A curmudgeonly friend writes: Do you live in a mid-sized city with poor public transit, a taxi fleet choked with vested interests, and a risible bicycle system? Do you fear there will never be a day when folks can get around your city efficiently, emitting a minimum of greenhouse gases? If so, then the family sedan may be the answer. That’s crazy talk, of course. Buses are far more efficient, right? But how many times have you driven behind a bus containing two, one or zero passengers. Do you really believe the greenhouse gas emissions from your trusty Corolla are more than those...

15 May, 2012

Anyone who saw Cirque du Soleil's recent shows in Halifax will have noticed the circular structure used to convey people and props between the stage and the upper reaches of the MetroCentre's girders. The shape of this trussed torus, and the way it hung in the air, reminded me of something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then it hit me: Alexander Graham Bell's circular kite, two fabric-covered disks, conjoined by tetrahedral trusses, flying over Beinn Bhreagh. No larger point here — the structures aren't even all that similar in detail — just a striking confluence of shape, style, and scale across...

15 May, 2012

Want to learn how to play Fire and Rain? James Taylor has been posting free guitar lessons on his website. Even if you have no intention of learning the tune, Lesson Four is a beautifully produced video of a gorgeous instrumental rendition of Taylor's signature tune. [Video link] H/T: Tara Calishain...

14 May, 2012

A design company called Lunar has been pouring fine sand through perforated metal plates, with interesting results: [Video link] HT: 99% Invisible, my new favorite podcast. Thanks to Marie....

13 May, 2012

Golly, tons of reaction — on all sides — to cyber-libertarian Jeff Shallit's nomination of South Shore District School Superintendent Pynch-Worthylake as "Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month." (Apologies for the delayed posting; it's been a busy week.) Chris McCormick writes: I figure someone's right to express their opinion is balanced by my right to ignore them; the principal's reaction just valorizes the 'victim society' where we want to whitewash all differences and offending symbols...

13 May, 2012

Dan Bedell, Atlantic Canada Communications Director for the Canadian Red Cross, adds a useful postscript to my piece about the unusual pairing of bluesman Matt Anderson and folkie Dave Ginning at a Halifax Chamber of Commerce dinner on May 2. Matt’s a big guy with a big heart. He's from the Perth-Andover, NB, area, where he organized a benefit concert April 28 that included Bruce Guthro and Lennie Gallant among others. Perth-Andover’s population is only about 1900, and there were close to 1200 in attendance, while others watched via live web streaming. Ticket revenue and various door prize/50-50 sales, plus cash donations at the...

13 May, 2012

The ultra-conservative US Tea Party movement is taking a page from Stephen Harper's playbook: gutting the census. Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed an appropriations bill that would shutter several Census Bureau projects and programs. Robert Groves is the Bureau's director: [Video link] My mother, a school board member in her tiny Maine town, had a bumper sticker that read, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." You might equally, if less pithily, say, "If you think the census is expensive, try not knowing what's happening to your country's population." Gathering statistical information about a country's demographics has been a hallmark...

13 May, 2012

As long as the Harper Government is hell bent on reforming Canada's environmental assessment process, a Contrarian friend thinks we could save a lot of time by making this the first step: ...

12 May, 2012

The surprisingly (to me) young audience that gathered Thursday night at Empire's Park Lane Cinema in Halifax to see a simulcast of the American Public Radio program This American Life. The slightly older audience that gathered for the actual show at the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York City: Given the affection for radio among Canada's chattering classes, I'm surprised at how many Nova Scotians have never heard of This American Life, a superb one-hour program produced each week at WBEZ in Chicago. A typical episode features a collection  documentaries, essays, readings, memoirs, and found footage loosely grouped around a single...

11 May, 2012

Our friend in New Brunswick has been channeling Pat Boone: Dear Aliant, It’s not me, it’s you. We’ve been through a lot together. Land lines and cell phones. Dial-up, high-speed, wireless Internet sticks and now, fibre-op. I’ve treated you well. Sent you hundreds of dollars every single month. Tried to keep the lines of communication open. We’ve talked and talked – never more than during my recent move to New Brunswick. In fact, we just got off the phone with one another, marking our tenth call related to my move from Nova Scotia. I called you just now because I was alarmed to receive...

07 May, 2012
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