Greg Beaulieu writes: I particularly enjoyed this piece, probably in part because I agree with your view on the topic at hand around MLAs' expenses and the like, and have been appalled (sorry Alexa) by some of the public reaction that was seen in places like the Herald's online comments section, where it is apparently OK to impugn the integrity of politicians and their staff, but not Herald reporters. The message you received from Mr. Whateverhisnameis sounds a lot like the comments one sees at the Herald and elsewhere...

22 May, 2010

A story by Judy Myrden in Friday's Chronicle-Herald falsely conflated the cost of producing the NDP Government's new Electricity Plan with the cost of a Pictou County media briefing and announcement of the plan. The effect was to overstate the cost of the news conference by four times. Called on the falsehood, the paper repeats it in today's lead story, also written by Myrden. Myrden then compounds this dishonesty by falsely accusing Premier Darrell Dexter's chief of staff, Dan O'Connor, of denying he had anonymously posted comments to the Herald's website pointing out the paper's misrepresentation. O'Connor told Contrarian Saturday morning that Myrden...

22 May, 2010

Contrarian turned one year old this week, and our pal Lindsay Brown took the occasion to upbraid us, with ever so uncharacteristic gentleness, on our use of the word begrudgery: Your blog is not only wonderful, but essential. Yet I have the temerity to opine that no journalist worth his own block of salt should make up words. Especially a word that resembles the name of a caged bird far more than what their careless author intended to convey. Honey, there ain't no such word as begrudgery. And you should get a hold on your temerity and your opining and make use...

21 May, 2010

In response to this, someone called Peter Watts or perhaps Paul Buher, writes from a cryptic email account: You, sir, are a pig, and no different than Darrell Dexter. You hide under the guise of a political blog during the day, only to be writing for the NDP at night. A $15,000 pay cheque isn't too bad I suppose. Good for you. I have news for you. Anything you write on that virulent blog from this day forward is tainted with the stink of NDP orange, corruption, and self-serving interest. As I said, you sir, are a pig. I wonder how Mr. Whateverhisrealnameis...

21 May, 2010

A resident of England, who spends much of his time in Nova Scotia working on Seaside's rural high-speed Internet project, writes from Tel Aviv, where he is attending a wedding: An Irish fiddle band is providing the music for the wedding. The band members are all Israelis. I was chatting with one of them, and he asked what I did. I told him about Seaside and spending half my life in Canada. "I'm going to Canada in the autumn," he said. "I'm going somewhere called Cape Breton, for a festival called Celtic Colours." So a Londoner visiting Israel meets an Israeli playing in...

21 May, 2010

A documentary film crew follows a group of daredevil commercial artists as they hand paint a 20x50 foot brick wall in NYC: Higher resolution here; Stop animation of the advert's creation here. Hat tip: Daily Dish....

20 May, 2010

Back on February 15, Contrarian had the temerity to opine that the MLAs' expense scandal was pretty small potatoes—more a matter of public begrudgery than actual wrongdoing. This evoked private expressions of appreciation and gratitude from MLAs and political aides of all parties—and howls of indignation from readers (here, here, and here). Events swiftly made my apologia seem naively over-generous. Two MLAs resigned, a third was kicked out of government caucus, and Premier Darrell Dexter, who built his career on his seemingly perfect ear for public sensibilities, turned suddenly, stubbornly, and uncharacteristically tone-deaf when his own personal expenses fell under scrutiny. Much...

12 May, 2010

The Boston Globe has 40 heart-wrenching photos of the Gulf oil spill. A sampling: Thirty-six more here. Hat tip: Elaine Gibson....

12 May, 2010

Hannah Fairfield of the New York Times plots the number of miles driven by US drivers, both private and commercial, against the retail price of gasoline from 1956 to February, 2010. The horizontal axis represents miles driven, while the vertical axis shows the price per US gallon (3.79 litres) in current US dollars. The drawn path represents the passage of time. Note that sharp spikes in gas prices coincided with reductions in miles driven in 1973, 1978, and from 2005 to 2010. Click here for a larger image with interesting subgraphs and embedded commentary....

12 May, 2010
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