Cornwallis park peace protests

About an hour ago a number of people showed up to protest the defence conference called the Halifax Forum. The event is being held in the Westin Nova Scotian, just across the street from Cornwallis Park, where the protests are being held. At just after the appointed hour not all that many people were there, though eventually a few more did show up.

This clip was taken at just after 1:00 PM.



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When I went back to watch things a little later a sheet was in the process of being placed over the statue of Cornwallis.



Below the statue there was a little of the traditional call and response and drum banging going on.

All in all, things seemed to be pretty calm the last time I looked. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but the turnout out really wasn't as big as I expected given the list of attendees and the amount of time that people had to plan the event.

Montifax goes legit

Some of you may have been wondering about the credibility of some of the content found on Montifax. Turns out there is no need to worry, we provide content that is of a high enough quality that it can be cited in an academic publication.

I guess I should explain how I know that this is the case.

Earlier tonight while I was waiting for various SSHRC application/from pages to load I started strolling around the internet. In particular I was curious to see who was linking to Montifax these days (if you are curious, it is a rather short list of sites). I

Interestingly, one of the results that was returned was both new and a little different than some of the others. By following the link I was taken to an article in the Journal of English Linguistics by Sandra Clarke and Philip Hiscock. The article, entitled "Authenticity in an Online Newfoundland Rap GroupHip-hop in a Post-insular Community: Hybridity, Local Language, and Authenticity in an Online Newfoundland Rap Group," examines the content and context of the Gazeebow Unit phenomenon.

By taking a quick look at the article I was able to see that they had included a quote of mine from A Few Quick Notes 38. In the chosen quote I suggest not only that I have recently been "thinking about my favourite Newfoundland hip-hop/rap group, Gazeebow Unit" but also that "For those of you who have not heard Gazeebow Unit you are in for a surprise/treat. The skeet lifestyle has never before received such an eloquent treatment."

Anyway, in a strange way this seems to at least partly justify the time I have spent on Montifax over the past few years (though this was a comment that I wrote in the early months of the blog).

Attack of the bots

It seems that our comments sections are being spammed rather frequently these days (meaning about once a day for the past few days). I wonder if this means that we will have to implement some type of anti-spam bot filter in these areas?

I guess I am thinking about this because Neil directed me towards VK Couples Testing a few days ago. When I ran the test with Rebecca, just so that I could figure it out, I ended up failing (though only by missing the case on the final 'n').

Anyway, if we are motivated you might see a few changes in our comments section in the coming days (though the more I think about it the more I get the sense that these spam comments actually make it look as though people are reading our blog).

A Few Quick Notes 373

-Today was another great day in Halifax. Though it was above 10 for the better part of the day it is apparently forecast to drop as low as -2 tonight. I am somewhat curious whether this will actually happen or not. At the moment we need to drop another 10 degrees to get there (and that is on top of the 5 that we have already lost since today's high this afternoon).

-We had another tofu stir-fry for dinner tonight.

-Neil and Rebecca attended a few of the torch ceremonies yesterday evening. I was a little bit confused about when and where things were happening so I didn't participate (though I did get a free pre-torch Coke Zero while I was at Dal). Apparently they saw people like Dexter, Campbell, and maybe Crosby.

I guess I should also note that I am probably not a particularly big fan of the Olympic torch relay. The thing about it that I have been finding particularly frustrating is that every day they have been including a half-page story on page 3 of the Globe and Mail about the torch relay. This wasn't news to begin with and it certainly isn't news now that we are three weeks.

-I spent the afternoon in the Nova Scotia archives. While I wasn't as productive as I might have liked to have been, I think that in the end it should be considered a pretty productive trip. Not only did I find some of the stuff I was looking for, I also found a neat letter about Newfoundland in the 1920s.

-I just got back from the grocery store, where I had gone to buy another 10 pounds of carrots before the store closed for the night and the next week's pricing scheme was implemented. In the past week we have purchased 30 pounds of carrots at $1.99 per 10 pound bag. At the moment we have almost 30 pounds of carrots in our fridge.

-The German Marshall Fund sponsored defence conference is supposed to start tomorrow. According to a website I found a few days ago the protest plan is to picket the hotel's entrance tomorrow afternoon (if I recall correctly) and then hold the full-fledged protest on Saturday. I may or may not be here while the pre-protest is on-going tomorrow, but I will definitely try to grab a few pics of Saturday's events.

-I am in the midst of some marking, which is definitely going more slowly that I would like it to be.

From deep in the archives

Mr. Smith, a representative of the Government of Canada, spend several months in Newfoundland in the early 1920s while he was gathering information on the Labrador boundary dispute. While Smith was in St. John's he met with a number of prominent public figures on a relatively regular basis, providing him with some sense of the political climate of the day. It should be noted that Smith had been in Newfoundland 20 years earlier and seemed familiar with the individuals involved in public life at that time as well.

The following are a few sections of a relatively long and detailed letter Mr. Smith wrote on March 1, 1922 to W.S. Fielding, the Canadian Minister of Finance, about the situation he observed in Newfoundland. (For the real keeners among our readership, the letter in its entirety can be found in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia/NSARM at MG 2 vol. 528, folder 112, item 7370)

When describing the poor quality of parliamentary proceedings Smith notes that

the galleries having been packed by the Opposition, with idlers who had orders to interrupt the proceedings of the Government by heckling and otherwise annoying the ministers and their supporters. The disturbance reached a height that compelled the interposition of the long enduring Speaker, who ordered the Galleries to be cleared. Sir Michael Cashin, the leader of the Opposition, then got up and addressing the Galleries, said “Boys, this is your house, are you going to be ordered out of it”? With one voice the galleries should “No”, and the House itself adjourned.

That the use of the Gallery for the purposes of annoyance, was not a monopoly of the Opposition, I learned a night or two later. At the house of a friend where I was to meet Sir Richard Squires at dinner, Sir Richard came late, and announced exultantly that a Ministerial gallery, had effectually silenced the Opposition that afternoon.

I myself was a witness of a scene of the Government being overawed and overborne by a mob. Some thousand or more strikers gathered in front of the Legislative building, and when the house opened, as many as could find room crowded into the galleries. Three of their leaders addressed the Premier in the chamber, denouncing him for his conduct towards them, and demanding that their requests should be conceded. The Premier, after an attempt to parley, surrendered, and was flayed by the Opposition for the way he had treated the men, amidst applause and hooting of horns from the Gallery. The whole town was in a state of disorder. Many men were out of work, with the usual suffering, and in May, a general strike broke out among the longshore [sic] men. This was regarded as serious, and, to prevent an outbreak, themen [sic] on two British war vessels which were in the harbour, paraded Water Street, the principal business street of the town.

Indeed, the avowed object of these war vessels, was to impose a check on possible riots.

The unemployed continue to besiege the Government Offices, but with an empty treasury, little could be done. The Government endeavored to procure a loan of $150,000. for the City Council from the Royal Bank, and when the Bank intimated that the guarantee, by which the Government proposed to cover the loan should include a large sum already owing the Bank by the City, the Premier, in the House, denounced the management of the Bank as “a bunch of Shylocks”.

I found this description of Richard Squires rather amusing.

Sir Richard Squires, the premier, is perhaps 45 years of age, a lawyer without standing in his profession, and, his enemies say, very unscrupulous. Even his friends do not claim for him any excess of candour. He is said to be, not perhaps anti-British, but pro-American in his tastes, a rather rare thing down there. But he is so given to gasconnade that it is difficult to get at his real sentiments.

If all goes well I will be heading back to the archives tomorrow.

Hypocrisy $tar$ in the Globe or a Comment on Rex's latest column

As is my Saturday morning habit I started the morning off with a pot of coffee, breakfast, and the Globe and Mail. Not to long after I started making my way through the paper I ended up on the last page of the first section. After quickly skimming the page I decided that I would skip to Rex Murphy's column and then call it for that section.

It soon became clear that Murphy was using the column to take issue with the relatively large, and growing, budgets associated with Hollywood blockbusters (and particularly the monstrous budgets associated with James Cameron). Murphy seemed to find the contrast between the general economic restraint associated with a recession and these ever growing budgets something beyond distasteful. Eventually Murphy introduced the idea that the 'stars' in these films are now sometimes paid more than $20 million for their 'work.' Jim Carrey, and a few recent comments about greed and ambition, received particular attention and criticism.

As much as I might agree with Murphy about the absurdity of pay rates of contemporary Hollywood actors, I think that he missed the larger picture by making them the central component of his critique. These pay packages are really only a very small part of the picture when it comes to the economic implications of a Hollywood blockbuster (particularly a $500 million blockbuster, such as the one James Cameron is trying to make).

Unlike the picture that Murphy paints, the money used to make these movies does not just disappear, nor is it a case of feeding babies or making a movie (without such a movie no more money will go to the perpetuation of the welfare state). More accurately, money is invested a number of interests/corporations and people and then disbursed as salaries or payments during the making of the film. A much better way of thinking about a $500 million film is as a project that will take $500 million from corporate backers and distribute it among those parties involved in the production process. So instead of this money being wasted, it is likely providing pay cheques to thousands of individuals during the course of the production of the movie. If successful, such a movie would the replenish the coffers of the investors allowing them to invest in future projects. Ideally the cycle will repeat itself without pause (creating jobs and economic growth with each iteration).

I guess what I found strange about the column Murphy's seeming unwillingness to accept that transactions like those that result from the funding of a movie are what fundamentally drive our economy. To associate Carrey's comments about ambition and greed with such a picture was a rhetorical trick that did nothing but obscure the larger picture as well as the specific outcomes that are likely to come from a $500 million movie.

Only by investing money and creating jobs are we likely to exit such a recession. Staying at home and keeping our bank accounts tightly secured, on the other hand, isn't a viable solution to the problem.

While one may not like the package that comes with the Hollywood blockbuster (and I am not a big fan) it seems unfair not to acknowledge the positive economic benefits that are likely to flow from such enterprises. To impugn major capital investments, even if they are for Hollywood films, in a period of time when their absence is a notable part of the problem seems not only to be unreasonable, but to demonstrate a lack of understanding or misperception of the problem currently being faced by the economy.

So, yes, Jim Carrey may make ridiculous comments and be paid too much but that doesn't mean that blockbuster movies may not actually help us move out of the recession. Most importantly, it is not the case, as Murphy's comments seem suggest, that we should sit back with a sense of quiet respect and acquiescence as the recession runs rampant and refuse to attend movies, or other participate in other forms of economic activity that may stimulate further economic activity and growth.

It is rather ironic that Murphy didn't catch the hypocrisy in his own column yet was so quick to jump on it in Hollywood.

A Few Quick Notes 372

-Today (Friday) was quite nice. It was about 10 during the middle of the day, though it has not dropped to just above freezing. For the past few days the weather has been like this, which is nice as it makes for very pleasant walks to school.

-We had pork chops, couscous, and vegetables for dinner tonight. I know that Neil and I were both pleasantly surprised with how tasty and moist the pork chops were. I think our surprise came not because of any inability to cook pork chops that I might have, but rather because the chops were on the thin side (so more likely to dry out).

-My tobacco harvesting has really picked up in the past few days. At the moment I have 13 leaves drying, and a few more basically ready to go into the storage container. At some point soon I am going to have to start figuring out what I want to do with them (a thought that regular readers of this blog will likely find somewhat repetitive).

-A few days ago I made a batch of rum balls. Much to my surprise they have been quite popular. When I was making them I assumed that I would slowly pick away at them for a weeks until they were gone. As things stand now I may actually need to make another batch in a few days if I want more.

-It seems that the German Marshall Fund and Peter MacKay will be hosting a big security conference from November 20-22 at a hotel near our apartment. A week ago I had the pleasure of speaking with a local peace activist who was kind enough to inform me that protests have been scheduled for the conference. While I wasn't to surprised to learn that protestors would be present, particularly when I started to get a better sense of who would be attending, I was a little surprised to learn that this would all be going down within a few hundred feet of our apartment. I guess we will just have to wait and see how things go. Hopefully I will be able to snag a few photos or some video of the events.

-This morning when I woke up I discovered that my shoulder was hurting (I don't think it is enough to worry about it). I guess what surprises me is why this might be the case. What could I have done to myself during the night to have caused such a situation? Hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.

-Today I signed up for a Google Wave account. At the moment I am not really sure if I will have an occassion to use such a service but it seemed that it would be better to have access than not.

Not a good semester for clothing

Just a few minutes ago I was putting on one of my cardigans when one of my fingers got stuck. Upon closer inspection I learned that what happened was that my finger slipped through a recently developed hole at the elbow on the left arm of the sweater. Though it hasn't developed a hole yet, I can now see that the right elbow is also starting to give way. I wonder if it is possible to patch such a hole?



This development is of course after a few similar clothing tragedies that have already occurred this semester.

The first problem occurred when I attempted to wash my wool sweater vest. Even though I used only cold water and air dried it, the vest managed to shrink. Now it is definitely tighter in the chest and doesn't quite come down to my waist. A definite bummer as it was otherwise a pretty nice sweater vest, and the only one that I owned.

More recently I was hanging up my 10+ year old Hawaiian shirt when I noticed that the shirt had worn out in the back. I guess this isn't surprising as I have been wearing this shirt pretty regularly for over ten years (I purchased it at a going out of business sale when I was in high school). Though I should have expected such a development it is still disappointing.

The problem is that if I keep going at this rate I won't have any clothing by the time spring rolls around. I guess when one does their best to avoid buying new clothing this is the type of problem they are eventually likely to encounter.

A Few Quick Notes 371

-Regular readers will know that we had some rather poor weather today. The worst part of the mess was the slush that resulted from the combination of the snow and rain. Fortunately, the precipitation seems to have stopped, at least for the time being.

-Earlier this evening I cut up a few vegetables. Of course it seemed like a good idea to make a time-lapse video of the ordeal.



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-I attended the second half of a one day conference this afternoon. The conference was in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I arrived just after the lunch break as the Assistant Deputy Minister was speaking. By coming in part way through his talk I kind of missed the gist of the whole thing.

-We might play a few games this evening.

-The tofu kick continues. We had a tofu stir-fry for dinner and we have another pound in the fridge, ready to go.

Well this was a bit of a surprise

At some point yesterday I think I heard a few rumours about snow, but I don't recall if they were about Halifax or St. John's. Anyway, as the forecast didn't seem to mention snow I put such thoughts out of my mind.

This morning I woke up to find this.



It seems that not only did we have snow, we actually had a few centimeters of snow. The worst part was that by the time I awoke much of the snow had started to turn to slush and was also be accompanied by rain.

Not surprisingly, I got soaked on my walk to school. Fortunately by the time I started to make my way back home things generally calmed down and I didn't get re-soaked.

A Few Quick Notes 370

-It was a pretty nice day until just a few hours ago, when it started raining. Unfortunately, it seems that the forecast is suggesting that this is the type of weather that we will be getting tomorrow.

-For dinner tonight I prepared a pork roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and beans and corn. I also quickly made a raspberry pie for desert. For those of you who are curious, the lard-based crust was light and flaky.

-The pork roast was part of a relatively large piece of pork loin that I purchased a few days ago. I turned the portion of meat not included in the roast into pork chops. I was quite surprised to see that I ended up with 12, I really would have expected about 7 had I been asked to guess in advance (but fortunately I wasn't asked to make such a guess).

-I have started testing out the free samples of male-targeted toiletries I received a few days ago. As expected, I have noticed that I have that traditional from-a-bottle/stereotypical man smell. As nice is give myself the pretense of being particularly manly, I am not sure that I will be able to deal with these scented products for much longer.

-My big news from school is that yesterday a fellow Ph.D. student and I rearranged the Ph.D. office so that all six desks are accessible. Prior to our changes only three of the six desks were accessible. Hopefully the other students who use the room, who weren't directly consulted, will find the changes as positive as I do.

-Oh man, I have so much work that I have been avoiding today. I guess I should try to get a little done before I turn in.

-I guess since I mentioned that I was watching the World Series yesterday I might as well mention that the Yankees were victorious. Unfortunately, the portion of the game that I watched wasn't particularly exciting (though once I started watching I couldn't stop until it was over).

It's all gone to pots

A few days ago I mentioned that I had emptied most of my container garden and was, as a result of these actions, left with quite a number of dirty plant pots on our balcony.



I allowed these pots to sit on the balcony for a few days. The most significant reason why I didn't do anything with them was because of the time commitment that would have been required. Anyway, every day they were there they were eating away at me (even more because I knew how I was going to clean them when it came time).

This afternoon while dinner was in the oven I finally got around to cleaning the pots. I filled two buckets with hot water and added detergent to one of the buckets. As you might have guessed, one of the buckets was for washing and the other for rinsing. Amazingly, this system seemed to work pretty well and in not too long (and only one water change later) I was done with the washing part of the process.

After allowing the freshly washed pots to dry outside for a few hours I moved them inside to my bedroom to finish the final stages of drying.



A little while ago I was able to stack them up. My hope is that this is where they will stay for the winter and that I will be ready to go as soon as spring rolls around and I start my early planting.



For our more observant readers, I did have to store a few of the lids/trays and the planter in my closet. For a while I was hoping that I would be able to get everything in this stack.

A Few Quick Notes 369

-I guess today was a little nicer than I expected it would be, meaning that I don't recall it raining.

-This change in the daylight allocation is really doing me in. It is now bright in them mornings when I get up on the early side of things and dark early in the afternoon. I think if it was up to me I would have kept things as they were before, but I guess the 9-5ers are a slightly more populous group that grad students without many morning commitments.

-All three of us are watching game 6 of the World Series. The funny thing is that while we are doing this we are using at least three computers (Neil and Rebecca are in the living from while I am in my room with my computer).

-A few minutes ago I looked at the grocery store fliers for the upcoming week and was pleased to see that a few of my favourite products will be on sale, notably cheap beef, pineapple, and potatoes.

-My baked fries should be ready momentarily. Much to my chagrin, I ended up throwing the entire bag on the tray.

-The Yankees just brought Rivera in.