Author Archives: Robert Basil

“Ladies Learning Code”

A brilliant former student of mine highly recommends this organization, “a women-run not-for-profit working to empower and inspire more women and girls to become passionate builders – not just consumers – of the web and technology.” Ladies Learning Code is … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Goosebumps

This new ad, titled “Missing Work,” was created by Bell Canada for its “Let’s Talk Mental Health” initiative. It captures a moment – a short routine, really – very common among the chronically depressed. It is staggeringly understated and beautiful. … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Quantifying the Costs of Workplace Conflict

Steve McGuire has an excellent, concise piece in Mediate.com showing how the “hidden” costs of workplace conflict can, in fact, be helpfully quantified. Various indirect factors go into calculating the real (hidden) costs of workplace conflict. In addition to wasted … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment

New $ for Visual Artists?

The United States Copyright Office has recommended to the U.S. Congress that it reconsider its copyright laws so that visual artists can benefit from the resale of their work. Visual artists typically do not share in the long-term financial success … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment

LinkedIn

Again I agree with Clarissa, one of my favourite bloggers: It is shocking that this completely idiotic piece on LinkedIn [“All Linked Up with Nowhere to Go,” by Amy Friedman] has been declared one of the best pieces of business journalism in 2013. … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Undermining Infrastructure at the Core”

Our friends at Sophos have issued their Security Threat Report 2014.  The entire report is necessary, sometimes grim reading. Here are two “trends to watch”: Attacks on corporate and personal data in the cloud: As businesses increasingly rely on various cloud services for … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment

A Generation of Mentors

It’s hard for me to re-read KPMG‘s October report “BC Junior Mining at a Crossroads,” commissioned by the BC Securities Commission, without feeling not just loss but what will be lost. The report’s findings echo the lamentations of my friends … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Vancouver’s Commonweal

In North America it is Canada’s decided, tenacious commonweal that sets it apart. We look after one another more often than not, and less out of zeal than out of habit and good sense. A city’s public library is a testament … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

You talk just fine?

When teaching oral communications to my students, I don’t feel comfortable critiquing those who speak in “uptalk,” that habit of ending sentences with a rising inflection so that declarative sentences sometimes seem to sound like questions. To me that would … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment

“More bad writing” …

… presented courtesy of our friend Jonathan Mayhew’s superb blog, Stupid Motivational Tricks: Scholarly Writing and How to Get It Done.” It is a lovely post that ends with this poignant sentence: “There are more objectionable sentences here that I … Continue reading

Posted in Robert's posts | Tagged | Leave a comment