Society

Fashioning Fission: The Bikini A-Bomb Tests

Fashioning Fission: The Bikini A-Bomb Tests

July 16, 2021 at 10:39 am

Bikini, which was once inhabited by a hundred Marshallese, which once belonged to the Germans, and then the Japanese, now belongs to an unknown future along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. David Bradley, No Place to Hide Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No: thisRead More

Honors and Hours

Honors and Hours

June 30, 2021 at 12:38 pm

Two things. First, I have been so busy these past two weeks I forgot to tell you that Rob Csernyik’s Casino series, in addition to winning the Excellence in Digital Journalism: Enterprise/Longform Atlantic Journalism gold award won a Digital Publishing gold award for Best News Coverage (Community Publication).   ThisRead More

CBRM ‘Priorities’ List Has Gaps

CBRM ‘Priorities’ List Has Gaps

June 30, 2021 at 12:38 pm

CBRM council met this morning to discuss the results of its March 2021 closed-door, strategy-setting “workshops” at the Lakes Golf Club and Resort in Ben Eoin. Apparently, during the sessions, council articulated our vision: (I can’t wait until Tim Bousquet sees that — “vibrant” and “innovation” are two of hisRead More

All REIT: An Intro To Financialized Housing

All REIT: An Intro To Financialized Housing

June 30, 2021 at 12:32 pm

I’m going to start this week’s article on the financialization of housing by reproducing a graphic from the recent report from the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission — a graphic I just can’t get enough of because it really does say it all:   The man on the right sideRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

June 25, 2021 at 11:30 am

Tax Sales If the list of 104 properties — including 38 buildings  — up for tax sale in the CBRM has you wondering why CBRM doesn’t look into sourcing government funding for affordable housing and refurbishing some of them, you are not alone. I have long wondered about this too.Read More

What NS Could Learn from Vienna’s ‘Red Housing’

What NS Could Learn from Vienna’s ‘Red Housing’

June 23, 2021 at 12:16 pm

When it comes to social (or “public” or “subsidized”) housing, Vienna really seems to have its act together. I am tempted to present this information as though I’ve long been an admirer of the social housing of Vienna, but the truth is, I hadn’t realized it was a claim toRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

June 18, 2021 at 11:15 am

Mary Makes a Meme How it started:     How it’s going:   On the bright side, having let it it sit empty for two years (and catch fire once), the entrepreneurs who bought the building for $225,000 are hoping to sell it for $399,000.   Mary Makes Another MemeRead More

And the Winner is…

And the Winner is…

June 9, 2021 at 3:08 pm

The Atlantic Journalism Awards for 2021 were announced yesterday and the names of the gold winners in the Excellence in Digital Journalism: Enterprise/Longform category may sound familiar to you: Rob Csernyik/Mary Campbell – The Cape Breton Spectator – Sydney, NS – Sydney’s casino at 25. Yes, the Cape Breton Spectator,Read More

Short Takes — Wednesday Edition

Short Takes — Wednesday Edition

June 2, 2021 at 1:23 pm

I spent so much time on The Codfathers this week, I didn’t really have much left over to cover other issues but there are a few things I’d like to touch on, however briefly:   Affordable Housing I heard Catherine Leviten-Reid on CBC Information Morning Cape Breton today discussing aRead More

NATO HQ Brussels

Too Late to Shake NATO Awake?

June 2, 2021 at 1:19 pm

It’s Stockholm, 14 December, 1992, and Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev has begun to address over 50 of his counterparts at a summit meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), an institution widely considered instrumental in helping end the Cold War. Just two years afterRead More