Random thoughts on recent events -- bombers, gardens, and Greece.

The Winnipeg Bomber

Guido Amsel, 49, faces two counts of attempted murder, one count of aggravated assault, and eight other charges after three bombs were discovered in recent days.

**There is no evidence that I have seen which suggests that Guido has any actual expertise in bomb making yet he was able to build and mail three bombs, one of which reached its destination and exploded. It can’t be that hard. And, yet, it is a very rare event. Again, this suggests that there are VERY few people interested in doing these sorts of things.

The Ottawa Garden

An Ottawa couple received a formal notice from bylaw officers to remove the wooden enclosure surrounding a garden they planted in their front lawn, causing the pair’s frustration to grow faster than their vegetables.

**The fallacy of irrelevancy… I have seen many people (including the couple who own the garden) bring up all sort of irrelevant issues. The City is not against your garden… they are against your hard structure. Your status as a veteran is not relevant. I understand that you like the therapeutic effect of tending a garden and you can… just don’t have a hard structure or build your hard structure back away from the sidewalk. I don’t think the issue is really one of pedestrian safety it’s more about ploughs. I do think, though, that it’s an excellent compromise to let the garden remain until September so that they owners can harvest it and then remove the hard structure.

Greece

**Doyle Brunson teaches that poker is game of people, not cards. I suspect that a lot of the current standoff in Greece has everything to do with bravado and ego and little to do with sound public policy. Politics is a game of people, not policy. And, people don’t like to be seen to lose.

How far should kids be expected to walk to school?

Making some news in Ottawa this week is the cancellation of bussing for a lot of kids because “new walk zones” have been created and many children are now deemed to be too close to be bussed.

 

At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon… good. I’m glad to hear it.

At one point in Saskatoon kids were being bussed from distances beyond 500 meters. This included my kids. I refused. I made them walk. 

What I was a kid my walk was 514 meters (thank you Google Maps. I never occurred to me that this was anything other than VERY short.

I have friends who walked at least 1 KM (again, thank you Google Maps). 

I do not understand the thinking behind bussing kids. I think people perceive risk where there is little – from traffic and predators. But, the reality is that the world is actually a very safe place for kids and walking to and from school is, I think, good for them. It’s some modest exercise. And, it teaches some self-discipline. The skill to do “X” in order to achieve “Y”

How far for busing? My father always taught me that the army marches at 3 miles per hour. I will dial down to 2 miles per hours for kids who are never in a hurry. And, I will arbitrarily declare that a 45 minutes walk is not unreasonable. 

So, the Scharf Rule of School Busing – 2.4 KM or closer to school, you’re walking. If you don't like it, cry and cry until your parents move closer to school (or farther).

Thesis work begins. Fourth Westjet bomb scare – how fragile are we?

I am re-starting a quick, Monday to Friday current events blog. This is, in part, because I am starting work on my Master of Journalism thesis and I am trying to use July and August to transition from my head being completely in The Flying Banzini to my head being 50% in my thesis and classes.

 

Very quick thoughts, Monday to Friday, drawn from the day’s news.

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From CBC.ca

A WestJet flight from Vancouver to Toronto was diverted to Calgary last night after yet another threat.

It was the third "hoax" involving a bomb scare and the fourth threat overall against the airline in the past five days.

"Yes, we've been hit again," said WestJet spokesman Robert Palmer.

This story illustrates one of the question which is at the core of my journalism thesis: How great is the risk of domestic terrorism here in Canada?

I am assuming that all four of these Westjet hoaxes are perpetuated by the same person. I am also assuming that they were easy to pull off. A single phone call? These assumptions could be wrong but will do for now. Occam’s Razor.

This means that a single person armed with a telephone has caused thousands of dollars in expense to a Canadian airline. Hundreds of hours of inconvenience to people – and the associated costs there too. Injuries to at least six (evacuating a plane in Winnipeg). Hours and hours of work by police and intelligence agencies. And … well, a lot of hassle and expense for a lot of people.

Here is the important part – it was very easy to do. At least, I think it was. It may not be easy to avoid getting caught (this remains to be seen). But it was very easy to cause a giant mess with no budget and no real skills.

At the core of my thesis is this question: Why doesn’t this sort of thing happen a lot more than it does?