For a process that has (or should have) undergone intensive preparation for months, the Cape Breton District Health Authority's first public H1N1 vaccination clinic, Wednesday in Baddeck, was an organizational disaster. Here's how one Contrarian reader described it: I gathered the kids after school and navigated our way through the car-lined streets to the Masonic Hall. We grabbed a spot at the end of the line, several car-lengths back from the corner of Queen & Grant streets. It was typical Cape Breton gathering—lots of chatting and laughing between neighbours, and new friends made with unfamiliar faces. Many of us who arrived after...

29 October, 2009

Contrarian reader Colin May writes: Thank you for exposing the Fralic twit. And thanks to CBC Halifax for the Tuesday lunchtime phone-in which answered all my questions. Many of us have, or had, parents who were cognisant of the diseases which killed many children. Even I remeber the iron lung. Unfortunately we now have a new generation which has little knowledge of the risks faced by previous generations and now listen to all manner of quackery, theory, and new age nonsense. I'll have the jab because the risk is less than the risk of the disease, and as my RN wife points...

28 October, 2009

How sad that Marilyn MacKay, the Louisdale resident who spent two years in Toronto waiting for a double lung transplant, has died just six days after receiving the surgery. Her MLA, Richmond Liberal Michel Samson, apparently deems this an appropriate time to issue a news release mixing condolences with thinly veiled political point scoring....

28 October, 2009

For anyone who still needs persuading, the Michael Hoh's letter of resignation as the US State Department's Senior Civilian Representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, bears reading. As the Atlantic's James Fallows points out: [R]esignations on principle are vanishingly rare in U.S. government practice. It's much easier to keep your head down, protect your career prospects, and when it's over say that you had been against [failed policy xx or yy] all along. Apart from the merits of his argument, Hoh deserves respect for taking this step so forthrightly. Each person who does so creates an example for others to reflect upon. [...

28 October, 2009

The Globe and Mail's André Picard continues to talk sense on H1N1 and the mass vaccination campaign. Moneyquote: In 21st century Canada, risk is a largely unfamiliar concept. In a country of 34 million people that has nearly 400,000 births annually, fewer than 800 children aged 1-14 die each year. (Another 1,200 or so under the age of 1 die, most of congenital abnormalities.) In Canada, the greatest danger to children is falls and motor vehicle collisions. Deaths from infectious disease are remarkably few, in large part due to vaccination. [...

28 October, 2009

A very sad update: The woman attacked by two coywolves succumbed to her injuries overnight. Deepest sympathy to her family and friends for their unimaginable loss. - - - The shocking news that a 19-year-old Toronto-area woman was attacked and "very, very seriously" injured by a pair of coyotes in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park this afternoon will undoubtedly focus attention on recent reports that Eastern Coyotes are in fact a hybrid of coyotes and wolves, or coywolves. We offer heartfelt hopes for a speedy and complete recovery for the unidentified woman, who was hiking on the popular and well used Skyline...

27 October, 2009

A Contrarian reader who is also a public health nutritionist responds to our post about Fralic's foolishness: This Globe and Mail article convinced me of the importance of getting the H1N1 vaccination.  There is so much misinfomation out there, and I hold health reporter Andre Picard's coverage in high regard. Nova Scotians can find the location and schedule of immunization clinics in their District Health Region here. [On the map, click on your DHA.] I plan to take [my children] to the Baddeck clinic and get us done before the rush. Contrarian expects tomorrow's Baddeck clinic, the first in Cape Breton, to be a...

27 October, 2009

This promises to be a continuing Contrarian topic, but I will flag it briefly: NB Power's apparently imminent sale to Hydro Quebec represents a tectonic shift in Nova Scotia's energy options. I mention this because, as is typical, the national news media seem to view the story as just another installment in Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams's (to them) clownish battles with central Canada. Such a view is as witless as it is patronizing. The sale poses huge problems for Nova Scotia and PEI, as well as Newfoundland. If Quebec can use its windfall profits from Joey Smallwood's disastrous 1969 deal on Upper...

27 October, 2009

Marcos Weskamp, a design engineer and "self-taught technologist" who likes to play with data visualization, has created a treemap display of Google News. Newsmap shows stories as blocks on a grid. The size of the block reflects a story's rating in Google's search algorithm. The color of a block reflects its broad subject matter (world, national,business, technology, sports, entertainment, health), selectable with tabs along the bottom. The country of origin can be selected from tabs along the top (like the "Can" tab highlighted in the example above). Rolling your cursor over a block produces pop-up text like the white box...

27 October, 2009

In the annals of irresponsible journalism, it would be hard to top Shelley Fralic's recent Vancouver Sun column pooh-poohing the need for 'flu shots. Consider this fair warning to all you germaphobes and nervous Nellies: I will not be getting the swine flu shot. And my hunch is that many other British Columbians of good health and sound mind will also not be heeding the inoculate-'em-all, big and small, entreaties issued this week from federal health authorities, who in an odd singsong of official well-meaning laced with hysteria are encouraging pretty much everyone to line up, in order of priority, for...

27 October, 2009
Show more
Loading...