Jan. 16
Congratulations! You’ve made it through November, December and half of January, and the winter weather has been fairly reasonable. But if the forecast is any indicator, winter definitely isn’t over yet. Now would be a bad time to let your guard down, especially where winter driving is concerned. Take Feb. 24 and 25, 2019, for example. The dates themselves may not ring a bell, but surely you remember the southern half of our state getting pummeled by a winter storm. In some areas, 13 inches of snow fell, and winds gusted up to 50 mph. Large swaths of interstates and other roads were...
Jan. 13
So much of life is a choice between speed and quality, isn’t it? In just about any category – construction, food, clothing, just to name a few – it can generally be either fast or good, but not both. The same used to go for forensic testing and crime investigation. But the field of robotics has changed that situation drastically. Just look at the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s (BCA) forensics labs. When investigators are trying to solve a crime, there can be so much to analyze. Everything from blood samples to unknown substances need to be examined in case they contain the clue...
Jan. 9
Do you miss riding your motorcycle? Do you find yourself counting the days until the weather warms up and the roads dry off? Maybe you’re already planning this summer’s road trip or deciding which charity rides to do. While you’re at it, you can start planning for training, because Minnesota Motorcycle Safety Center (MMSC) rider training courses are open for registration at most sites statewide. “But I’ve been riding for years,” you might say. “Why should I take a training course now?” Taking a training course every year or two helps you keep your skills sharp and even learn new ones...
Jan. 6
The beginning of a new year is a time to reflect on the past year and plan for the new one – hopefully to think about what we can improve upon, then make a plan to do just that in the coming year. For the State Fire Marshal Division (SFMD), unfortunately, this means thinking about deaths, specifically fire deaths. Right now, for example, SFMD is totaling up the number of people who died in structure fires in Minnesota in 2019, and have come to a distressing conclusion: Preliminary numbers show that 42 people died in fires in 2019. That’s up 14 percent over 2018, when there were 37 fire deaths...
Jan. 2
A lot of us had trouble with math and physics in school. Some of us didn’t even take physics in the first place. So we wouldn’t necessarily know that, in ideal conditions, an 80,000-pound vehicle traveling at 55 miles per hour needs 335 feet (that’s more than a football field) to stop. Crank the speed up to 65 miles per hour and that truck will need 525 feet to stop. But knowing that can save lives. Why? Because if you pull out in front of that semi on, say, a county highway without giving it enough room, it doesn’t matter how alert that driver is. It doesn’t matter how quick their reflexes are or how recently...