Category Archives: Robert’s posts
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
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
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
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
“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
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
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
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
“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
Changing Norms
Reuben Fischer-Baum of Jezebel has made a wonderfully entertaining GIF that presents six decades of the most popular names for girls, “state by state.” He writes: Baby naming generally follows a consistent cycle: A name springs up in some region … Continue reading
