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Run silent, run deep |
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Written by Peter Sells
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August 11, 2010
I watched a great movie on TV
earlier this week, U-571. It's a submarine drama involving espionage and
combat, more or less a WW2 version of The Hunt for Red October. There are
several very suspenseful scenes in which the sailors wait in silence, staring
up as the sonar man reports the splashing of depth charges into the water
above. When a scene like this is filmed well, you can feel the tension in your
neck and shoulders as the actors brace themselves.
Boom. Far away and muffled. Boom! Closer,
sharper and rattling the sub. BOOM! Now the sailors are being tossed around as pipes
split, spewing water and fuel under pressure. How close will the next one be? Which
drum of explosives has our name on it?
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Flashpoint |
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Written by Peter Sells
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Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Regular readers will know
that I don’t generally write technical articles, and, despite the
title, this one is no exception. A community in Seattle is in mourning following the deaths of five members of an extended family, ranging in age from five to 22 years, in an apartment fire on Saturday. These tragic incidents happen every month across Canada and the U.S., an unfortunate fact that we know all too well.
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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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Flashpoint blog: September 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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