Remember the kerfuffle when the Province of Nova Scotia's official sex guide for seventh graders, called Sex? A Healthy Sexuality Resource, was unveiled in 2004? Some school boards refused to distribute the guide because, of course, knowledge encourages teen sex and ignorance prevent it. That's the guide's chaste cover, at right. Want to know how a sensible country does sex education? Check out this sex ed kit for kids of comparable age in a European country. From the outside, the kit looks like this: And inside:   The sensible country is Finland. Click here for a translation of the news story describing it. The paper...

31 October, 2011

A failed Nova Scotia NDP leader for leader of the national NDP? Hasn't that been tried before? I don't know what he's up to. Certainly not hoping to become leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Raising his personal profile? For what? Consolidating regional delegates in case of a brokered convention? To what end? The whole thing strikes me as an exercise in misplaced vanity....

31 October, 2011

Bill Turpin, one of the few Nova Scotians who has both edited a daily newspaper editor and worked as a civil servant, disagrees with my criticism of Evan Solomon for addressing cabinet ministers as "Minister." The use of "Minister" by bureaucrats is not deferential. It's good form used for good reason. The term is a reminder to both parties that they are engaged in a special relationship. It reminds the Minister that she is not merely a politician, but also someone whose job is to direct the civil service in the best interests of the people. It reminds bureaucrats their jobs...

30 October, 2011

I don't normally post videos that already have five million hits, but this animated version of a talk by educator and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson underscores a point made by Sunni Brown in her TED talk about the merits of doodling. There is something about the combination of speech and visual note-taking that enhances comprehension, especially comprehension of irony and ideas in conflict. Robinson's talk is about education, but the animated nature of the talk the talk is as arresting as the content. [Educators] are trying to meet the future by doing what they did in the past, and along the...

30 October, 2011

Professors of journalism or public relations would do well to save a copy of today's episode of CBC Radio's "The House" for a classic example of how a politician can use talking points to hornswoggle an overly deferential interviewer. At about 14 minutes into the program, Evan Solomon asks International Trade Minister Ed Fast an obvious question about the recent spate of US protectionist measures aimed at Canada: Why are you being caught off guard by these sudden protectionist measures coming out of the US? Fast responded with a set of talking points so scripted, you can almost hear him rhyming off the bullets: We’re focused...

29 October, 2011

The format of a standard business card is so inherently boring, it cries out for creative embellishment. In place of the usual 2x3-inch card, games inventer Will Wright (SimCity) hands out worthless paper currency stamped with his contact information. This bill, which Wright recently gave The Atlantic's technical editor Alexis Madrigal, happens to be from Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists. Fittingly, it features electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla. (That's the blurred-out stamp on the right-hand side.) Why didn't we think of that, dear reader? H/T: Alexis Madrigal...

29 October, 2011

I won't presume that Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner, poster child for the Harper government's plan to kill the long gun registry, was purposely being nasty when she referred to citizens who oppose the registry as “good salt-of-the-earth people," "upstanding citizens who work hard," and parents whose children "probably aren’t involved in gangs in the streets.” But I wish she would take a moment to consider how offensive her characterizations are. They’re upstanding citizens who work hard. They take their kids and grandkids out hunting and shooting and those kids, by the way, probably aren’t involved in gangs in the streets. These are...

25 October, 2011
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