Farewell to Nova Scotia

I'd heard a while ago that Nova Scotia lost over 4,000 people in just the last year. I knew that was bad.

But it's more than bad. The base statscan data is just awful. The loss of 4,300 people leads the nation. There are also more deaths than births in Nova Scotia each year.

But it gets even worse if you look at it by age group. The -4,300 is much worse than it looks. As the senior 65+ age group gained 6,400. So among the non-seniors under age 65 Nova Scotia shed 10,700 persons.

Using the statscan age group breakdowns we can see that there are around 774,000 people under age 65 in Nova Scotia. That means the under 65 lost 1.4% in just the last year. This is horrible. Those feel like Detroit numbers.

Now some of the loss is older middle aged graduating into the 65+ group. So if we estimate the net 6,400 new seniors as coming from the previous 64 year olds then there's still the 4,300 who voluntarily left Nova Scotia. They voted themselves off the island. So 0.55%, or about 1 in 180 people under age 65 just chose to leave in the last year.

I don't have the data on how many 65+ seniors died in the last year vs how many 64s became seniors vs net seniors moving to or leaving Nova Scotia from other areas vs births and new people moving to Nova Scotia. I believe the estimate of 4,300 under 65s choosing to leave Nova Scotia is close.

--

So Nova Scotia is in decline. Possibly terminal decline. I'm not going to speculate why in this post. I don't really have a strong theory. In the last generation the PC, Liberal and NDP have all elected solid majorities. So the voters have definitely been willing to make changes. The results just haven't been there. But again I said I wouldn't attempt to understand why Nova Scotia is going extinct.

This isn't a recent development. I remember back around the millennium 1999 there was a remarkable statistic published. From 1970-2000 the number of births in Nova Scotia declined every single year. That's incredible, not even once in that span was there an increase. Well of course if you play that out long enough then eventually there will be a year when the number of births finally declines to zero. And a few decades after that final child is born then you just go voluntarily extinct.

--

Can it be turned around? Will Nova Scotia eventually find bottom and stabilize its population at some lower point? What would that point be 700,000, 500,000, 300,000? Again probably not to speculate on in this post. Right now it doesn't look good. As long as deaths outnumber births and people leaving outnumber people moving in then it won't stabilize, it will just eventually wind all the way down.

Timeline by Michael Crichton

I finished another book. Timeline by Michael Crichton. It was a good book. A fast paced Crichton read. In the book a group in France is excavating a 14 century site with castles on opposite sides of a river. The work is sponsored by a secretive company called ITC from Arizona. While doing the excavation the team finds an unexpected document on ancient parchment. Another unexpected document arrives via a man found mumbling incoherently in the Arizona desert. The France researchers realize ITC knows more about the site as it was in the 14th century than they should and they are summoned back to Arizona.

Back in AZ ITC has been working on a fantastic device. Based on the famous double-slit experiments where it was shown that every electron in the universe somehow "knows" about every other electron. They exploit the multiverse to show with some leaps of logic that it is possible to travel back in time. The modern researchers are sent back to 14th century France to find and bring back their professor who went back a few days earlier and then failed to return.

Typical Crichton techno thriller there are numerous unexpected twists both in France in the past and in USA in the present. The transporters only work for 37 hours and it's a race against time on both sites to bring the researchers back.

I liked this book. It was from a good phase in Chrichton's career. Crichton does the "grad students thrown into crazy situation" theme pretty well and this is a strong title.

I found the book at Doull's, a fine store. I thought I might be finished with Crichton but on the sites I can see there's still a couple titles left.

switched to FibreOP

I'm writing this from Internet provided by Aliant FibreOP. They were in this week and did the install on Thursday. It's been working well so far. I was thinking of switching and there was a deal with a 42 inch TV to switch so I made the jump. Nice intro price $99 for the first three months. Then it just goes to what I had to pay Eastlink so no cost increase. The TV should be in by Christmas.

It's nice having some HD channels now. It will take some getting used to the new channel numbers but everything I cared about from the past is still there. The PVR is something that I've heard about but never used. Another nice throw in.

I now have a landline number again for the first time in many years. I still have to get a phone for it though. I don't need an answering machine as there's voicemail thrown in. It will be nice to have a reliable number again the cell can be sketchy where I live. I'll have to think about the phone. I might get a cordless.

Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk

I finished another Palahniuk title Rant: An Oral Biography Of Buster Casey. it was pretty good. it's the posthumous story of an oddball named Rant Casey told by his friends and others who knew him. Rant becomes famous after his death for being patient zero in a major epidemic of a new strain of rabies.

the book was a bit hard to follow as there are symbols such as moon and sun next to the writers. the book is written in world war z style from the perspective of those who knew Rant. also there's reference very early on to things like party crashing and boosting which aren't explained until later. and important characters like Echo are intermingled early on with filler childhood friends. so you have to untangle things as you go.

as the story unfolds there are some major reveals which are done in a satisfying way. Palahniuk uses this major reveal technique well as he also did in Fight Club. the author was probably on to something with the ability in the ability to record and playback your sensory reality as you perceived it at the time. with Google glass we're moving in that direction now. so no need to climb Mt. Everest just do a playback from someone who got there and experience for yourself what it's like to reach the summit.

like all of the Palahniuk stuff I've read it makes you think. he touches on some deep topics like social segregation, fitting in, duty. I'm continuing chipping away at Chuck's work. will read some more when I get another chance.

Fracking in Nova Scotia

So there's an election coming up in Nova Scotia. One issue that's discussed is about energy and related power rates.

There seem to be a couple schemes being floated. one is to pipeline oil from Alberta to the east. another is to build an undersea cable from the Muskrat Falls project in Labrador to deliver electricity to Nova Scotia. also seems to be some Quebec power scheme lurking in the wings

these ideas to me all sound crazy. it would cost many billions to even set this infrastructure up before the first watt of power actually arrived here. and after what happened in Quebec I don't know why people are so eager to try to move oil such a vast distance from Alberta

there seems to be an agreed code of silence between the political parties and the media about fracking in Nova Scotia. the NDP has made it clear by their actions they don't want fracking, and that's their mandate. but what about the other parties? and why doesn't the media at least ask?

it's crazy to bring power from Newfoundland and Alberta when the same energy is sitting right here in our own land. fracking is safe, mature technology. they've been doing it in Michigan for over 50 years and their lakes and rivers are still pristine.

if this election like every election is allegedly about jobs and growing the economy as the politicians claim blah blah blah then why not frack and actually do something that would create the high paying industrial rural blue collar union jobs right here in Nova Scotia instead of in other provinces or overseas?

Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney

I finished up another zombie book. It was Flesh Eaters by Joe McKinney.

It was a good book. A typical McKinney fast and compelling read. This book is the origin of the dead city series. The story of where it begins in Houston. After 4 major hurricanes in two weeks Houston is badly flooded. Among all the death and rot and oil refinery chemicals stewing in the water the necrosis filovirus emerges.

The book is the story of two police officers in the Houston PD working in the emergency task force and their families. Sergeant Eleanor Norton and her boss Captain Mark Shaw. They are working together at the command centre at a Houston University. As the zombies emerge and overrun the university and the city it's a struggle to survive and get their families out and try to help the dwindling and desperate survivors as best they can. In the McKinney style their paths intersect through the story.

The McKinney zombies are interesting. They aren't the "undead". only a living person who is bitten by a zombie and then turns before dying of some other cause becomes a zombie. which makes more sense if you think about it; it's a bit like rabies or ebola in that sense. after all how can someone who is dead get some infection or virus or any condition.

I got the book at the library. they ordered it in for me. it's always a treat to be the first person to read a brand new library book. so I checked and I guess there's still two more in the dead city series to read. I'll definitely be looking for them to finish off this great series.