Editor in Chief:
Shani Blankrot
A Guide to Winter Walking for the Northern Newcomer
Robbie McCormack
Industrial '11
A
lthough it may seem insub-
stantial, mastering the skill
of walking on icy surfaces is an
important part of the adaptation to
living in cold and polar climates.
Proper knowledge of winter walk-
ing in these climates will prevent
serious injuries to the head, hips,
and shoulders and will reduce the
risks of being the target of stares of
disbelief, condescending laughter,
and worst of all, pity comments.
These are undesirable circum-
stances and newcomers to this part
of the world would do well to heed
the following advice on traversing
in winter conditions.
Winter walkers need to be pre-
pared by dressing themselves in
the proper equipment. The most
important equipment for the walk-
er is footwear. Shoes and boots
should have a good grip on them to
obtain a better coefficient of fric-
tion with the icy surfaces. The best
options for this can be purchased at
MEC off of Barrington Street and
the Trail Shop on Quinpool Road.
Next, the Winter Walker needs
proper protective equipment. Hel-
mets, knee pads, elbow pads, and
shoulder pads will all help reduce
injuries in the event of a fall. They
are all highly recommended, and
with a little ingenuity and imagi-
nation they can make great acces-
sories to your most fashionable
winter outfits. Aerobics First on
Dalhousie's Concrete Toboggan Team (at right) finished second on the hill at the Great Northern Concrete Toboggan
Quinpool Road is always a good
place to go for these supplies.
The most important tools that a
Winter Walker has are the walker's
eyes. Knowledge of the terrain
ahead allows the Winter Walker to
plan a route and decide on the ap-
propriate gait for the situation. An
expert Winter Walker will always
scan the upcoming terrain to assess
the type of ice that lies ahead and
to locate ice-free sections where a
solid footing can be realized.
Most experienced Winter Walk-
ers will tell you that their greatest
fear is not being able to clearly see
the ice on the ground. Situations
where this is most severe are in
the evenings and after a light dust-
ing of snow has been left on the
ground. Pedestrians should take
particular caution when walking
in these situations and, when pos-
sible, take steps to increase vis-
ibility, such as walking in well lit
areas in the evenings.
Thick ice is easy to see and usu-
ally easy to maneuver upon. The
thinner the ice, the harder it is to
see, and usually the more slippery
it is. When a Winter Walker must
walk on ice, the walker's gait will
change. Steps will become shorter
and lower to the ground: the walk-
er will shuffle. The whole body
will move closer to the ground,
lowering the centre of gravity for
balancing purposes. When walk-
ing on ice, the arms of an Ice
Walker will automatically span out
for balance. Hands in pockets are
a sure sign of disaster. Although
this Penguin Walk may look funny
Race in Edmonton last week.
to the outsider, it is the best way
to safely walk on ice, and is re-
garded as a turn on by both males
and females in northern cultures.
This technique puts into action
the most fundamental of all Win-
ter Walking laws: keeping feet and
body as close to the ground as pos-
sible. Newcomers to northern cli-
mates can be spotted by their large
stomps in the winter months.
A very useful technique for the
Winter Walker, that also imple-
ments this fundamental law, is
"The Slide". The Slide is utilized
when long patches of ice must be
transgressed, particularly when
walking downhill. The Slide
keeps the feet on the ground at
all times. The walker pushes off
from a sturdy footing and 'skates'
across the ice, similar to the tech-
nique used in snowboarding: one
foot goes forward, the other falls
behind as the walker rides across
the ice. It is a safe way to quick-
ly move across long patches of
treacherous ice.
Probably the most dreaded type
of ice for the Winter Walker is
what is known as black ice. It
trips one up when it is least ex-
pected and seems to take a certain
schadenfreude while doing so.
Black ice usually forms when the
temperature of the pavement is be-
low freezing and the temperature
of the air is above freezing. It is
so thin and clear that it is hardly
visible to even the trained eye.
Pedestrians should take particular
care to look for black ice when the
ground has been slightly damp and
the air temperature is fluctuating
around the freezing mark. During
the day, black ice often forms in
shady areas away from the sun’s
rays. However, black ice usually
forms in the evenings and can
sometimes be detected by a very
slight twinkle in the ground. This
is the light's rays refracting off of
the small ice crystals of the black
ice.
Females should take special care
when walking in winter months
as their balance is not as good as
males'. During the cold season,
females should not walk alone,
but always have a male to support
them or at least a cane or stick to
rely on for support. If a female
finds herself walking alone with
no cane or stick for support, she
should not traverse long patches
of ice on two feet - but rather get
down on all fours to cross the ter-
rain. However, the best option for
the female in this situation would
be to flag down or call a man to
come support her across the icy
patch.
Everyone, both males and fe-
males, are responsible for ice
walking safety. By wearing the
proper equipment, educating one-
self about the different types of
ice, implementing sound Winter
Walking techniques such as "The
Penguin", "The Slide", and "The
Crawl", and acting based on one's
strengths and weaknesses as a
Winter Walker, everyone can con-
tribute to a safer and happier Win-
ter Walking season.
The Sextant is published
by the Dalhousie Sextant
Publishing Society and
aims to represent all of the
students studying and liv-
ing on Sexton Campus.
Editor: Shani Blankrot
Assistant Editor: Dilan
Watson
Treasurer: Riccardo Cic-
carelli
If you have any concerns
about the paper, please
email sextant@dal.ca
dalgossipgeek@gmail.
com
February 9th 2011
Page 1
CO-OP CORNER
Things to Remember:
• The Co-op website offers
many tips and is very infor-
mation. The website is
engandcompscicoop.dal.ca
• Round 1 is from January 6 to
February 14.
Word of the Week
Unaffordable Sandwiches(n): This
term refers to the over priced
sandwiches sold at the Alumni
Lounge. I don't know about you,
but I don't plan on spending my
life savings on a sandwich any
time soon.
Editors’ note: Word of the Week is a humour column
based on popular expressions around Sexton Campus.
If you have any complaints or suggestions, please email
sextant@dal.ca. Obviously we prefer suggestions!
Write.
Get Paid.
Send articles to sextant@dal.ca
Halifax's Best Trivia!
Sexton Campus
Events
Looking for something to do?
Not spending enough time
mingling with other faculties/
disciplines? Then check out
some of these events.
Thursday February 10th
Pulling for the Kids Fundraised
Friday February 11th
TECH BALL
Monday February 14th
Valentine's Day
Thursday February 17th
Mining Society Night, T Room
Does your society have an
event on Sexton Campus? Send
an email to sextant@dal.ca and
we’ll post it here!
Are you creative?
Do you have a comic/picture/
drawing/abstract art/WHAT-
EVER? email that baby over! You
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daleng.ca

Giving credit where it's due: Dalton McGuinty and TOU billing
Ben Wedge
Industrial '13
I t’s great to cheer for yourself
when you’re right. It’s polite
to congratulate your opponents
when they are. But it’s most im-
portant to cheer your opponents
when they are correct. Dalton
McGuinty is known in Ontario
as “Premier Dad”, for his control-
ling, nanny-state policies. He’s
also known for implementing two energy-efficient way to produce
important and forward-thinking
policies. The first is the HST. The
second, and the subject
of this post, is the Time
of Use Billing (TOU) ar-
rangement that Ontario
power companies must
now provide.
In any industrial process,
it is wasteful and costly
to have excess capacity.
Processes that have low
Typical weekday hourly electricity demand by season. The H1-H24 is the hour of the day. Source: Nova Scotia Power, 2010
variability are a dream.
They’re easy to plan for, and
easy to run. They’re also cheap.
Processes that vary in resource
utilization can be complex and
costly. Imagine, for example,
FedEx. They need to have enough
capacity to deliver parcels in a
timely manner before Christmas.
They must also be profitable in
July. This means FedEx’s facilities
need to be designed with a mind-
set to handle Christmas traffic,
even if for 11 months the excess
goes unused, costing untold sums
of money.
Power generation works the same
way. Every day, power usage
fluctuates up and down, on a
relatively constant pattern. As the
graph shows, in the winter, en-
ergy usage in Nova Scotia peaks
at approximately 1750 megawatts
between six and ten PM. After
ten, it drops abruptly, before bot-
toming out at 1350 megawatts at
5 am, then reversing course and
rising sharply. The curve changes
with the seasons, thanks to elec-
tric heating and air conditioning,
but the utility needs to pick a
balance between cheap, high-
capacity, slow-starting energy
sources such as coal and nuclear
power, and costly, low-output,
but fast-startup sources like gas.
Other sources, like hydro, wind,
and solar, are also part of the mix, Where is Nova Scotia on TOU?
with hydro falling somewhere be-
tween coal and gas on the cheap-
ness/ramp up scale, and wind and currently TOU is only offered to
solar requiring backup generation customers using electric thermal
due to their high volatility on
current grid infrastructure.
During the peak hours, those
gas turbines are chugging away
to help you watch TV, do dishes,
and read. At night, the coal plants
are producing some 1600 MW of
electricity (rated capacity). That
means, in winter, about 300MW
of electricity is being thrown out, consumers are used to a flat rate
a figure that rises to 500MW in
the summer. Ignoring renew-
able sources, the cheapest, most
electricity is large-scale power
plants. The turbines are high-cost
generators that are used for a very paying over 30% more to wash
short amount of time each day.
This is where time-of-use billing
comes into play. McGuinty recog- adapted are paying half price.
nized that by implementing this
policy, he could actually lower the and immediate benefits for the
environmental impact of living
in Ontario, without changing a
single electricity source in the
province. By billing consumers
based on how much it actually
costs to provide the service at
the given time, he’s encouraging
a shift to low-cost time. Rather
than run the dishwasher right af-
ter supper, set it to run overnight. 7AM during the winter) by 2.13%. TOU requires a digital meter
Rather than paying $0.10/kWh
(it’s cheaper in Ontario, a topic
for another day), the customer
pays around $0.056. That’s a
10
half-price load of dishes. Instead
of using electricity at the peak,
causing gas generators to do the
work, you use the electricity that
otherwise would have been dissi-
pated at coal (or nuclear) sources.
This same logic can be applied
to other daily activities: your hot
water heater can run overnight,
electric cars can be charged while
you sleep, laundry can be done
as you sleep, or on weekends,
and consumers may think twice
before turning on the A/C at sup-
per time.
I sent a tweet to Nova Scotia
Power and they informed me that
storage, akin to an electric fur-
nace, which charges up overnight
and releases heat during the day.
I was told there are no plans that do. Although average changes in
he’s aware of to implement TOU
billing for all Nova Scotians.
TOU billing has been the norm
in Europe for several years now.
The adjustment can be tough, as
for power. Once consumers got
in the groove, they modified their opinion survey. They found that
consumption habits, and spoke
with their wallets. The same is
currently happening in Ontario.
Those who refuse to change are
their laundry after supper than
they did a year ago. Those who
Both the savings for consumers
environment with TOU billing are crease) in the bills.
clear. I spoke with Hydro Ottawa,
who sent me a study prepared for
Newmarket Hydro, near Toronto,
which found that TOU billing
decreased on-peak demand by
2.80%, mid-peak by 1.39%, and
increased weekend off-peak (Fri-
day at 10PM through Monday at
No statistically significant change which knows the time of day, but
was found for weekday off-peak
Top 10 Valentine's Day Plans
Just get through the day,
pull it together. Don't cry you can't fantasize about it later
in public whatever you do. Eat
yourself to sleep.
9
Romantic date at Scotia
Square food court.
8
Send yourself a Candy-O-
Gram. Just make sure to cover
your tracks.
7
Turn to Plenty of Fish for
some much-needed V-day
e-lovin'.
6
Send an old school anonymous
love letter to the engi-hottie
of your dreams. Just 'cuz it won't
Apparel - Belt Buckles (Bronze, Silver and Gold
toned), Keychains and T-Shirts!
EngiBEERing every Friday afternoon in the Design
Commons! Wear a sweater vest for a free beer!
consumption when tested at 95%
confidence.
"TOU rates are accomplishing
what they have been designed to
consumption during the on-peak
and mid-peak periods may appear come to Halifax, we can make a
small, they are significant and
correspond directionally to what
the rate design intends."
-Newmarket Hydro study
The study also included a public
consumers were fearful of the
change, and felt it would increase
their power bills, which had
already spiked in recent years.
The consumers made it clear that
they could not afford another cent
on their electric bills. However,
the study found that after a short
adjustment period, there was a
neutral or net positive (ie de-
"What public concern there is re-
garding increased electricity costs
under TOU rates fades rapidly as
customers adapt to the new rate
design and perceive that TOU
rates have a neutral or slightly
favourable impact on their elec-
tricity bill."
most new meters have this ability.
happen in real life, doesn't mean
that night.
5
Spend the night sifting through
old love emails from your first
(and only) relationship at sixteen,
while drinking cheap wine and
listening to the Dawson's Creek
theme song on repeat.
4
Finally get the chance to drink
the Sambuca some dude left
at your house seven months ago.
This is as good an excuse as any.
3
Either a "Say Yes to the Dress"
or a "Hoarders" marathon.
Only these two shows will do the
February 9th 2011
Page 2
Older meters must be replaced,
which costs a few hundred dol-
lars, a saving that the utility will
see in the long run, by reducing
the need to install gas turbines,
and generate wasted power.
While we wait for TOU billing to
conscious lifestyle change, despite
the lack of financial benefit. If
you have a dishwasher with a
timer, run it in the middle of the
night, starting as close to 4 am
as possible. If there’s no timer,
start it just before bed. The same
goes for your washing machine,
if you have one in your house or
apartment. If you can, don’t use
the dryer. It’s bet-
ter for your clothes,
and your wallet, but
again, that’s the topic
of another article.
If you have control
of your electric hot
water heater, put it on
a timer. Charge your
electronics while
you're asleep too, and
unplug them during the day.
We can dream big about one day
deriving our electricity entirely
from wind, solar, hydro, nuclear,
and maybe even a machine that
will draw static out of the air, but
the reality is that those technolo-
gies take years to implement, and
still aren’t as reliable as they need
to be. Dalton McGuinty made the
right move in Ontario, so as we
build up the capacity for renew-
able energy, let’s switch to TOU
billing to accelerate the reduction
in impact on the environment.
The Newmarket Hydro study is
available here: http://bit.ly/dSx-
qES
trick. Don't question my genius.
2
Rent "My Best Friend's Wed-
ding" and watch it with your
blow up girlfriend.
1
If all the above ain't workin
for you, and it's a dire lonely
situation, we recommend Chat
Roulette. Just pray to death you
don't "bump into" someone you
know.. that would be a colossal
V-day embarrassment.
Have any funny Top 10's in
mind? We'd love to use it! Email
us at sextant@dal.ca