaces oxygen, it extinguished electrical, grease and other fires that water alone could not, says Robert Kaul, ARA Safety's technical director. When a firefighter approaches a fire and pulls the rip cord located on the side of the FIT-5 device, this generates a spark of heat that leads to a thermal reaction within the FIT-5. Within 10 seconds the container releases a white cloud of potassium carbonate aerosol that expands to fill an enclosure (room, basement, attic). A FIT-5 grenade is unlikely to leak and works when wet because it is not pressurized and has a sealed outer casing that keeps moisture out. In addition, even if the rip cord is not pulled, the device will automatically dispense the when placed in temperatures exceeding 500 degrees F (260 degrees C).

"Once the FIT-5 is done, you're left with potassium carbonate powder, which can be vacuumed or swept clean," says Michael Gardner, ARA Safety's director of marketing.

Of course, potassium carbonate, used in the production of soap and glass, must be handled carefully; it can be dangerous if inhaled (by irritating the respiratory tract and causing coughing and shortness of breath) or swallowed, potentially damaging the gastrointestinal tract and causing nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The odorless chemical can also severely irritate the eyes or skin if it comes in contact with either.

Andrew Schmidt, chief of Morris County, N.J.'s Jefferson Township Fire Department (about 45 miles northwest of New York City) used a FIT-5 in April to contain a basement fire in the nearby town of West Milford. Because most of the fire departments in the area are volunteer, Schmidt was unable to marshal much of a firefighting squad at 3 P.M., when most of his volunteers were working their day jobs. On arriving at the burning basement, he broke one of the windows and tossed in an FIT-5, which held the flames in check until the fire trucks arrived.

"When you don't have a truck, and you don't have water, you've got to do something," he says, adding that West Milford ended up using less than 200 gallons (750 liters) of water to extinguish a fire that easily could have required 6,000 gallons (22,700 liters) to put out. Schmidt was so impressed that he has become trainer and consultant for ARA Safety.

The company is now exploring developing a larger version of the device and hopes to within the next year offer a fixed system for homes and businesses that could be mounted on a wall or ceiling like a smoke detector and switched on when needed. This would be particularly useful in rooms containing lots of computers or other electronic equipment that would be ruined if water was used to douse the flames.

Google Latitude in the fire service?

Not all fire departments have multi-million dollar budgets and have the luxury of gps enabled communication devices for their trucks and responders.

Google may have come to the rescue with its Latitude service which uses cel phone location services to display users locations on a map in near real time.

Here's how you might use it for the fire service.

1. Your responders could enable the service and update their location and availability status for responding to calls. Officers could know at a glance who is available for calls.

2. your trucks could each have a cel phone in them with the service running. Dispatch could track them via the web interface.


Here's what google says:

"With Google Latitude, you can:

* See where your friends are and what they are up to
* Quickly contact them with SMS, IM, or a phone call
* Control what your location is and who gets to see it

Enjoy Google Latitude on your phone, PC, or both.

From your mobile phone - View your friends' locations and status messages and share yours with them. (Supported phones)

From your computer - View your friends' locations and status messages on a full screen even without a compatible phone or data plan. Click here to see your friends from your PC."



You can visit the latitude site at http://m.google.com/latitude


Canadians (and users from other countires?) can use the link above as well to access the service. If you try to use it via a google.ca address you are blocked.

Pride & Ownership: The Fire Department Photographer

From Fire Engineering.


An interesting interview.

Firefighter Podcasts -Training the Fire Service
Pride & Ownership: The Fire Department Photographer

Chief Lasky interviews Chief Gordon Nord of the Lyons (IL) Fire Department about fireground photography and how to get started taking pictures of firefighting operations.

* Format: mp3
* Length: 59 min(s)
* Size: 0 kb
* Date: 2/15/09

PLAY

DOWNLOAD