In an editorial reluctantly endorsing the Liberal Party to win this Saturday's Ontario election, Torontoist, a community news site based in—well, you can probably guess where it's based, put the case against voting for a fringe party even when you really, really dig its policies: We actually quite like the Green Party platform, and if there was a single riding in Ontario where the Green Party had any realistic chance of winning a seat, we would encourage you to vote for them there. Unfortunately, as of this writing there does not appear to be a such a riding: not even in Guelph, where party leader Mike Schreiner is running. And...

10 June, 2014

New Brunswick residents anxious for news about the Moncton gunman might be expected to turn to their local newspaper's website. Unless they are subscribers, this is what they will find: All English language newspapers in New Brunswick belong to the Irving empire, and all use a single website, lodged firmly behind a paywall. As the Moncton drama unfolded last night, many on Twitter urged the company to lift the paywall while the gunman was at large and residents were hungry for information. In a surprisingly querulous response,  Fredericton Gleaner columnist Adam Bowie shed some light on the papers' failure to respond:   After 14 hours, time enough for "newsroom inability" to morph...

05 June, 2014

In response to an engineer's grumble here yesterday that Nova Scotia could take a page from unlikely Iowa in promoting local engineering process, alert Nova Scotia Business Inc. communications director Shawn Hirtle sends along some made-in-NS business promotion graphics that stand up pretty well to Iowa's: Writes Hirtle: It was great to read the piece in Contrarian that highlighted how jurisdictions like Iowa position themselves and attract companies. New and home-grown companies grow in Nova Scotia because of business factors including: Talent and available workforce A supportive business community Cost competitive business models Doing international work (export, export, export). We could quibble about some of this. The second poster boasts...

05 June, 2014

This full-page ad, in an international trade journal aimed at green energy providers, caught the eye of a consulting engineer in Nova Scotia.   How can we compete with this? Well, on a per capita basis, that's how. Iowa has just over three times the population of Nova Scotia, and graduates just over three times as many engineers as we do. Writes the engineer: Imagine the Nova Scotia government putting a full page ad in a major trade magazine extolling our engineering strength. Nah, I can't imagine it either. Instead, we attract a steady stream of talented young people who come here from other parts of the world to get top notch university educations,...

04 June, 2014

One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather, Laurel Marie Amirault of Pubnico chanced to meet a busy mother Goose. She snapped this image last week at Belleisle Marsh, near Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. It's hard to say exactly how many goslings this bird has in tow. I count at least 17, but there could be more. Since the average brood size for Canada geese hovers around five, the experts on the Nova Scotia Bird Society's Facebook Page, where Amirault posted the photo, speculated that baby sitting, adoption, or kidnapping was at play. Opinions divided as to whether one goose could successfully look after so many charges. This is...

01 June, 2014

Background: On Wednesday, I chided polemicists who use tragic events to push personal causes, citing a Washington movie critic who connected the Santa Barbara killings with Judd Apatow movies. In response, a gun control opponent accused me of mounting a hobby horse of my own, when I praised anti-gun comments by the father of a San Diego victim. A Halifax reader responds: Here's a hobby horse worth riding: Random killings are caused by serious, untreated mental illness. Are we powerless to do something about that? ...

01 June, 2014

On Friday, I paid homage to Jose Bautista, the Blue Jays' right fielder, who accomplished the rare feat of throwing out a batter at first base the previous night. According to MLB.com, it was only the sixth time since 1974 that a 9-3 putout had been recorded in the American League.* Later Friday night, Bautista did it again, cutting down Kansas City Royals' second baseman Omar Infante on a pop fly to right. Infante initially thought the ball was foul, and turned his back on the play while still in the batter's box. Bautista tried to make a sliding catch, but succeeded only in smothering the ball,...

01 June, 2014

Who can resist this? Last night, Blue Jay right fielder Jose Bautista robbed Kansas City Royals' designated hitter Billy Butler of a single, by throwing him out at first on a sharply hit one-hopper to right. (If the animated gifs don't load in the e-mail version, you can see them here.) About a third of the way to first, Butler puts his head down and digs, as the realization dawns he might be in trouble: Also note Bautista's somersault from the momentum of his throw. A Baseball Prospectus article I can no longer find catalogs recent plays* in which a right-fielder zapped a batter at first, but pooh-poohs the phenomenon on grounds...

30 May, 2014

Well, whoop-dee-do! The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has granted a charter bus company permission to use five additional buses when servicing cruise ships that visit Sydney. This UARB decision required: Notice in two daily newspapers and the Nova Scotia Gazette A detailed application by the charter company A two-day hearing in the UARB's Halifax office, 400 km from Sydney The time and attention of three UARB commissioners, a UARB lawyer, and a lawyer for the bus company Testimony by the Sydney Ports Corporation, the Halifax Port Authority; Destination Halifax; the Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia, the Halifax Chamber of Commerce; and the Sydney & Area Chamber of Commerce. A further...

30 May, 2014

It's the perfect marriage of self-righteousness, misanthropy, and medical quackery. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, aka PETA, showed its own ethical colours this week by promoting veganism with a discredited ad that falsely links milk consumption to autism. In reality, there is no link. But why scruple to exploit the distress of parents coping with autism, when a truly important cause, like ending cow milking, is at stake? There is no credible scientific evidence that milk products play any role in autism. Forbes debunks the PETA ad here. The website ScienceBasedMedicine debunks it here. Wired debunks it here. WrongPlanet.net debunks it here. The London Telegraph debunks it here. All this matters little to the charlatans at PETA....

28 May, 2014
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