Last night’s RCMP release:
Lunenburg District RCMP are investigating two suspicious deaths in Mahone Bay.
On January 5th at approximately 1:05 p.m., Lunenburg District RCMP responded to a request to check on two people at a home on Long Hill Road. Located in Mahone Bay. Police arrived and found the bodies of two adults inside the residence. The deceased are being treated as suspicious and the individuals were known to each other.
The ongoing investigation is being led by the Lunenburg District RCMP, with assistance from the Southwest Nova Major Crime Unit (MCU), the Nova Scotia RCMP Forensic Identification Service (FIS), and the Nova Scotia Coroner’s Office. At this time, there is no evidence to suggest a risk to the public.
We need more information before reaching any final conclusions, but we are concerned that this may fit the pattern of other recent multiple deaths.
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2. pedestrian collision
Halifax Police announced this morning:
Halifax Regional Police are on scene of a vehicle-pedestrian collision at the Victoria Road/Chapel Street intersection in Dartmouth.
An adult pedestrian sustained life-threatening injuries and the intersection will be closed to traffic while the investigation continues. HRP will ask people to avoid the area and seek alternative routes.
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3. Drones, alien visits, plane crashes, and human failures
There is currently an obsession with UFOs in the United States, especially in New Jersey, with people, including many people who should know better, claiming they are being spied on by the U.S. military (choose your choice). nation or extraterrestrial civilization. The cause of these concerns is an unprecedented awareness of how much light there is in the night sky.
It turns out that some of these lights are stars that have always been there. orion’s belt. Interestingly, when people start looking up at the sky at night, they see something that has intrigued humanity for thousands of years.
More charitably, there has actually been a huge increase in night lighting recently. Elon Musk’s Starlink has launched about 6,000 low-orbit satellites over the past few years and has plans to launch tens of thousands more. Most of us have seen a satellite or spacecraft before. The first thing I saw was Skylab (I don’t remember seeing Apollo orbiting, but I may have seen it.) But those were unique events. No more.
When I vacationed in a Newfoundland park in September, far from urban light pollution and blessed with surprisingly clear skies (for Newfoundland), dozens of Starlink satellites were visible. I watched it track in the sky. Debates about the social utility of satellites aside, they completely ruin the nighttime experience for both casual viewers like me and astronomers alike.
Commercial and recreational drones are also proliferating.
Yes, there’s a lot more to the night sky. More lights. But it’s really a stretch to make the leap from “There’s more light in the sky” to “Aliens are here.”
I hope that in my lifetime, humans will have the first clear evidence of extraterrestrial life. Telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope collect data that leads to spectroscopic analyzes of exoplanets’ atmospheres, revealing complex mixtures of molecules and elements that most likely result from life processes. Presumably, this would mean that many planets within a hundred light years of Earth have at least microbes. There is no mention of the possibility of an industrial society capable of intelligent life or interstellar travel. But if life is found elsewhere, smart people could find a way to find someone who might someday talk.
It is unlikely that the first evidence of an extraterrestrial civilization will be that they show up on the White House lawn, and even less likely that they will play a cat-and-mouse game of flying around without revealing their presence. Even Jane Goodall showed up as a chimpanzee.
Anyway, to the dismay of many readers, I regularly read Civil Aviation Daily Reporting System (CADORS) reports on Canadian aviation accidents. As someone who is irrationally afraid of flying, please understand that these accident reports give me peace of mind. Aviation safety protocols and practices make airplanes incredibly safe. However, the fear of flying does not diminish at all. Please consult my manufacturer.
I have been reading CADORS for many years and have seen many pilots report recreational drones flying dangerously near airports or at illegal altitudes. This comes with a slight risk. In theory, a drone could get sucked into a jet engine and cause damage (even birds can). But drones are a daily occurrence.
And sometimes planes crash. As was the case at Halifax Airport on December 28th. Very little has been written about it since then, which is odd. 77 people almost died! I think I could have done more reporting myself, but I was busy. And when I wrote about it, I was attacked for saying something I didn’t say.
No, I did not say that Halifax Airport is less safe than other airports. I said there are too many accidents in Halifax, but one is too many. I did not compare it to other airports or cities. I did not incriminate anyone at the airport or anyone on the plane that crashed (although the Swissair pilot…)
I readily admit that my fear of flying is irrational, but I still get attacked when I write about it. For someone who writes about their irrational fear of flying, it makes me wonder if other people have irrational fears too.
What harm am I doing by writing about my irrational fear of flying? What harm am I doing?
In addition to that, I’m interested in system failures in general. As I say, the aviation complex has put this concern first and continues to continually look at and criticize itself in a frank and honest way and perhaps do the best in all complex systems. I am. This is good.
Consider that there are countless other disasters. For example, the immediate cause of the 9/11 attack was 19 men with box cutters. But they would not have succeeded had it not been for widespread system failures, in which the intelligence community was unable to identify the threat and respond appropriately to it. Airport security failure. Failure of national foreign policy. and so on.
Similarly, the direct cause of the mass murder in Nova Scotia in April 2020 was a mad, evil man. But there was also societal disregard for intimate partner violence, which allowed this monster to become more violent and less restrained over time. There were police failures years before and even during the actual incident. Many more people died due to the failure of the RCMP communications station. A failure occurred in the emergency alert process. Police aircraft were not available. And on and on.
Horrible events don’t just happen. Layers of human failure cause the event and then amplify it. This is endlessly fascinating to me. It allows us to tell stories and learn how humans work.
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4. Transportation and transportation
Traffic is chaotic this morning, perhaps due to a pedestrian accident on Victoria Road, but also due to a crash reported on the Halifax side of MacDonald Bridge. It only takes one or two accidents to jam the entire urban car network.
Blame urban population growth; Andrew Lam reports to CBCbut also:
About three-quarters of the time in Halifax, people use cars to get where they want to go. [Dal prof Ahsan Habib] Said. He called it an “unhealthy” ratio.
“I don’t think our travel times are competitive compared to cars,” he says.
“If it’s not competitive, people won’t use public transport.”
it’s been 4 years or more That’s since the HRM Council approved two rapid transit projects aimed at keeping Haligonians moving efficiently. The bus project includes four routes that run every 10 minutes, with dedicated bus lanes in some areas.
But progress has stalled because the state and federal governments have not announced funding for it. Without that money, the city cannot move forward with bus rapid transit.
The state and federal governments announced this in March. Financing new Bedford commuter ferrywhich is part of the rapid transit plan.
“We’re reaching kind of a tipping point…I think a city our size is going to really need rapid transit to keep moving as we grow.” . [Mike] Mr. Connors, HRM Transportation Planning Manager.
As I have previously pointed out, the state’s Green Climate Change and almost all other long-term planning documents are focused on the “modal split,” or the proportion of people traveling by different modes of transportation (car, auto, transit). It is based on unforeseen changes. transportation, cycling, walking). This means that as the population grows, states should build more highways to serve more cars.
In fact, as we’re about to demonstrate with the Burnside Expressway, building new highways increases traffic, not reduces it. The same goes for the announced BiHi expansion. Where do you think the extra cars from new or expanded highways will end up? Yes, they’re added on top of already congested surface roads.
What is needed is to reduce the proportion of the population that uses cars for transportation and to increase the proportion of the population that uses public transport. That can only be achieved by adding more buses and ferries, running them more frequently, and expanding the system. That would cost the kind of money currently being spent on highway expansion.
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5. Please sit by me, Halifax man.
I noticed
I’m really working
In fact, I spend almost every waking moment researching and writing. Frankly, I’m betting that stepping away from daily reporting will pay big dividends in the coming weeks. And, of course, it’s the first time in a very long time that I’ve been really excited about work. But that means the Morning File I write during that time won’t have much news content and will be more frivolous than usual. I hope all my readers don’t lose their patience with me. Please wait.
The rest of the examiner staff will be very helpful in picking up my slack. I am very grateful for that.
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government
city
Police Commission – Special Meeting (Monday, 1pm – 4pm, HEMDCC meeting space and online) — agenda
state
There are no meetings
On campus
NSCAD
today
opening reception (Monday, 5:30 p.m., Anna Leonowens Gallery) — Suzanne Pare trace;Lili Maud Dobels bullet points;Grayson LeBlanc’s Spilling my vibrant insides. Ellie Ryan’s sorry
tomorrow
artist talk (Tuesday, 1 p.m., Gallery 2B, Anna Leonowens Gallery) — Grayson LeBlanc discusses Let my insides overflow with vigora combination of painting and textiles that explores the artist’s personal identity and connection to New Brunswick’s four-wheel trails.
at the port
halifax
04:30: atlantic oceanro-ro container sails from Fairview Cove to New York
07:00: nord rinCargo ship arrives at Pier 9 from Jacksonville, Florida
08:15: Vivian Cheri Da container ship departing Pier 42 for Reykjavik, Iceland
14:30: Americaa container ship sailing from Pier 41 to New York.
15:30: A storkcontainer ship (145,251 tons), arrives at Pier 41 from New York
17:00: Phrygian Octaa cargo ship arrives at Fairview Cove from Moa, Cuba.
cape breton
There are no arrivals or departures.
footnote
I don’t have anything.
