Contrarian reader PC responds to our annoyance at our future king's mispronunciation of the name of Canada's 10th province: I am more troubled by the many Canadians west of the Atlantic Provinces who use the same mispronunciation, including Carol Off on As It Happens just a few nights ago.  How can someone who works for the CBC, where every national program announcement finishes with "half an hour later in ...

08 November, 2009

In the window of J.W. Doull Bookseller, on Barrington Street in Halifax, today: Our Sincere Apologies To the owners of The Palace, Bubbles' Mansion, Peddlar's Pub, The Alehouse, The Dome, The Lower Deck, Maxwell's Pub, The Midtown, The Old Triangle, Cheers, The Split Crow, Durty Nellie's, &c* It is clear that one of our customers, upon leaving our shop after browsing in the mind-altering world of books, must have gone on to cause some sort of upset in one of your establishments. Whereupon some brave customer of yours in a fit of most laudable loyalty, then saw fit to smash...

07 November, 2009

A pair of Bonapart's gulls (top photo) feeding off the rocky shoreline at Auld's Cove today, part of a massive assembly of seabirds drawn by the annual migration of needlefish through the Strait of Canso. Birders counted more than 150 mature and juvenile Gannets (lower photo). ...

07 November, 2009

As the final chord of "Paint it Black," opening number in the Rolling Stones' 2006 Halifax Commons concert, faded into the distance, Mick Jagger thanked the crowd for coming out despite foul weather. "We hear there's even a group that came all the way from Newfoundland," he said. The remarkable thing is that Jagger, the consummate professional, took the trouble to pronounce the name of Canada's 10th province correctly. So after 60 years as heir to the throne, is it too much to ask the presumed future King of Canada to show the same care and respect? [Update] Contrarian readers have leapt to...

03 November, 2009

Pop anthropologist Wade Davis, the first of whose CBC Radio Massey lectures¹ just ended in the Atlantic time zone, obviously has a lot of knowledge to impart about the Earth's diverse human cultures. So why did her  waste a good half of the opening talk shooting racist fish in a 19th Century barrel? Davis's point was that the errant 19th Century "science" of physical anthropology dripped with colonial arrogance, but the thinly disguised subtext seemed to be Davis's own moral superiority to these imperial prigs. The effect was both distasteful and boring, like listening a 21st Century astrophysicist satirize the Ptolemaic...

02 November, 2009

There's a blog for everyone, including hapless weekly newspaper photographers who must sally forth in pursuit of "miserable people pointing at dog turds." Hat tip: Susan Delacourt....

02 November, 2009

In response to this morning's post about mandated choice in organ donation progams, Contrarian reader JB points out this TED talk by Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational, about counter-intuitive aspects of human decision making. The discussion of organ donation starts at the five minute mark, but the whole talk is fascinating....

02 November, 2009

As Contrarian has noted, the Hydro Quebec-NB Power deal poses huge for problems Nova Scotia. What's more surprising is how shabby the deal seems to be for New Brunswick: NB sheds $4.8 billion in debt, but also loses critical long-term strategic assets, including its transmission grid and a potentially lucrative energy portal into the insatiable New England electricity market. NB remains saddled with the ballooning costs for refurbishing the aging Pt. Lepreau power plant, but Quebec Hydro gets the plant. NB does get some relief in the cost of replacement energy while Lepreau is offline. NB remains stuck with NB Power's thermal stinkers—one...

30 October, 2009

A source tells Contrarian the Globe and Mail had the Hydro Quebec-NB Power  story six weeks ago, but didn't get around to running it until last weekend. Speaks volumes about how much Atlantic Canada has slipped off the national press corps radar. Initial man-on-the-street reaction in NB seems negative; one can only wonder at the outcome had the Globe alerted its readers before negotiators sorted out all the details....

30 October, 2009

[caption id="attachment_2855" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Kempt Head, Nova Scotia"][/caption]...

30 October, 2009
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