To live in this place, we put up with winters that sometimes seem never-ending. But end they do—eventually. Winter isn't over yet, but Sunday brought a kindly foretaste of the warmth to come. That triggered my annual dip into Ray Guy's 1975 collection of newspaper columns, You May Know Them as Sea Urchins, Ma'am, and its final essay, "This Dear and Fine Country (Spina Sanctus)." Well, we made it once again, boys! Winter is over. Oh, but there is still snow on the ground. So what? It hasn’t got a chance. It is living in jeopardy from day to day. We should pity it because it...

13 March, 2011

Contrarian is not the Nova Scotia blog of record, but I don't want HRM Council's latest act of craven irresponsibility to pass uncommented upon. Neither does Contrarian reader Lindsay Brown, who writes: What is it about the Halifax lifestyle that produces more embarrassing stuff in just two weeks than you can put in a single opaque garbage bag? What am I missing? The facts are simple. Nova Scotia was a pioneer in trash sorting, diversion, and recycling, thanks to visionary provincial legislation. These measures were necessary to slow the pace of landfill growth,  given the horrendous obstacles to siting new...

13 March, 2011

Installation artist and urban activist Candy Chang turned the side of an abandoned house at the corner of Marigny and Burgundy in New Orleans into a giant chalkboard where residents can record what’s important to them. She provided chalk: Chang explains: It’s also about turning a neglected space into a constructive one where we can learn the hopes and aspirations of the people around us… [T]his entire process (including official approval from many entities) has been a great lesson, experience, and project in itself….I believe the design of our public spaces can better reflect what’s important to us. The responses and stories from...

12 March, 2011

Province accused of sweetheart dealing — Halifax Metro NDP accused of wasting cash — Chronicle-Herald Chamber: Paving bill will go up — Chronicle-Herald Road builders want government out of paving — Halifax Metro Ideology on the road -- AllNovaScotia A sophisticated lobby by the province's paving contractors appears to have hornswoggled the Halifax media. Correction: the lobby isn't all that sophisticated. Half an hour's research would have debunked the contractors' claim that socialist ideology trumped common sense in government's decision to buy and run its own paving plant. In various forums, the road-builders have argued the province can't possibly pave roads cheaper than they can. There's but...

11 March, 2011

Michael Kimber delivers a gutsy, lyrical call to action, challenging people with mental illness to speak for themselves and change public perceptions: If your device doesn't see the video, click here. H/T: Stephen Kimber...

11 March, 2011

When Henry Shukman, a writer for Outsideonline.com, visited the 30 km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, here’s what he found: The wild boar is standing 30 or 40 yards away, at the bottom of a grassy bank, staring right at me. Even from this distance I can see its outrageously long snout, its giant pointed ears, and the spiny bristles along its back. It looks part porcupine, a number of shades of ocher and gray. And it's far bigger than I expected, maybe chest-high to a man. The boar is like some minor forest god straight from...

11 March, 2011

Steve Nikkel's interactive map will tell you: As will his free iPhone app. Note that, in Nova Scotia, Telus uses Bell towers, and Rogers has frightfully poor coverage outside Metro. (This map could come in handy if you're trying to grow organic garlic.) H/T: Steve Manley...

09 March, 2011

TheAtlantic.com's tech columnist Alexis Madrigal marked the 135th anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell's US patent for the telephone by reproducing a doodle-like drawing of the device Bell submitted with his patent application: That's a fragment; see the whole diagram here. Madrigal found the image among Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, which are stored at the Library of Congress and available online in a searchable database. Naturally, that set Contrarian searching for terms like "Telegraph House" (9 hits), "Beinn Bhreagh" (100), "Ross Ferry" and "Kempt Head" (zip and zip). A search for "Sydney" produced 47 hits, including this remarkable letter to...

09 March, 2011

Ron Coleman, please note: Tim Hartford, the Underground Economist, weighs Genuine Progress as it plays out in the men's room of your favorite neighborhood pub. The question: Whenever I go to the gentlemen’s toilet in a pub, I’m unsure how to behave...

08 March, 2011

Extreme Contrarian friend BT writes: I support execution for people who violate the parking ban. Humanely, of course. Deputize the plow drivers so they can haul the outlaws out of their beds on the spot and shoot them in the back of the head, Chinese-style. ("This ain't no feather-duster I'm packing.") Many Halifax drivers are smarter than coyotes, so after half a dozen or so shootings, the streets will be clear. Real clear, if you get my drift. More moderate Contrarian reader JS has paid three tickets for his son's lack of access to parking at night—the plates are still in Dad's...

08 March, 2011
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