In 1953 the Canadian Geographical Society published a glossy black-and-white volume called "Image of Canada." It has the usual inspiring pictures of Saskatchewan wheat fields and Toronto city lights; of majestic glaciers and mighty log booms. The book also contains images that open a window to the past, and let us see the world through 1950s eyes. […]

At the Green Door restaurant, customers line up, take a plate, then fill it with their choice of items from the restaurant's vegetarian buffet. At the cash each plate is weighed, and the customer's bill is calculated: price per gram*grams of food taken=cost of dinner. This pricing scheme creates an interesting choice problem. It might […]

During my time as a professor, I've had a series of offices with a series of big, solid, 1970s oak desks. I have never worked at these desks. They're useless for computing, as they're the wrong height. They're useless for explaining things to students, because they aren't designed for two or more people to sit side-by-side. All […]

Antibiotics – when they work – are miraculous. A patient does not have to understand what antibiotics are, or why antibiotics are effective. All that is required is for someone somewhere in the world to create an effective antibiotic and put it into a pill. Then it can be shipped to someone with a bacterial infection, and the patient […]

As university employees, professors have a fiduciary obligation to act in their employer's best interests. The number one interest of a university is financial survival, and the key to survival is reputation, because reputation attracts students, faculty, and donors. A university's reputation, to the extent that it is at all malleable, can be enhanced by serving students […]