A Chinese engineer, on his first trip to the United States, a work assignment for his company, snapped this photo, reproduced today on James Fallows's blog. Fallows asks his readers: Why did he take the photo? What happened next? For the answers, go here....
[Update below] A Canadian Internet civil libertarian has named South Shore Regional School Board Superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake "Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month" for placing student William Swinimer on five days suspension for wearing a shirt that read, "Life is wasted without Jesus." University of Waterloo computer science professor Jeffrey Shallit announced the tongue-in-cheek award on his Recursivity Blog, but his denunciation of Pynch-Worthylake's overreaction was anything but tongue-in-cheek: North American high schools are not places where free speech and criticism of authority are welcomed. Instead of teaching lessons about free speech, free expression, the Bill of Rights, and the Charter of...
Blues belter Matt Anderson and subtle folkie Dave Gunning seem like an odd pairing, but they played together beautifully last night before an appreciative audience at the Halifax Chamber of Commerce annual Spring Dinner. They were consistently funny, too. "I felt a bit nervous at the prospect of playing for such a high-powered crowd," Anderson said. "So I asked who played last year." "Jane Goodall."...
Our friend in Fredericton has been thinking about courage: On this day when everything changed, I think often of my friend. But that’s nothing new – she’s been on my mind every day this past year. For a year now, she has chosen to keep getting out of bed every morning, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to keep going—even when it seemed her world was crumbling. One year ago, in the days before this day, my friend was living as we all do when nothing major has gone wrong, when we are simply caught up in life’s daily...
Since Darrell Dexter has not yet decided to fire his Minister of Community Services, he is stuck having to defend her, and defending Denise Peterson-Rafuse these days requires saying some pretty silly things. That's just what Dexter did yesterday when he claimed Peterson-Rafuse was doing an "excellent job," adding, "The only people to release private information in this House are the members of the Conservative caucus." The tortured logic behind this argument, which Peterson-Rafuse has also used in her own defence, is that because the DCS report on Talbot House didn't use Fr. Paul Abbass's name, but only his job title,...
At the legislature Thursday, two key developments in the scandal enveloping the Department of Community Services and its minister, Denise Peterson-Rafuse. The Progressive Conservatives demanded the minister's resignation, arguing she had breached Nova Scotia's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) Act by allowing the department to publish a report that violated Fr. Paul Abbass's privacy by repeating false innuendo against him even after the CBRM police looked into allegations advanced by DCS and found no grounds to open a criminal investigation. In a scrum with reporters from the Cape Breton Post and Halifax Metro, Peterson-Rafuse made a string of statements about...
At Premier Darrell Dexter's request, the Hollis Street facade of Province House shines green every night this week in honor of the Green Porch Light Project for Organ and Tissue Donation, a grass roots campaign in which supporters of organ and tissue donation turn their porch lights green to celebrate National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, April 23-28. As darkness began to settle over West End Halifax Wednesday night, Rosa Eileen Barss Donham got in the spirit with a green porch light and blue butterfly wings, symbol of Nova Scotia's Legacy of Life program. Rosa knows someone dear to her...
Sydney's Weird Beard Troupe, a black light theatrical group featuring puppeteers with Down syndrome, holds its debut performance at Cape Breton University's Boardmore Theatre Friday. This being 2012, they've released a great trailer (best viewed full screen): The inaugural production features a modernized, hippified re-make of the the Tree Little Pigs fable. All the live shows sold out early, but a CD and storybook is available. [Disclosure: Contrarian had a small role in the production's scriptwriting.]...
In a piece of exquisite timing, the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness today released the report and recommendations of its Advisory Committee on Mental Health and Addictions Strategy (along with a 24-page summary). I haven't had time to read the 80-page report, which doesn't mention Talbot House of any of the province's five community-based addiction recovery centres. But I was struck by recommendation 2.6-1: Addictions inpatient beds for withdrawal management, opiate stabilization and structured treatment should be reconfigured according to evidence and best practice, utilizing alternative community-based approaches where possible. [Emphasis: Contrarian's.] Imagine that. H/T: John Percy, Leader, Green Party of Nova Scotia...
The video of a clever mariner squeezing his 80-foot mast under a '65 bridge on the Inter-Coastal Waterway reminded Chris Lambie of sailing across Florida's Lake Okeechobee with his father. We weren't sure if our mast would clear a bridge on the eastern edge of the lake, as the water level was pretty high. But my dad did the calculations and figured we'd squeak through. As we slipped underneath the span, the VHF antenna ticked gently against one of the girders, and dad got a speck of rust in his eye. I also remember running gently aground somewhere in the silt that...