In today’s National Post, there is an article about the elimination of a report card in Elementary schools in Ontario, replacing it with a “kinder, gentler progress assessment”. This is a stupid idea. You cannot fix what you don’t measure. And fluffy, feel-good assessments don’t measure. Mary-Lou Donnelly of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation is quoted …
Category Archive: Business
Dec 21
Calculating Copenhagen
OK, so I’ve crunched the numbers on the non-agreement made at Copenhagen, using data from the IEA on emissions. In 2006, CO2 emissions from the world were about 28.4 billion tonnes, of which about 51.5% were from the “developed world”. This compares to about 21 billion tonnes in 1990, when 66% were from developed countries. …
Nov 18
On Harper’s nuclear deal with India
This could be a very good plan, depending on how it plays out. Here are the reasons: The world wants to build more nuclear plants, but there is a problem – the availability of fuel (uranium) and enrichment capabilities may not grow as fast as demand, which could drive up the cost of nuclear …
Nov 17
Less than Free
If you think free, open-source software is disruptive to the computer and software business, consider what Bill Gurley calls Google’s “less than free” offerings: Google’s free navigation feature announcement dealt a crushing blow to the GPS stocks. Garmin fell 16%. TomTom fell 21%. Imagine trying to maintain high royalty rates against this strategic move by Google. …
Oct 30
The Folly of Copenhagen
In today’s National Post, and elsewhere around the net, there is much commentary about the upcoming Copenhagen Conference where the UN and the Climate Change Priesthood will try to guilt the western world into signing on to a treaty that will cripple their economies and transfer wealth to the developing world. Peter Foster does a …
Oct 21
On Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is a growing issue, and watching Glenn Beck (yes, he is a blowhard, but sometimes he asked questions that need to be asked) last night I discerned that the term Net Neutrality is being used to two separate and unrelated concepts: The original meaning (as I recognized) was the the Internet should be …
Oct 09
On eHealth and Medical Accounting
Terence Corcoran, in another of his excellent descriptions of the flaws of government bureaucracy, explains better than I can why the eHealth fiasco in Ontario is doomed to fail (as such things have failed elsewhere). But the best part is this quote from Arnie Aberman: It is unlikely that the government will succeed in developing …
Sep 16
On labour shortages and mobility
In Wednesday’s Post, there was a letter from an economist with the United Steelworkers, Erin Weir, claiming that there are no labour shortages. Today there may not be, although I would argue that Saskatchewan still has an unemployment rate so low that it is below the natural rate of unemployment. In recent years, all of …
Aug 25
On the sale of Nortel Wireless
OK – all of those who think that the government should create some kind of reason or regulation that would prevent the sale of Nortel and it’s wireless technology to Ericsson of Sweden – take a pill! Nortel is an empty shell of a company, that is bankrupt and has gone through more than one …
Aug 18
On banning cosmetic pesticides
OK – another “Government trying to protect me from myself” issue has pissed me off. I cannot purchase 2,4-D (Killex) or glyphosate (Round-Up) products in Calgary at any store, either due to municipal or provincial regulation, or simply fear mongering pushing the retailers into stopping the sale of these useful and safe substances. Health Canada …