Build—maintain—lose
The possibility of Corus Entertainment Inc. disappearing may astound people. However, there is a common pattern following intergenerational transfers of business interests. Reuter’s Chris Taylor reported: 70 percent of wealthy…
Norman Farrell
Shares of Corus Entertainment may be worth zero if…
Years ago, well managed radio stations enjoyed operating profits that could reach 50 percent of revenue. Having permits to broadcast were said to be like having licences to print money.…
Triangulate your information
Ali Velshi is a journalist often seen on MSNBC. Promoting a new book, he appeared on NPR’s Fresh Air. The program covers much ground and is worth our attention. The…
Western Canada’s climate change actions are inadequate or illusory
Climate change actions of British Columbia and Manitoba are inadequate and the main efforts by Alberta and Saskatchewan to reduce greenhouse emissions are illusory. While provinces in central and eastern…
Racing toward danger
MIT’s Dr. Peter S. Park and academics associated with the Center for AI Safety examined deception by Artificial Intelligence. They conclude that increased capabilities of AI pose a serious risk…
A day in the life
I was planning to write about the dangers of unregulated artificial intelligence, but ChatGPT told me that AI is not inherently dangerous. So I’ll leave that subject for another day.…
Youth sports: done right, done wrong
After watching a grandchild and other nine-year-olds playing in a Little League baseball tournament, I was reminded about the positive and negative aspects of youth sports. Done right, they’re beneficial.…
BC NDP’s f***king policy
On Facebook, Northeast BC resident RanD Hadland says he visited the Bennett Dam and gained an understanding of why the downstream Peace River is so low. Behind the dam is…
Existential threat or anti-growth rhetoric?
Climate change denialism remains strong. It has been strongly linked to right-wing nationalism and to the anti-feminist far-right but it was built primarily with funds from oil companies. Denialists have…
Canada is not a world leader on climate
I won’t be much affected by climate change, but my grandchildren will pay a very high price. For older folks like me, watching this country do the wrong things for…
Instead of a path to net zero, we’re on the eve of destruction
The concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere is a critical environmental issue. One important cause involves human activities such as the production and use of fossil fuels. Canada’s…
Walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck…
An IN-SIGHTS reader asks, “Who gains from chaos on American university campuses?” He suggests the theme of the 1997 movie ‘Wag the Dog’ motivates Netanyahu. Dark forces believe the conflict…
Everything is not broken
In the House of Commons, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre told Canadians: “Everything is broken.” Canada is imperfect, but it is far from broken.
Megaproject madness
Professor Bent Flyvbjerg, Executive Chairman and co-founder of Oxford Global Projects has written about proponents getting large undertakings approved by using “strategic misrepresentation” when they conjure up budgets. Strategic misrepresentation…
Green New Deal: “A socialist plot to take away your ice cream.”
By consensus, climate scientists believe that future restorative actions will be futile if policies followed today are insufficient. In our daily lives, we routinely limit or reduce potential harms. However,…
Minimum wage increases, job destroyers or job creators?
AAccording to MIT Economics Professor Daron Acemoglu, a bountiful supply of good jobs is the best way to generate shared prosperity and also to cultivate civic and political participation from…
Occupational hearing loss
We dined recently at an “upscale casual” restaurant in Port Coquitlam. The service and the food were fine, but I was troubled by the noise level. My iPhone decibel meter…
A $40 billion oil subsidy
If I told my spouse that I had decided to buy a car for $30,000, then I returned home with one priced at $150,000, she would bar me from the…
News unfit to print (or broadcast)
Many citizens shape their opinions by paying attention to corporate media. What if those news providers are unreliable?
Rip ‘n’ Read, 2024 style
There are many good journalists working in corporate media today. But, lack of resources stifles their work. At times, news people simply accept press releases as accurate and report the…