Dustin M. Ramsey of Toledo, Ohio, took this photograph somewhere near Parrsboro on 26 July 2007. Click for a larger view. Anyone know anything more about this building or its decorator? [Update] Roland McCaffery does. He writes: The building in the photo is located behind the Sunshine Inn, a motel just outside Parrsboro at a place called Crossroads. The inside office/restaurant is covered with license plates sent be people who have stayed there from almost all states and provinces, as well as from quite a few countries. The extras that were recieved were festooned to the building of which you have a photo. They...

06 June, 2010

Most of the dignitaries had cleared out by the time Contrarian showed up for an inaugural stroll along Louisbourg's freshly opened Lighthouse Trail Saturday. The footing is sure, the viewscapes sublime. The eponymous lighthouse, near the site of the original 1731 structure erected by the French, is down at the heels. Commemorative plaques placed on the lighthouse by the Historical Sites and Monuments Board of Canada display a curious bit of  politically correct non-evenhandedness: The French displayed "valour and endurance against overwhelming odds." The British? They were "commanded by Gorham and Wolfe." C'est la Guerre!...

06 June, 2010

A flight of pigeons has taken up residence inside Sydney's iconic Big Fiddle, with the usual unfortunate consequence for the soundboard of Whitney Pier artist Cyril Hearn's creation....

06 June, 2010

Advocates of the Genuine Progress Index argue that traditional measures of our economic health, mainly the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), mislead us by mixing up good spending (on the likes of lobster, turnips, and bicycles) with bad (on oil spills, crime, and car crashes), and because it fails to account for depletion of natural resources. Those critiques, while valid and important, don't completely obviate the relevance of GDP. A new chart from Gapminder (previously mentioned in one of my all-time favorite Contrarian posts), shows that higher GDP per person equals longer life: The trend is unmistakable, and at first glance, the...

04 June, 2010

Graham Steele and I had a further email exchange. I suggested he had not answered the question at the heart of my original query: Why didn't you (or, if you wish, why didn't [Cabinet Clerk Greg] Keefe) simply waive solicitor client privilege in these cases? [caption id="attachment_5552" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Canny Mandarins"][/caption] I added: A second question that I didn't ask, but which still hovers over this: Is this a sign that the NDP government, with its very small cabinet, is falling prey to a classic malady of new governments, especially new governments whose ministers have no experience in government: that of being unduly led...

04 June, 2010

At first blush, Auditor General Jacques Lapointe's refusal to issue an audit opinion on the province's two largest business loan funds looks like another in the lengthening string of Dexter Government screw-ups. This is the NDP, for heaven's sake, perennial champions of openness and accountability, withholding 281 documents and redacting a further 32 on grounds of cabinet confidentiality and solicitor-client privilege, thereby thwarting independent scrutiny of the corporate welfare trough they once scorned. Solicitor-client privilege protects communications between a lawyer and a client from being disclosed without the permission of the client. It binds the lawyer, not the client. In the...

04 June, 2010

I'm new to blogging and still feeling my way around the courtesies and protocols of the genre. When I post an item I found somewhere else, I usually credit and link to the source where I encountered it — a figurative tip of the hat. Sometimes I dig deeper and link to the original source material, and sometimes to both ("hat tip [originator] via [mysource]"). These links are courteous to my comrades in the ether, and provide a richer experience for the reader. Traditional news organizations sometimes complain that the whole blog world is an endless exercise in ripping off their...

03 June, 2010

If you are in or near Sydney this Saturday, here's an event to enjoy: The L'Arche Cape Breton Springfest show, an annual tradition in Judique, expands this year to Sydney. The program features two short videos produced at the community, a short play featuring L'Arche core members and assistants, and a selection of desserts from the Cocoa Pod—all for $15. There's also an auction with Leo Cox of Mabou swinging the gavel....

03 June, 2010

The setting for this cleavage shot by New York artist Bethany Jean Fancher is a tad unusual, but something else about the photo, from a newly published book of similar images, seems slightly off. To find out why, follow this link, but be prepared to confront and perhaps reconsider your own notions of sexuality and female objectification. Hat tip: Daily Dish....

02 June, 2010

At the D8 conference, via the New York Times, Apple CEO Steve Jobs muses about the future of the personal computer: Mr. Jobs also predicted that the ongoing shift in technology away from the PC and toward mobile devices will continue. But rather than disappear, the PC will become a niche product, he said. Mr. Jobs compared the role of the PC, the workhorse of computing for the past three decades, to the truck, when America was primarily an agrarian nation. “All cars were trucks because that’s what you needed on the farm,” he said. Now trucks are one in 25...

02 June, 2010
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