Sometimes, in the midst of researching a mind-boggling dull subject, you dig up pure, unadulterated comedic gold. That’s what happened to me this week while I was trying to find out who was on the board of the Cape Breton Partnership (I still haven’t found out — I was toldRead More

CUSCFAOWEABL I started talking back to the computer pretty much from the jump during Episode Nine of Annette Verschuren’s never-ending podcast series, Bet On Me — this one bearing the catchy title: Leading and Living with Purpose: Exploring equity and inclusion with Deborah Gillis, CEO of CAMH Foundation. It startedRead More

Since last we spoke of Dartmouth-based Meta Materials, it has become the target of both a scathing short-seller’s report and a potential class action lawsuit. Both developments were reported in the local mainstream press — by SaltWire’s Newfoundland-based Barbara Dean-Simmons and the CBC’s Paul Withers — which I note because neitherRead More

CES 2022, this year’s iteration of the annual consumer electronics trade show that bills itself as “the most influential tech event in the world,” was a “beast,” according to Tech Crunch, despite COVID concerns that cut in-person attendance to 40,000 from 180,000 in 2019 and caused some major companies —Read More

Last fall, I was talking to South Bar resident and sometime Spectator contributor Rod Gale about the preponderance of provincial arts grants given to artists in Halifax. Gale has long taken an interest in the local arts scene — he’s the founder of Gobblefest, an alternative music festival held onRead More

Communications Writing about Island Employment’s travails this week, I had reason to visit the website of the Nova Scotia Career Development Association (NSCDA) and found myself perusing their catalog of training courses for their employees — or “practitioners” as they’re called. I ended up down a rather deep rabbit holeRead More

As 2021 drew to a close, Island Employment, a third-party provider of employment services funded largely by the provincial Department of Labour and Advanced Education (LAE), was making some rather startling headlines. The organization — which began life in 2000 as the Persons With Disabilities Association of Industrial Cape Breton,Read More

Let’s play a game. I’ll give you some quotes from two articles about CBRM District 10 Councilor Darren Bruckschwaiger and you tell me which are from September 2014 and which from December 2021: Quote No. 1 “I love the job but there comes a time in anybody’s career when it’sRead More

In late August The New Yorker featured a fascinating, slightly awestruck examination of “the Costa Rica Model” of “health care that understands its community,” by American surgeon and professor of public health Atul Gawande. Gawande, nominated by President Biden to serve as assistant administrator of the US Aid and DevelopmentRead More

Editor’s Note: We’ve been reaching back into Michelle Smith’s archive for gardening tips and this week, we found a good one about what to do when you’ve downed tools for the winter. (This column first appeared in November 2019).   What to do this week It’s time to hang upRead More