A view of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of Maine and Quebec, taken from the International Space Station. Click the image for a larger version. The bright spot at the left side is Montreal Quebec City;* that on the middle right is Halifax. Other bright spots include (left to right) Bangor, Saint John, Moncton, and Charlottetown. Close inspection reveals Truro, New Glasgow, Antigonish, Port Hawkesbury, and Sydney. The St. Lawrence River appears as a string of lights heading northeast from Montreal, and the Gaspe Peninsula is outlined in light. I believe the aurora borealis accounts for the greenish hue on the horizon. A...

14 February, 2012

A fleeting moment on CBC radio this morning pointed to a disintegration of the social fabric in rural Nova Scotia that ought to be more clearly on our collective radar. Jim Morrow, proprietor of Victoria County's only newspaper and CBC Cape Breton's volunteer “party line” correspondent at municipal council, declined to name the public members of the newly created Victoria County Police Advisory Board. Justice Minister Ross Landry created the board to serve as liaison between the RCMP and the County Council. Host Steve Sutherland asked who was on it. Morrow: I don't know if I should really say that, because some of the...

14 February, 2012

Contrarian reader George Gore liked the video if Guillaume Blanchet, The Man Who Lived On His Bike, because: I lived for four months on a bicycle in the fall of 2006 and spring of 2007, riding from Chester to Ciudad Victoria, in Mexico, and then up the Rio Grande valley from Matamoros to Alpine. Gore also shares my non-hostility toward Amazon: In 1961 I was a twenty-one year old college freshman partially supporting myself by working in a bookstore. The store manager was Bobby Berg, who was the best bookseller I have ever encountered, and I shared that opinion with a lot of...

12 February, 2012

Last week, a branch of the Anonymous hackers' collective known as Antisec took took over the Boston Police Department's website, replacing the home page with a screed protesting against the eviction of Occupy protesters, and a video of American rapper KRS-One performing his song "Sound of Da Police." Regaining control of the website took almost a week, enough time for police to devise a deft antidote to hacking: droll, deadpan humor. This is one cop shop that doesn't look flatfooted....

12 February, 2012

Federal government benefits in the US —chiefly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,  veterans' benefits, income security, unemployment insurance, and veterans' benefits—accounted for 17.6 percent of personal income in 2009. The New York Times today published another of its fantastic interactive charts, this one showing where federal assistance has gone over the last 40 years: what counties got what percentage of their personal income from which programs in each of those years. This screenshot doesn't do the actual chart justice, so click through to the original. An accompanying story concludes that, while social support programs once went mostly to the poorest Americans, the middle...

12 February, 2012

Stranger: The composer, lead vocalist, and guitarist is Alicia Penney, one-time lead singer with the Tom Fun Orchestra. She's accompanied by local hero Steven Wilton on percussion, Ben Furey on banjo (yes!) and vocals, and Carolyn Lionais on vocals. Sydney punk rock veteran Harry Doyle produced the session did the sound mix at his Small Studios. [Correction:] Jenni Welsh and Stefan MacNeil produced the video. Kudos to Welsh, who's been doing pro bono videos for a lot of alternative (i.e. other-than-Celtic) musicians Cape Breton. Starting perhaps with the Be Good Tanyas, or perhaps much earlier with John McCutcheon, the banjo is enjoying new...

11 February, 2012

Previewing a forthcoming movie about Nova Scotia's most interesting neighbourhood: Directed by Peter Giffen of Moncton's PostMan post production studio. Giffen describes the trailer as a sneak preview to an hour-long documentary still in production, that follow from Heart Of Steel, a doc Giffen directed for Video Tech Ltd. of Halifax under contract to the Sydney Tar Ponds cleanup project. H/T: Alicia Penney...

10 February, 2012

Peter Barss thinks newscasters overuse puns. In a letter to CTV, he wrote: Like many news stations (radio and television) you seem inclined to use as many puns as you can fit into a story. The question I'd like to suggest that you ask yourselves is, "Why?" Does a pun help to elucidate a story? I don't think so. In fact, the use--overuse actually--of puns acts as a distraction from the news. Instead of helping to clarify a story, puns draw attention to the "cleverness" of the speaker. It's like "Hey, look at me. I just found another pun." Just because a...

10 February, 2012

Alicia Rius, a Spanish born photographer now living in Amsterdam, has produced a series of photographs on one of Contrarian's favorite visual subjects: abandoned cars. What's unusual is that all the photos were shot from inside the car, and from the vantage point of the back seat: All ten images here. Maybe some Contrarian readers have similar photos they'd like to share from this side of the Atlantic. H/T: Alison Nastasi...

02 February, 2012

I bought a lot of books on line in the run-up to Christmas, and I was struck by how much quicker Amazon was able to get them to me than Chapters. When I tweeted this observation, a fellow tweep chided me — of all people — for not patronizing local bookstores. I like a nice bookstore as much as the next fellow. Who doesn't enjoy wandering through the stacks at J. W. Doull's, feeling the stairs creak underfoot, talking books with the marvellous staff he employs. But it's no accident that John Doull can no longer afford the rent in downtown...

02 February, 2012
Show more
Loading...