The Simple Pleasure of Waving While Cycling
"Ding, Ding" and a wave, it’s amazing how such a seemingly small thing can have a big impact on brightening the day. This evening involved a bike trip from my office downtown to the McMaster campus around 5pm. Along the way, every few blocks, a "Ding, Ding" and…
Dave Hanley, Great Hamiltonian, Gone Too Soon
Devastating news tonight, as we learn of the sudden and unexpected death of Dave Hanley, who is widely known for his work organizing the great PopUp Hamilton events. When someone dies, especially someone as amazing has Dave, it is my practice to try and capture the person in…
Women as Honourary Colonels in the Canadian Forces
Colonel Dan Stephaniuk is the new Brigade Commander of the 32 Canadian Bridge Group, the army reserve brigade for the Greater Toronto Area. In a series of emails, "obtained" by Postmedia, Col. Stepaniuk orders the unit commanders of his 14 units to appoint women as Honourary Colonels of…
Don't Open that Email! Journalism and Click-Tracking
The US Government’s Environmental Protection Agency is fighting an Associated Press journalist, and its getting ugly. One of the EPA’s attacks on the journalist is his email opening history: "The Environmental Protection Agency is all over Michael Biesecker, a reporter for the Associated Press. His reading habits, for…
Thoughts on Building Better Scholarships
A great piece from the Washington Post about the problem with college scholarships being increasing diverted away from financial aid to marketing. Entrance scholarships are an example of this, every university offers scholarships to first-year students competing to offer the best discounts to attract higher enrollment. In effect,…
Journalism and Big Tech Control – Why I Self-Host and Believe Journalists Should Too
A few weeks ago, a firestorm erupted in US journalism circles as news came out that an influential intellectual was terminated by the New America foundation under pressure from Google – a major funder of the foundation. It’s just the latest story of how Big Tech is increasingly…
The Art of Headline: Mutually Assured Madness
A brilliant title for this week’s episode of Radio Open Source Mutually Assured Madness on the increasing tensions between North Korea and the United States. This is, of course, a play on Mutually Assured Destruction the Cold War Doctrine that neither the USSR nor the United States would…
Just Sitting on Concession: The Sidewalk Sounds Blogpost
I write this posting sitting on the street parking space patio of Relay Coffee. In front of me, I have a large pour-over coffee, and 10 metres away – in front of the store – a classical guitarist providing the background ambience for a very relaxing evening. Hundreds…
McMaster ChangeCamp 2017
ChangeCamp is only a week and a half away. Monday, September 25, 2017. I’m registered because the event provides a great opportunity for bridging between Town and Gown (the community and university) to work on projects in five areas: Food Insecurity, Transportation, Community Print Shop, Affordable Housing, and…
The Keydboard Addsa Character
I have a small Bluetooth keyboard I absolutely love typing on. One problem, of late, it’s been adding characters on me, and sometimes getting the order of the letters reversed. On my proofreads of posts, I often don’t catch the typo. The typo isn’t the result of my…