I was taught some bizarre stuff in public school in a small Canadian city.
In high school, I distinctly remember being taught about something called alpha. We were taught a process for going into alpha mode, so that we could achieve deep relaxation and become better learners. One teacher sold a tape to which we could listen.
My high school ran an annual wellness fair during school time. Students were required to go to seminars (including one on alpha waves, hosted by the teacher selling the tape). The wellness experts included iridologists and other quacky people.
My seventh grade teacher used to write the assignments for the day on the board, then lie on the floor and meditate until lunch. He'd go out for lunch, then come back, write on the board, and lie down cagain. Sometimes he would get up and explain why communists were going to kill us all. Once, he took us on a field trip to a nearby marsh and pointed out houses where he believed communists lived. He made us write year-long projects on Communism and told us that Gorbachev was plotting to kill us all, Glasnost and Perestroika being sneaky tactics. He also spent a lot of time asking us how we knew there were black people in Africa, if we hadn't been there. (When a friend dated his son years later, I found out that he was a Holocaust denier. He had also been asked to leave his previous school for making statements about the Holocaust, according to a friend whose brother had him for fourth grade at that school. He also made the 4th graders write massive projects on communism.)
My fifth grade teacher made the girls prepare tea for him at lunch. When my mother complained, he told everyone that I was not allowed to make tea because I would poison him. Complaints to the principal resulted in major difficulties. Hence, my parents were reluctant to report other teachers when they did weird things.
Two of my eighth grade teachers spent much of social studies and English class teaching us about nuclear weapons. I remember having to calculate how many cruise missiles would fit in the classroom and how many people this would kill.
Didn't any of the people surveyed cite business reasons? Blogging can help with search engine optimization, traffic pull and credibility enhancement. That's why I blog.
Canada and the US measure unemployment differently. The US considers someone unemployed only if they are actively searching for a job (activities that can result in an offer), whereas Canada allows passive searches (networking, looking at ads, etc). When US workers network and look at ads, they are not included in unemployment figures. Also, if US workers are due to start a job in a month or so, they are not considered unemployed -- but Canadians are. Canada also has a lower rate of imprisoned citizens, so there are more people in "outside" programs who are designated unemployed. Canada also includes people on reserves, whereas the US does not. Furthermore, Canada's recessions and recoveries typically occur at different times than those of the US, resulting in wider gaps during hard times. Canada's introductory economics courses cover these differences, since it is often a sticking point for people.
That being said, the US and Canadian unemployment rates -- without correction for the difference in methodology -- have been just one point apart since 2002.
Also, in some countries, you can receive benefits if you register as unemployed, even if you're a homemaker or student. The US does not have this system. So some countries have higher numbers of registered unemployed people, simply because of benefits available.
I'm just going on what I learned in undergrad and grad school courses, as well as articles I've read over the years. I'd be interested in hearing a rebuttal to these points, though.
In Canada, Raincoast Books has the contract. So I'm not sure the Scholastic covenant applies. Raincoast publishes many books, but they're still fairly small in the publishing world. And Superstore is probably a major account -- it would be risky to refuse to sell any books to them.
I believe you are incorrect about Webster giving birth to lexicography, although he made many important contributions. Many of the dictionaries that preceded Webster's included definitions, examples and etymologies. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary is perhaps one of the most famous examples.
And, while I agree that the printing press facilitated standardization of spelling, the rise of mercantilism played a large role, too. People wanted to be sure they were getting what they ordered. Also, some people became evangelical about spelling as a means of achieving godliness and reforming society.
I agree that "should've" is what most people mean. However, if you asked people how to spell this term, they'd repond with "should of". Having worked as a writer and editor for 12 years, I have seen countless documents with "should of". Since this still occurs in documents otherwise devoid of contractions, I believe most people think "should of" is the correct and common usage. I'm not sure they realize they have confused the term with the contraction.
Does anyone know of a list of business blogs in Canada? I haven't been able to find many Canadian companies that blog. All I can find is a Toronto Star article that glosses over the subject and some Globe and Mail pieces about how US firms are blogging. I'm interested in corporate blogs, as opposed to the one-person consultancy. There are tons of blogs run by freelancers and consultants, even in Canada.
LOL. Okay. But you can say "pour over" if you mean continuously or profusely. Excuse my "poor" grammar, though. I'm 40 weeks pregnant and can barely remember my own name these days:)
In addition to a BA, Fiorina also holds holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a master of science from MIT's Sloan Business School -- according to the HP website. She also briefly attended law school at UCLA.
For what it's worth, history is the most popular degree among CEOs of Fortune 500 firms. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano has a BA in history. Patricia Russo (Lucent) has a bachelors in history. So does Donna Dubinsky (Handspring, Palm). I could turn up more names, but I don't have time to go through every CEO's bio.
To complete a degree in history, you need to have strong research, analysis, writing and verbal communication skills (for presentations). You have to be able to identify patterns, form strong arguments, and pour over huge amounts of reading material. Those are skills that any business person needs, especially in the tech sector, where things change rapidly.
Disclaimer: I have a BA in English, followed by an MBA.
Here are some links about your rights in the workplace. I was surprised to learn that, where I live (Canada), I have more privacy protection than expected.
I was toying with doing a PhD in diffusion of innovations. I know I like research and writing and there are many aspects of an academic career that appeal to me. However, when I tried to talk to professors about career prospects, they kept repeating the "do it because you love it" line. I found this terribly frustrating. There are many things I enjoy doing. When you're a 30-something with financial and family obligations, what you love may exist in many forms. For me, it's important to know that I can feed, clothe, house and care for my family. I would never choose a career path just for the money, but I might choose one over the other for the money. And doing a PhD would entail a few years of financial sacrifice -- maybe more, if there are no jobs or reasonable salaries. As someone who grew up in a family with little money (and parents who worked at jobs they didn't like), I know most of my options are more attractive than those available to other people. Nevertheless, "doing what I love" boils down to more than just how I spend eight hours a day. And I get frustrated by people who discount my need to provide for my family and myself. As a result, I haven't gone any further with the PhD, because I couldn't get a solid answer about career (and financial) prospects.
I started my own consulting business in 1997. While continuing to run it, I got an MBA. I don't agree that an MBA is designed to land you in middle management. It's designed to give you insight into all segments of the business, so that you can see beyond your own silo. This improves your odds of communicating with other stakeholders inside and outside your business. The MBA also gives you a toolset for analyzing situations and making decisions. And, if you've read through a ton of business cases, you might have a better idea of how others have coped with similar situations. An MBA can help you, no matter where you are in an organization.
An MBA does not prepare you to lead, be visionary or be intelligent. However, if you already have those tendencies, it can help you be more powerful (for the reasons outlined above). If you can quickly assess a situation, work out a game plan, and articulate your thoughts, you can often persuade others to follow you.
However, an MBA is not the only way to acquire the above skills and experiences. There are many paths in life, and an MBA is just one of them. Still, doing an MBA forces you to spend a couple of years thinking about areas outside your own silo, using skills you might not have had before, and putting your mind into scenarios you might not have encountered at work. Although some people can do this on their own, many people find that the structured environment of an MBA program better facilitates this type of learning.
Perhaps I'm way off base here, but I assumed the person with violated rights was the teacher. I'm sure people in other professions risk having their clients log keystrokes or otherwise violate privacy. Of course, the school board (employer) could log keystrokes, but that's entirely different.
At least three of today's headlines have punctuation or grammatical errors: "Electrolytic Etching, For What A Dremel Cant Do", "Bill Gates Handwriting Analyzed", "ATI at the Top Graphics Chip Maker for 2004".
IANAL, but I am a consultant who has been in the game for seven years. What are the terms of your contract? Did you agree to accept all offered work in perpetuity? It sounds like you are bound to meet certain deliverables over a certain period of time. So don't accept any jobs that start before this contract ends.
Do you have any protection if the client wants to get rid of you? Termination clauses are often a two-way street.
It sounds like your situation is similar to mine in many ways. However, I'm finding that the old friends and acquaintances are the ones who pigeon-hole me. I've moved my career away from marketing communications and freelance writing and more into business planning, strategic analysis, business retention and lead generation. Yet my old contacts have a hard time thinking of me in these situations. I found that completing an Executive MBA and changing the emphasis in my resume and marketing materials worked with more recent and new contacts. But those old contacts still think of me as the writer. Even when some of them hear what I'm working on now or that I have an MBA, they still think it must somehow relate to writing! I'll explain that I'm doing a situation analysis, marketing plan and launch strategy for a tech firm, and my old clients will still somehow think that means I'm putting together direct mail and brochures. It seems impossible to convince them that I have proven experience in pricing, product management and distribution.
Do you have trouble convincing old contacts (e.g. from your tech writer days) that you've moved in a different direction?
Ah, but the problem is that the client doesn't know that I can solve their other (related) problems. When I first started out, I positioned myself as a freelance writer and marketing communications specialist for the high tech industry. This was because I saw low-hanging fruit and I had established a reputation in the area. However, through experience and education, I have moved my practice into business planning, strategic analysis, and more advanced marketing programs. Yet many of my long-time clients and contacts have pigeon-holed me as a writer and only think of me when they want some copy for a brochure. It's a real challenge to explain that, although I still sometimes write copy, I spend 90% of my time on business retention, lead generation, strategic planning, research and analysis, and project management of ecommerce sites and databases. When clients and long-time contacts only think of me for copywriting, I'm missing out on other opportunities that are relevant to my skills and experience (and yet still not a stretch for me).
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Uh, it's still cheap. It just depends on your point of reference. You can still buy waterfront for the price of a Vancouver townhouse.
Actually, there was coal mining into the 50s and 60s: http://minfile.gov.bc.ca/Summary.aspx?minfilno=092GSW048
I was taught some bizarre stuff in public school in a small Canadian city.
In high school, I distinctly remember being taught about something called alpha. We were taught a process for going into alpha mode, so that we could achieve deep relaxation and become better learners. One teacher sold a tape to which we could listen.
My high school ran an annual wellness fair during school time. Students were required to go to seminars (including one on alpha waves, hosted by the teacher selling the tape). The wellness experts included iridologists and other quacky people.
My seventh grade teacher used to write the assignments for the day on the board, then lie on the floor and meditate until lunch. He'd go out for lunch, then come back, write on the board, and lie down cagain. Sometimes he would get up and explain why communists were going to kill us all. Once, he took us on a field trip to a nearby marsh and pointed out houses where he believed communists lived. He made us write year-long projects on Communism and told us that Gorbachev was plotting to kill us all, Glasnost and Perestroika being sneaky tactics. He also spent a lot of time asking us how we knew there were black people in Africa, if we hadn't been there. (When a friend dated his son years later, I found out that he was a Holocaust denier. He had also been asked to leave his previous school for making statements about the Holocaust, according to a friend whose brother had him for fourth grade at that school. He also made the 4th graders write massive projects on communism.)
My fifth grade teacher made the girls prepare tea for him at lunch. When my mother complained, he told everyone that I was not allowed to make tea because I would poison him. Complaints to the principal resulted in major difficulties. Hence, my parents were reluctant to report other teachers when they did weird things.
Two of my eighth grade teachers spent much of social studies and English class teaching us about nuclear weapons. I remember having to calculate how many cruise missiles would fit in the classroom and how many people this would kill.
At least I didn't have science in Kansas, though.
Didn't any of the people surveyed cite business reasons? Blogging can help with search engine optimization, traffic pull and credibility enhancement. That's why I blog.
Trying not to laugh out loud at first sentence. (I have Crohn's too.)
That being said, the US and Canadian unemployment rates -- without correction for the difference in methodology -- have been just one point apart since 2002.
Also, in some countries, you can receive benefits if you register as unemployed, even if you're a homemaker or student. The US does not have this system. So some countries have higher numbers of registered unemployed people, simply because of benefits available.
I'm just going on what I learned in undergrad and grad school courses, as well as articles I've read over the years. I'd be interested in hearing a rebuttal to these points, though.
In Canada, Raincoast Books has the contract. So I'm not sure the Scholastic covenant applies. Raincoast publishes many books, but they're still fairly small in the publishing world. And Superstore is probably a major account -- it would be risky to refuse to sell any books to them.
It's basically a sticker that says "This book is from the personal library of " or something to that effect. There are variations, of course.
You mean it should've been "off". ;-)
I believe you are incorrect about Webster giving birth to lexicography, although he made many important contributions. Many of the dictionaries that preceded Webster's included definitions, examples and etymologies. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary is perhaps one of the most famous examples. And, while I agree that the printing press facilitated standardization of spelling, the rise of mercantilism played a large role, too. People wanted to be sure they were getting what they ordered. Also, some people became evangelical about spelling as a means of achieving godliness and reforming society.
I agree that "should've" is what most people mean. However, if you asked people how to spell this term, they'd repond with "should of". Having worked as a writer and editor for 12 years, I have seen countless documents with "should of". Since this still occurs in documents otherwise devoid of contractions, I believe most people think "should of" is the correct and common usage. I'm not sure they realize they have confused the term with the contraction.
Does anyone know of a list of business blogs in Canada? I haven't been able to find many Canadian companies that blog. All I can find is a Toronto Star article that glosses over the subject and some Globe and Mail pieces about how US firms are blogging. I'm interested in corporate blogs, as opposed to the one-person consultancy. There are tons of blogs run by freelancers and consultants, even in Canada.
LOL. I tried, but it's not legal in Canada. :)
Well, it's time-consuming and difficult to look that up. But would Siebel, Exelon, or Amex interest you?
LOL. Okay. But you can say "pour over" if you mean continuously or profusely. Excuse my "poor" grammar, though. I'm 40 weeks pregnant and can barely remember my own name these days:)
For what it's worth, history is the most popular degree among CEOs of Fortune 500 firms. IBM CEO Sam Palmisano has a BA in history. Patricia Russo (Lucent) has a bachelors in history. So does Donna Dubinsky (Handspring, Palm). I could turn up more names, but I don't have time to go through every CEO's bio.
To complete a degree in history, you need to have strong research, analysis, writing and verbal communication skills (for presentations). You have to be able to identify patterns, form strong arguments, and pour over huge amounts of reading material. Those are skills that any business person needs, especially in the tech sector, where things change rapidly.
Disclaimer: I have a BA in English, followed by an MBA.
Yes. And you're the first person who has mentioned it, I think. :)
http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs7-work.htm (US)
http://www.privcom.gc.ca/fs-fi/02_05_d_17_e.asp (Canada)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06/17/privacy_in _the_workplace/ (UK)
I was toying with doing a PhD in diffusion of innovations. I know I like research and writing and there are many aspects of an academic career that appeal to me. However, when I tried to talk to professors about career prospects, they kept repeating the "do it because you love it" line. I found this terribly frustrating. There are many things I enjoy doing. When you're a 30-something with financial and family obligations, what you love may exist in many forms. For me, it's important to know that I can feed, clothe, house and care for my family. I would never choose a career path just for the money, but I might choose one over the other for the money. And doing a PhD would entail a few years of financial sacrifice -- maybe more, if there are no jobs or reasonable salaries. As someone who grew up in a family with little money (and parents who worked at jobs they didn't like), I know most of my options are more attractive than those available to other people. Nevertheless, "doing what I love" boils down to more than just how I spend eight hours a day. And I get frustrated by people who discount my need to provide for my family and myself. As a result, I haven't gone any further with the PhD, because I couldn't get a solid answer about career (and financial) prospects.
An MBA does not prepare you to lead, be visionary or be intelligent. However, if you already have those tendencies, it can help you be more powerful (for the reasons outlined above). If you can quickly assess a situation, work out a game plan, and articulate your thoughts, you can often persuade others to follow you.
However, an MBA is not the only way to acquire the above skills and experiences. There are many paths in life, and an MBA is just one of them. Still, doing an MBA forces you to spend a couple of years thinking about areas outside your own silo, using skills you might not have had before, and putting your mind into scenarios you might not have encountered at work. Although some people can do this on their own, many people find that the structured environment of an MBA program better facilitates this type of learning.
Perhaps I'm way off base here, but I assumed the person with violated rights was the teacher. I'm sure people in other professions risk having their clients log keystrokes or otherwise violate privacy. Of course, the school board (employer) could log keystrokes, but that's entirely different.
At least three of today's headlines have punctuation or grammatical errors: "Electrolytic Etching, For What A Dremel Cant Do", "Bill Gates Handwriting Analyzed", "ATI at the Top Graphics Chip Maker for 2004".
IANAL, but I am a consultant who has been in the game for seven years. What are the terms of your contract? Did you agree to accept all offered work in perpetuity? It sounds like you are bound to meet certain deliverables over a certain period of time. So don't accept any jobs that start before this contract ends. Do you have any protection if the client wants to get rid of you? Termination clauses are often a two-way street.
Do you have trouble convincing old contacts (e.g. from your tech writer days) that you've moved in a different direction?
Does that make more sense?