News
1. Northern Pulp Mill
Northern Pulp Mill. Photo: Halifax Examiner
The Canadian Press says the mill says it has reduced particulate matter by 25 percent, but no context is given for those numbers: Does the 25 percent reduction still exceed regulatory requirements or not? Meanwhile, in yet another remarkable example of Nova Scotia’s shoddy public record laws, the Chronicle Herald reports that:
The mill’s four stacks will be tested over the course of the coming week for particulate level emissions by an independent firm and the provincial Environment Department expects to receive those results within a month. However, Environment Minister Randy Delorey told The Chronicle Herald recently that the public may never get to see the results because they are the proprietary property of Northern Pulp.
Why emissions that everyone breathes are the proprietary information of the polluter is not explained.
2. Patricia Arab serves Muslims non-halal hot dogs
The MLA for Fairview-Clayton Park couldn’t purchase halal hot dogs for a community barbecue in Fairview on Saturday, so someone donated some regular chicken dogs and Arab waved her hands over them while uttering a prayer, and served those instead, telling the Muslim picnickers they were halal. Arab is a Maronite Catholic and evidently unaware that preparation of halal food is rather involved. The issue has understandably upset the Muslim community.
Besides all that, chicken hot dogs? What was she thinking????
3. $6.2 million for fish oil
A small cabal of unelected officials at Nova Scotia Business, Inc. has decided that a Danish firm is exempt from the democratically decided tax rates that everyone else has to abide by. The Danes will open a plant in Mulgrave to process fish oil.
4. Solidarity with Ferguson
El Jones and Ntombi Nkiwane have organized a rally for 4:30pm today.
5. The Unnamed Guy at the Bar
Metro interviews him, calls him “Cueball.”
Views
1. Hey Roger, it’s spelled T-H-I-E-L
In a sanctimonious screed, Roger Taylor tells Heritage Trust that dropping its suit against Joe Ramia (all bow) was the right thing to do. Astonishingly, Taylor goes on for 500 words about the evils of daring to question the Nova Centre approval but fails to mention the Thiel family’s suit over the exact same issue. The Thiel suit is very much alive, and is scheduled for a November hearing. The utter silence from mucky muck mouthpiece Taylor about the Thiel suit speaks volumes: The Thiels have money, and lots of it, while Heritage Trust is just some pensioners on fixed incomes. It must strain Taylor’s puny brain to contemplate the Thiels’ lawsuit. Better to ignore it.
2. Apartments
Stephen Archibald surveys the older apartment buildings in town. This is one of his most interesting photo essays yet.
3. Wong Watch
4. McNeil’s first year
Marilla Stephenson thinks people care what the Chamber of Commerce says.
5. How newspapers are failing us
I wrote this yesterday.
Government
No public meetings
On Campus
Dalhousie
Thesis defence, Interdisciplinary Studies (10am, Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building)—PhD candidate Sharon Woodill will defend her thesis, “Intelligent Design, Science, and Sexual Politics.”
Pharmacy education in Scotland (Noon, Room 109, Burbidge Building College of Pharmacy)—Vijay Thiruppugazh and Danielle Doherty, two students from Scotland, will talk about, yep, pharmacy education in Scotland.
Thesis defence, Civil and Resource Engineering (2pm, Room 3107, Mona Campbell Building)—PhD candidate Reza Jamshidi will defend his thesis, “Evaluation of Cement-Treated Soils Subjected to Cycles of Freezing and Thawing.”
Daily Plug
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was published from 1841 to 1955, and every issue is available online, on a site that includes a searchable database, which makes for great fun. Here, for example, is the front page on December 7, 1917, reporting on the Explosion in Halifax:
This is the first I’ve heard of it, but an American naval officer saw the explosion while 52 miles away, out at sea, and rushed to the scene. We’ve become accustomed to our 24-hour news channels getting the initial reports of breaking news wrong—they name the wrong shooter, say there’s two of them when there’s only one, and so forth. But even in 1917, the rush to get the story could overhype an already horrific news story and inaccurately report much larger numbers of dead. The officer speculated that 5,000 people were dead, which made its way prominently into the headline.
In the harbour
(click on vessel names for pictures and more information about the ships)
Arrivals
Overseas Skopelos, oil/chemical tanker, Port Arthur, Texas to Imperial Oil
Oceanex Sanderling, con-ro, St John’s to Pier 42
Veendam, cruise ship, Saint John to Pier 22
Ocean Odyssey, seismic vessel, BP Exploration to Pier 27
Departures
Cape Beale to sea
Don Juan to New York
Mainport Pine and Ocean Odyssey to BP Exploration area
Veendam to sea.
Footnotes
The province has tendered for a new ferry for the Grand Passage crossing at Digby Neck.
Garth Lynds, in Oxford, has started Old Goat Towing. Presumably, he’s the old goat.
Tim Bell posted this picture of the Chain of Lakes Trail sewer pipe on the Halifax Cycle Chat Facebook page:
Says Bell:
For anyone who’s interested in the progress along the COLT, here’s a pic that I took tonight just before the end of First Chain Lake after cycling down the trail from Chain Lake Drive, once the workers left. The pipe you see is laying next to the trail all the way up to this point from the park… I think to have this finished by mid September as they claim might be a Pipe Dream (excuse the pun) I’m thinking more like December, if at all this year.
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