Harry Shannon
A couple of weeks ago the Toronto Star had a story on the big tech companies Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. The headline used an acronym to write: “Tech giants’ FAANGs sink teeth into our wallets.” (They also mentioned Microsoft, but I guess the acronym wouldn’t have worked.)
The story quoted a Univer…
Eton school, please stop what you’re doing.
Harry Shannon
I was born and raised in the UK, so I pay some attention to what's going on there.
A while ago I heard the headmaster of the British school Eton justifying its ultra-exclusivity and the fact that almost all its students are from very rich families. (Eton actually calls itself a ‘College’.) The headmaster claimed that ma…
Communing With the Dead – or the Living?
Harry Shannon
I had to renew my Ontario Driver’s Licence and my Health
Card. One of the forms sent to me was
for registering as an organ and tissue donor.
I was happy to fill it out, though I added a note that my
organs can’t be used to generate private profit.
But what caught my attention was the space to add my phone nu…
How fast is fastest?
Harry Shannon
I was listening to CBC radio last week, and heard someone
claim that cricket is the fastest-growing sport in Ontario. Maybe it was in Canada, but that’s not
relevant to my point here.
My point is that the term fastest-growing is really meaningless, or at best misleading. There are about a million registered soccer pla…
Whose fake news?
Harry Shannon
We’re hearing a lot about fake news. To hear Donald Trump call it, you’d think that it’s the mainstream media that are centrist or lean to the left who are guilty of misreporting or even making up stories. Of course he produces no evidence to back up his claim. Nor does he comment on the accuracy of reports on the rig…
My latest letter to the Toronto Star
It wasn't published, but you can read it here!
Background to the letter. The Ontario Premier Doug Ford shuffled the provincial cabinet after barely a year in power. Actually, not just a shuffle, but also an increase in the number of ministers.
For more on the class sizes, click here
Re Radical Reboot, June 21I assume it’s just a coi…
Conversions, approximations, and an innumerate historian
Harry Shannon
There’s a story about
a museum guide, who was showing visitors around the exhibits. Coming to an ancient artifact, the guide
stated: “This one is five million and three years old.” One curious visitor asked: “How can you be so
accurate with the dating?” The guide
answered: “Well, when I became a guide…
How to be a Philanthropist – Part 2: A Look at Some Numbers
Harry Shannon
This post follows up Part 1 - An 11 Step Guide.
Recently, MacKenzie Bezos, newly divorced from Amazon's Jeff Bezos, promised to give at least half her $36.6 billion fortune to charity. In what must be the understatement of the year, she noted "I have a disproportionate amount of money to share."
Bezos had just si…
Is dinner with Donald Trump dangerous?
Harry Shannon
Otherwise, why would the royals be wearing seatbelts at the state dinner? (Though someone should tell Prince Charles that it's supposed to go over his shoulder.)
I found this photo on the web site of Harper's bazaar. It's attributed to WPA POOL GETTY IMAGES
…
Media Hype? Check the Numbers
Unless you’ve been under the proverbial rock for the last few weeks, you’ll know that the TV show Game of Thrones (GoT) has just aired its final episode. It has had eight seasons.
Clearly fans of GoT were really into the show (although I
gather that they weren’t so enthusiastic about the final season). Based on the attention in th…