News
1. Needles
As early as October 2, the RCMP knew about needles being found in french fries at the Cavendish Farms plant, but the police didn’t notify the public about the incident until last week, after a needle was found in a potato in Labrador City. The police agency’s knee-jerk protection of corporate reputation over notifying the public about potential food tampering is outrageous.
2. Graffiti
Linda Mosher is riding around on her hobby horse again.
3. Forced amalgamation
A draft provincial–municipal fiscal review report suggests that some Nova Scotia towns should be forced to amalgamate with other towns or their counties, and that villages either be phased out of existence or required to become towns.
4. Grief
Delilah Saunders, Loretta Saunder’s sister, has a blog.
5. People get paid
Four Nova Star execs collectively make $425,000, reports Global News. I’m not sure why this is news.
Views
1. Increase taxes
Brenden Sommerhalder argues that the time is right to make some big investments in stuff we all want. This will, he acknowledges, mean an increase in city taxes, but the investments will soon pay for themselves.
2. Mushrooms
Lezlie Lowe goes ‘shrooming. Which reminds me, there are some wicked shrooms growing on the hill down from the Highway 101 rest stop just north of Laytonville, California, free for the picking. Or there were, anyway, back in the 90s.
3. It’s all Halifax’s fault
It’s Tom Urbaniak’s turn in the navel-gazing game everyone’s playing. Urbaniak’s take is that provincial politics are dysfunctional because all the politicians and hangers–on come from Halifax, and if only MLAs would breathe in that sweet Cape Breton air everything would be fine.
I’m beginning to tire of this game. Maybe the dysfunction doesn’t exist at all but is instead a manufactured conceit promulgated by people trying to push their own agendas, and the various gimmicks put forward to supposedly fix the supposed dysfunction—unity governments, substanceless “now or never” reports, frack everything to hell, requiring politicians to speak Gaelic, and whatever else is in the mix—are simply red herrings tossed out to avoid the uncomfortable truth that a society situated on a barren rock sticking out in the middle of the ocean won’t compete very well in the false global economy the neoliberalists have constructed for us, and real progress will be made only when we respond ideologically against that framework. I mean, maybe.
Government
City
Police Commission (12:30pm, City Hall)—Not much on the agenda.
Province
No public meetings.
On campus
Dalhousie
Brewing up Civilization: The History, Culture and Science of Beer (4pm, Scotiabank Auditorium, Marion McCain Arts & Social Sciences Building)—Gordon McOuat will “take us through a survey of brewing science, culture and technology. He will talk about its history: beer’s arrival from Europe to the new world, the issue of prohibition and the rise of big beer in Canada.” Having sat through McOuat’s talks about beer, I can testify that they’re entertaining.
Computer Science (5:30pm, CIBC Auditorium, Goldberg Computer Science Building)—Stan Matwin from the Institute for Big Data Analytics will talk on “Big Data: Opportunities & Challenges.”
Saint Mary’s
International Development Studies speakers series (noon, McNally Main, 227)—Naresh Singh will talk on “The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) to Development Practice: Framework and Implementation Challenges and Critiques.” That’s going to be a lot more exciting than the horrid title, promise.
Noticed
That’s a map of every car bomb in Baghdad since 2003. Turns out, making war has consequences. We should probably think about that before starting more wars.
In the harbour
(click on vessel names for pictures and more information about the ships)
Fusion, general cargo, Saint-Pierre to Pier 36, sails for Saint-Pierre
APL Belgium, container ship, Cagliari, Italy to Fairview Cove
Ruby Princess, cruise ship, Saint John to Pier 22, sails for Sydney
Brilliance of the Seas, cruise ship, Saint John to Pier 20, sails for Boston
Seven Seas Navigator, cruise ship, Saint John to Pier 23, sails for Sydney
Footnotes
For a story I’m working on, I need the help of a finance person, someone who understands investment practices and terminologies and can walk me through some numbers. If you’re that person, please email me at tim@halifaxexaminer.ca.
Re the Baghdad car bomb map: holy shit.
The map of every car bomb in Baghdad since 2003 is just plain scarey. Canadians need to think on whether Canada is primarily a net contributor to war or to that of peace. Our actions of late have not been encouraging. How much aid to the public in these war torn locations could be provided when one considers the price tag associated to one airstrike by a Canadian aircraft? How many airstrikes will Canadian assets make, and what will be the total cost of this latest venture into the so-called War on Terror? At one time Canada was recognized for its peace making activities… we do not hear much about that aspect anymore… unfortunate, eh?