Category: Uncategorized

We are less than 2 months away from the next installment of Lake Superior State University’s (narrowly) famous annual list of banished words. These are the words and phrases that have been so overused as to have, first, lost all meaning and, second,  become noxious. My contribution for the January 2012 list is “brand permission.”…

Coincidentally, I was listening to this old Bob Dylan tune as I ran on the treadmill the other day. Good song. Great poetry. In any case, immediately after my run I encountered the situation of a person being vacated from his job by an organization. The official word was that this employee had been “released.”…

Canadian (media) hockey hero, Don Cherry, recently ranted in his own inimitable fashion–again.  This time it was about the opposition to fighting by the NHL and many hockey players, including some former star fighters.  The whole thing is a tempest in a protective cup, and made ugly by Mr. Cherry to boot. In the Tuesday…

I’m not even sure what to think about this that I found in today’s Ottawa Citizen.  There are simply so many things “wrong” with the entire episode. Texas draws line on death row final meals Convicts on death row in Texas [where else?] are no longer free to pick the menu for their own last…

Reading an article in the Globe and Mail this morning about using a “solar wall” on the side of a building as a means to reduce energy consumption, I was struck by this statement: Think of the biggest energy cost for a typical Canadian business – one running multiple computers and keeping the lights on…

Recently, the reader of this outpouring may recall, I contributed to the Canadian innovation discussion, such as it is, with a lengthy letter to the Science, Technology and Innovation Council. That episode, which included some engagement on a LinkedIn forum as well, got me to thinking about how Canadian enterprises invest money that is provided…

One of the sessions that I took in at Dreamforce 11 was about rules for content management and use.  It definitely provided that.  But, and I didn’t realize it would be a key feature, the session also used the content provision rules as a bit of a springboard to present material about effective online marketing…

This article in the Globe & Mail (Does smoking pot make you skinny?) is too funny.  It quotes and references a study that indicates being a 3x per week dope smoker give you a higher probability of not being obese than your non-smoking friends.  Anecdotally, based on the size and shape of Iggy Pop, Keith…

I’m back nearly a week after Dreamforce 11 (and I can hear again–thank you Metallica).  I was worried that I had become drunk and enraptured, and was no longer objective.  Like Odysseus wanting to see and hear the Scylla and Charybdis, I made sure that I lashed myself to the mast and kept my team…

First session after the opening keynote at DreamForce ’11 is going on right now.  salesforce.com’s CEO, Mark Benioff is moderating a panel on “the digital agenda” with Vivek Kundra, Neelie Kroes, and Angela Ahrendts. Interesting how the two governmental representatives are speaking about how their governmental authorities are leaning toward social and cloud for different…

Saw this in today’s Globe and Mail:  French lingerie line for four- to 12-year-olds decried as ‘creepy’.  Frankly, creepy doesn’t begin to describe it. And I thought that the TLC show “Toddlers in Tiaras” was as low a bar as could be found for freakish and creepy ways to exploit and abuse children…

So, below, I wrote a post with my thoughts about one specific experimental vignette in Dan Ariely’s recent book, The Upside of Irrationality.  Apart from the blog, I wrote a note to Dr. Ariely, who I am now going to take the liberty of calling Dan.  I asked if he would have a look and…