Aside from a small issue of geography, reader Ivan Smith says the Globe and Mail's take-out on racism in Nova Scotia, got it right. The popular notion that racism has disappeared from Nova Scotia is just as wrong as that geography. Racism is still here. Not as bad as it was in the 1960s or even the 1980s, but we still have a long way to go. How many Nova Scotians know that there were black slaves here? Smith recommends Simon Schama's Rough Crossings, a book and subsequent film depicting the treatment of blacks in Nova Scotia in the 1780s, available...

19 June, 2010

The US blogosphere is in a lather over a video of US Sen. Bob Ethridge (D-NC), looking tired and emotional, grabbing a student who tried to question him on a DC sidewalk. Glenn Greenwald wants the Senator charged with assault. Lest we be too smug, remember how then-Prime Minister Jean Chretien, apparently sober, throttled Emploment Insurance protester Bill Clennett at a Flag Day rally in 1996, throwing him to the ground and breaking one of his teeth. A third party did lay a charge of assault against Chretien, but the Attorney General of Quebec declined to proceed with the case....

17 June, 2010

In light of tHe the Deepwater Horizon blowout, the GOOD company has produced an infographic:  Click here for a larger image. Hat tip:JLDB...

17 June, 2010

In the wake of February's cross-burning in Hants County, the Globe and Mail did what Nova Scotia newspapers ought to have done: assigned a top notch reporter to research and write a searching report on Nova Scotia's unfinished history of racism. Many of you will have seen Les Perreaux's piece when it appeared last month, but I missed it. He began by noting African Nova Scotia's unique backstory: [N]o other region on this side of the 49th parallel has Nova Scotia's long history of a black-and-white divide. Until the immigration reforms of the 1960s, 37 per cent of Canadian blacks lived...

16 June, 2010

Contrarian friend Gus Reed doesn't think altitude maps add much to our understanding of complex social issues: These graphs don't meet the minimum standard for clarity. Your pal Edward Tufte would be appalled. What is the scale of the z-dimension? Are we to suppose that the high peak for narcotics is on the same scale as the high peak for prostitution? Absolute numbers? Percentages? Logarithmic? I'm suspicious that McCune is mixing his units. And I don't like the fundamental assumption that it's OK to smooth this kind of data. Consider the three hills of...

15 June, 2010

Doug McCune uses San Francisco Police Dept. crime reports to map crime in that city as altitude. Narcotics: Prostitution: Various criminal activity: What would an altitude map of Halifax crime look like? Or better still, a North American altitude map of multiple sclerosis, a disease that concentrates in northern latitudes (with Nova Scotia a likely mountain range)? Any data-and-graphics-savvy medical researchers out there want to take this on? Hat tip: Flowing Data....

14 June, 2010

One of more than 300 self-service Bixi bike rental stations in Montreal. From April to November 30, the city will rent you a sturdy, well maintained, three-speed bike for $5 a day (or $28 for 30 days; $79 for a full year). A swipe of your credit card produces a five digit code to unlock one of the 5,000 available bikes; Return your bike within 30 minutes to one of the ubiquitous rental stands and there is no charge. It is a fast, easy, practical way to get around this bustling city, and the Bixi bikes are everywhere. The city-owed system recently...

14 June, 2010

Warm-up: England vs. USA. our friend David appears to have scored a ticket. [Update]One Contrarian reader doesn't like the horns: Dear Sepp Blatter, Day 2 and I am happy to say that the sound level from the mics catching those damned horns has been dialed down a little by the broadcasters. It is the World Cup not the South Africa Cup. I want to hear supporters from around the world singing, chanting, dancing, booing, hissing, whistleing, banging drums (not continuously), lauging, moaning, oohing and aahing. Stuff your 'cultural' BS as the reason for inflicting a steady droning noise on billions of viewers around...

12 June, 2010

Contrarian's friend David sends this snapshot from the arrivals lounge at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg: David adds: Immigration very friendly and efficient. A really exciting vibe with lots of banter between nationalities lining up to collect their game tickets on arrival.  The ticket operation, too, seemed smooth and well organized. Weather: gorgeous - cold for the locals but perfect for us Canucks. ...

11 June, 2010
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