A dystopic environmental fable in 10 minutes written and directed by Chris Perry, and produced as part of the collaborative animation program at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. If the animation does't appear, please click here. Original score composed and adapted for guitar by Evan Viera, and performed by Nathaniel Brookman....

23 March, 2011

A Halifax friend writes: When you see the rigamarole HRM Council goes through each year during budget time to decide which non-profit organizations will receive Community Grants of as little as a few hundred dollars, I find it hard to believe it never occurred to Mayor Kelly that he should consult council before endorsing a single $400,000 grant to Power Promotional Events Inc., a for-profit company. Surely Kelly would be aware of that organizations wishing to obtain a community grant are required to meet very stringent criteria and submit a formal application which is thoroughly vetted by staff from several different Municipal...

22 March, 2011

My week-long stint guest-blogging for James Fallows at The Atlantic's website is over. It was both daunting and fun—also a great honor for someone who grew up with The Atlantic and admires Jim enormously. I was delighted to discover Halifax native John Gould manning the editorial levers, together with an  all-around able crew. Thanks to all. My last two TheAtlantic.com posts: After the Quake: Will Japan Lose Its Head as the U.S. Did After 9/11? The Interior Lives of Others Previous entries noted here....

22 March, 2011

Andrew Sullivan, who writes the Daily Dish blog on The Atlantic's website, is one of these rare commentators who's fun to read when you agree with him, more so when you don't. If he weren't the sole member of the selection committee, he'd be a perennial shoo-in for his own Yglesias Award, which honors partisans willing to criticize their own side when warranted. In that spirit, I'll register my disappointment at Sullivan's recently announced decision to decamp for Tina Brown's Daily Beast, which itself recently merged with the faded Newsweek. I'm a Dish addict, but following Sullivan to the Beast will...

22 March, 2011

An anonymous reader writes: Marriage is the cruelest form of celibacy, so I thank you for the reminder of what women look like....

20 March, 2011

English sculptor and prop maker Jamie McCartney arranged 400 plaster casts of vulvas into a nine-meter polyptych, to be displayed at the Brighton Festival Fringe in May. The project took five years and a quarter ton of plaster. Subjects ranged in age from 18 to 76, and included mothers, daughters, identical twins, transgendered men and women, one woman before and after giving birth, and another before and after labiaplasty (a practice McCartney hopes his exhibition will discourage). For many women their genital appearance is a source of anxiety and I was in a unique position to do something about that. Vulvas...

19 March, 2011

[caption id="attachment_7540" align="alignright" width="200" caption="James Fallows"][/caption] Contrarian regulars know of my admiration for the eclectic James Fallows, who writes and blogs for The Atlantic. James is in China this winter, finishing up a book, and while he does that, rotating squads of unterbloggers are filling in for him. I'm in the rotation this week, and I've posted three items so far: A word about our sponsor Meet Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Alexander Graham Bell Defends His Butler. My week of guest-blogging happens to fall amidst a crush of other work, so it's unlikely I'll get much posted here until things settle down. But...

17 March, 2011

The New York Times has posted eight interactive satellite images of tsunami-ravaged cities in Japan. By moving the blue slider in the center of the image left and right, you can transition back and forth between the before and after images. (You can't do that on the screenshot shown here, only by going to the NYT site.) H/T: Richard Stephenson...

14 March, 2011

WeatherSpark, still in beta testing, seems to have everything: Past, present, and future Canadian data with customizable interactive fields for sun, clouds, precipitation, temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction. Here's a screenshot, but click through to the real McCoy. Very nice! H/T Nathan Yeo....

14 March, 2011
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