Blog

Does yelling ever work? Plenty of people must think so. Because there’s no shortage of parents, spouses and bosses who feel their message will be better understood when the volume is high. That includes sports coaches. After a few recent hockey firings, a debate has...

The leap from deciphering primitive line carvings to scrolling through Twitter is a long one. Both involve the evolution of the human brain. The human lineage goes back 5-7 million years ago, Homo sapiens arrived roughly 200,000 years ago, and cave paintings began...

Many of the publications I read have never existed anywhere but online. They can be terrific. Others have a physical equivalent. And still others used to be available in paper but are now exclusively digital. How does the way we consume media affect our reading...

November 13 is World Kindness Day. The annual event was launched in 1998 by a coalition of NGOs, and is observed in more than 25 countries, including Canada. The goal is to celebrate good deeds by individuals or organizations. There are websites devoted to...

If I asked you to memorize a set of 26 items, you’d probably find it quite a challenge. And if you had to repeat them all in a specific order, with zero errors, it would be even more difficult. Yet children master that skill when they’re just a few years old. It’s...

It’s Halloween this week. Costumes and masks may be suitable for kids, but don’t cover up your writing. Too often, people layer their copy with all sorts of adornments. Like lengthy words, sentences and paragraphs. Unnecessary adverbs and adjectives. Dense structures....

Spoilers are everywhere, and not just in movie trailers or reviews. This week, hours before the polls closed, I checked the final 338Canada projection regarding the federal election. It turned out to be remarkably prescient regarding seat distributions, and called the...

What will be the last job standing? That’s a real question at a time when AI and automation technologies are disrupting or displacing entire fields. A 2017 study from the McKinsey Global Institute suggested that by 2030 as many as 375 million workers will need to...

Ever run into an ultracrepidarian during a conversation? Or feel the urge to latibulate when approached by one? Bet you have. We’ve all had particular feelings, or observed certain phenomena, and wished there was a perfect word for it. Sometimes there is – it just has...

Whistleblowing is in the news. In modern usage, the term refers to anonymously or confidentially reporting on misconduct, corruption, waste, health and safety violations, and any other wrongdoing. Across corporations, governments and other institutions, whistleblowers...