Will a little PDA keep the doctor away? Public displays of affection like hand holding, hugging, or smooching on the street corner are coming under the microscope at St. Francis Xavier University, where Karen Blair, an assistant professor of psychology, is trying to determine how they affect human health. “My overall hypothesis is generally that...
U.S. nuclear-powered submarine arrives in Halifax Harbour
A U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine slipped into Halifax Saturday afternoon. People strolling along the waterfront at Point Pleasant Park stopped to watch as a Canadian navy tugboat and two smaller runabouts accompanied the sub into the harbour while kids in small sailing dinghies tacked nearby. “Hopefully it doesn’t blow up,” said Lucie Taussag, a French...
Are we doing right by international students?
Nova Scotian universities value international students for their big tuition payments and the cultural diversity they bring to campus. How's that working?
Elias Galindo was walking down Spring Garden Road around sunset last November with a fellow international student from Mexico when a vanload of young men started following them. It was the day after Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, largely on promises to wall off his country’s southern neighbour, clamp down...
Climate change puts seaweed and the fish that depend on it at risk
If the world doesn’t do anything to curb carbon emissions, seaweed off Nova Scotia could suffer, according to new research out of Dalhousie University. Kristen Wilson, who is earning her masters in marine ecology at Dal, presented her work Friday that projects range shifts of canopy-forming seaweed species in the Northwest Atlantic with continued climate...
Linda Moxsom-Skinner wants to build Halifax’s first public labyrinth
Also, other big changes are coming to the Atlantic School of Theology.
When Linda Moxsom-Skinner was pondering whether she should run again in the next provincial election, she turned to a labyrinth to find the answer. The New Democrat lost the Timberlea-Prospect riding to Liberal Iain Rankin in 2013 by more than 2,000 votes. She was working last year as a fundraiser at the Atlantic School of...
Engineering students show off their creations
Imagine a cross between and old-fashioned sewing machine and a tiny guillotine. That’s the blueberry stem cutter Aidan Blanchard and his teammates produced for Higbee’s Berry Farm & Nursery. In the process of cloning blueberry bushes to sell to other farmers, the woman who owns the New Ross operation was getting carpal tunnel syndrome and...
Prince as the “Dionysian Christian”
Eli Diamond was seven years old when he bought his first Prince and the Revolution album. It was Purple Rain. “And then I bought every single subsequent Prince album on the day it came out. So I’m a bit of a Prince geek,” Diamond, an associate professor of ancient philosophy in Dalhousie University’s Classics Department,...
Canada lagging on suits against tobacco companies
Other provinces ought to consider establishing funds like the pots of public money set aside in Quebec and Ontario to help fund class-action suits, says Dalhousie University’s top lawyer. “One of the things we learned from the US tobacco litigation story is just how hard it is when you don’t (have public financial support),” Dean...
Dal oceanographer: Tidal turbines won’t affect Minas Basin sediments
The bigger threat from the turbines is probably to large sea creatures that are already at risk of extinction, says Paul Hill.
Contrary to earlier predictions, sediment texture in the Bay of Fundy is unlikely to change if we introduce large-scale tidal power development, according to the head of Dalhousie University’s Oceanography Department. Sediments in the Gulf of Maine are also unlikely to change much with the installation of tidal turbines in the Minas Passage, Paul Hill...
Is fascism coming to Canada?
The rise of right-wing populist movements world-wide is the product of economic malaise that Canada has been able to ward off due to its resource economy. Now that's changing, says economist David Green.
Canada’s oil boom might be what saved us from electing a leader like Donald Trump, according to an economist who spoke Thursday at Dalhousie University. Trump’s victory, as well as the United Kingdom’s decision to pull out of the European Union, have raised lots of questions about whether those outcomes are reflections of disaffectedness amongst...