While making my way back to my car after the Ottawa Wine & Food Show Friday evening, I found a 64Mb SD-RAM chip in the Lansdowne Park parking lot on the south side of the Aberdeen Pavilion where Samko & Miko Toy Warehouse was taking place.

There are eighteen pictures on the chip and they were taken by a Kodak EasyShare C533 digital camera, according to the metadata in the pictures.  Most of them are of a little boy dressed up as a brown and white cow, probably after going out for Hallowe’en trick-or-treating.

Also in the pictures are two people who are probably his mom and dad.

If you recognize any of these people, could you tell them that I have their chip and I’d be happy to return it to them.  I can be contacted via email at lost-and-found AT dewis DOT ca.

TAF CYOW 272338Z 280024 VRB03KT P6SM FEW040 BKN200
FM0800Z 34008KT P6SM -RA BKN025 OVC100 TEMPO 0814 6SM -RA BKN012
OVC025
FM1400Z 34012G22KT P6SM -RA BKN012 OVC025 TEMPO 1420 4SM -RA BR
BKN008 OVC020
FM2000Z 33015G25KT 3SM -RASN OVC012 TEMPO 2022 1/2SM SN VV005
FM2200Z 32015G25KT 1/4SM +SN VV003
RMK NXT FCST BY 03Z=

So, it looks like the snow is going to start around 16:00 localtime and then be in full blizzard mode by about 18:00 tomorrow.  Well, maybe not an official blizzard per Environment Canada’s definition (four or more hours of snow or blowing snow with winds of 40 km/hr or more, visibility reduced to less than one km. in snow and/or blowing snow, and a windchill of -25 or colder) but definitely lots of snow and wind.

The mayor’s “zero means zero” policy has reared its ugly head again. Yesterday’s 24 hours, Sun Media’s free daily newspaper, had a front-page story with the headline “Fuel plan may cut OC service”.  Basically, the Eco-Driving Plan’s goal is to reduce the city’s consumption of fuel by 25%.  Since OC Transpo accounts for 76% of the total fuel consumption, they’re going to take the bulk of this cut.

The report is scheduled to be tabled at a meeting of the transportation committee next week.  It proposes massive cutbacks to OC Transpo, including an across-the-board 25% reduction in service and the elimination of 20 bus routes.  Even the core Transitway routes, the 95, 96 and 97, are going to subject to both regular- and peak-hour cutbacks.

Naturally, service cuts like this are going to affect the number of users and thus the revenues.

There would likely be decrease in public transit ridership of between 10% and 15%.  This would translate into a loss of 32,000 to 48,000 passengers per day. — the report

This plan, if enacted, will result a huge increase in the number of vehicles on the road, particularly as most people drive to work alone. More vehicles on the roads means more wear and tear to the roads, so they’ll have to be inspected and repaired more frequently. This is going to be a problem since the city recently decided not to increase the number of road inspectors.

And it begs to be asked how this plan is consistent with the four main goals of the City’s Environmental Strategy, which are:

• To be a green city where greenspace is preserved and enhanced
• Development in harmony with nature through better ecosystem planning and design
• A focus on walking, cycling and transit to encourage sustainable transportation choices
• Clean air, water and earth as resource use, waste, emissions and energy use are all reduced.

Clearly, more vehicles on the road is going to result in an increase in emissions and energy use and this plan can hardly be said to “encourage sustainable transportation”.  Expect air quality to decrease as the number of vehicles on the road increases.

But traffic and environmental problems won’t be the only result. It will also almost certainly increase unemployment in the city.  Fewer bus routes and a reduced level of service means they won’t need as many bus drivers.

Hopefully, this report is an extreme what-if scenario by city staff to drive the point home that the city cannot continue to operate under “zero means zero” cutbacks. I would question the suitability-to-lead of any councillor who would vote to support such an irresponsible plan.

Several stories in this morning’s Ottawa Metro caught my eye

• page 1: Snow go for stop study: City holds off review of winter bus stop maintenance
• page 3: City nixes ‘pothole patrol’: Seven extra road-checking staff would cost $1 million
• page 3: Policing: Ward-by-ward crime statistics will not be coming out this year, but improved data has been promised for 2009.

Are we starting to see the true effects of Larry O’Brien’s “zero means zero” plan?

According to the first story, to increase the frequency which bus stops are maintained during the winter from once a day to two or four times/day would cost between $4.1 million and $8.2 million, depending on the frequency.  Clearing them four times/day would require an additional 104 pieces of equipment.  So, rather than clear them more frequently passengers are probably going to have to climb over big piles of snow, which strikes me as a safety hazard when there’s a lot of snow that’s built up.

The second story reports that roads in Ottawa are not inspected frequently enough to meet even the minimum provincial road inspection standards.  Instead, existing city staff that drive as part of their jobs as well as OC Transpo drivers are apparently “just as effective” in reporting road damage such as potholes.

There’s more to inspecting a road than just looking for potholes.  Inspectors are concerned with more than just the suface.  They’ve had specific training and they may even be engineers who can make accurate assessments as to the condition of a road.

Let’s face it: roads are expensive.  The cost to replace a section of road can easily cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.  So, you don’t want to replace them too early because that’s a waste of money.  Nor do you want to let roads deteriorate to the point where they have to be replaced because you didn’t spend a little money fixing a problem that would have deferred replacement for several years.

Nothing against bus drivers, but I don’t think they’re qualified to make these assessments.

With respect to the last story, one has to wonder exactly how much is being “saved” by not producing detailed crime statistics and what effect this lack of detail is going to have on community-level policing.  Will they be able to make accurate assessments of where the problem spots are without the quantitative data?  Are problem spots going to go unaddressed as a result?

Time will tell, I guess.

Have you noticed that it’s become fashionable for cities to ban bottled water?  It started earlier this summer with Vancouver declaring war on bottled water.  They feel that since tap water in their city is perfectly fine more people should be drinking it at home rather than buying bottled water.

If a city council wants to lead by example and ban the sale of bottled water on their premises, that’s not a bad thing.  In fact, it’s to be expected.  But they need to provide alternatives such as water fountains.

A lot of cities have vending machines in their buildings that offer a wide variety of soft drinks, power drinks, sports drinks, and bottled water.  Arguably, bottled water is the probably the healthiest drink in that list.  If you take away bottled water, people going to the vending machines will almost certainly be choosing the less-healthy alternative.

Last week, London announced it was jumping on the bandwagon by banning the sale of bottled water in city facilities.  Their rationale was that over the last few years they noticed that garbage trucks were getting lighter, rather than heavier.  They should have been getting heavier as time marched on and more trash was diverted to the recycling stream.  But they were getting lighter because the number of empty plastic bottles being thrown into the trash rather than the recycling boxes.  A non-trivial problem and since they can’t ban the sale of bottled water in their city, they chose also chose to lead by example and ban the sale of bottled water in city facilities.

North Bay, on the other hand, has indicated they’re not jumping on this particular bandwagon because they’d rather deal with some unrecycled plastic bottles in their landfills and have people pick a bottle of water over a bottle of pop.

“If people have the choice between bottled water and pop, we would rather they choose a bottle of water” — Alan Korell, North Bay’s managing director of engineering and environmental works (from an article in The Nugget)

It’ll be interesting to see which other cities hop on the anti-bottled water bandwagon and why.  Guelph looks like they’re getting ready and a couple of councillors in Ottawa have been making noises, too.

Any bets as to who’s next?

It appears that the weather has been exciting at the airport, too:

METAR CYOW 182000Z 22011G19KT 15SM SCT050CB SCT075 BKN230 27/19 A2969 RMK CB3AC1CI2 DIST LTNG SHS NW-NE SLP053=
SPECI CYOW 182003Z 31021G27KT 15SM TS FEW023 SCT045CB BKN075 BKN230 23/ RMK SC1CB3AC1CI1 OCNL LTGCG SHS NW-NE=
SPECI CYOW 182012Z 35023G32KT 12SM -TSRA FEW025 BKN045CB BKN075 BKN230 21/ RMK SC1CB4AC1CI1 OCNL LTGCG=
SPECI CYOW 182024Z 34023G29KT 1SM +TSRA BKN040CB BKN230 17/ RMK RA3CB3CI1 OCNL LTGCG CB OVHD=
SPECI CYOW 182024Z CCA 34023G29KT 1SM R07/4000VP6000FT R32/P6000FT +TSRA BKN040CB BKN230 17/ RMK RA3CB3CI1 OCNL LTGCG CB OVHD=
SPECI CYOW 182031Z 35011G16KT 3/4SM +TSRA BKN040CB BKN230 17/ RMK RA4CB2CI1 FQT LTGCG CB OVHD=
SPECI CYOW 182031Z CCA 35011G16KT 3/4SM R32/2800VP6000FT/D +TSRA BKN040CB BKN230 17/ RMK RA4CB2CI1 FQT LTGCG CB OVHD=
SPECI CYOW 182038Z 06009G16KT 4SM TSRA BKN040CB OVC140 17/ RMK CB5AC3 OCNL LTGCG CB MOVG SW VIS LWR S=

At one point, it looks like the wind was gusting up to 32 knots (59.2 km/h).

It’s stopped raining here, or at least let up enough that I won’t be soaked to the bone in three seconds with only my tired umbrella and my Tilley to keep me dry.

This popped up on my email a few minutes ago:

SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING ISSUED For Ottawa BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA

BULLETIN ISSUED AT: 3:57 PM EDT MONDAY 18 AUGUST 2008
AT 3:40 PM THE RADAR IS INDICATING THAT A WEST TO EAST LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IS MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 80 KM/H. LARGE HAIL GREATER THAN 2 CENTIMETRES IN DIAMETER AND STRONG WINDS GUSTS OF 90 TO 120 KM/H ARE POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS. THERE IS ALSO A RISK OF A TORNADO.  THIS IS A WARNING THAT SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. REMEMBER SOME SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE TORNADOES..LISTEN FOR UPDATED WARNINGS. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ONTARIO RECOMMENDS TAKING COVER IMMEDIATELY WHEN THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES.   SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH FOR OTTAWA NORTH – KANATA – ORLEANS CONTINUED  SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.  THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.  MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.

 

The Franktown radar at 15:40 Eastern showed:

The view from my office window is very impressive.  I can see a sharp line along the edge of the clouds to the south.  A couple of minutes ago I watched as the bottom layer of clouds was swirling in a vertical manner while the layer above it was moving south.  And there’s thunder rumbling and we’ve seen a couple of flashes of lightning.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone reports a funnel cloud because it sure looks like there might be a "comma" or two in the radar image.

Oh, and it’s just started to pour rain, to the extent that I can’t see the edge of the clouds any more.