FREAKONOMICS 2.0: Fighting knowledge monopolies, or how to avoid being ripped off

November 17, 2007June 19, 2008Jeff Business, Law Leave a comment

`Information imbalances’ cost North Americans billions of dollars a year. One intrepid economist wants to change that.

Henry Schneider, an economist at Cornell University, believes that auto mechanics are no more dishonest than the rest of us. His opinion is something of a surprise in light of his research.

In a new paper, Schneider describes data from undercover visits to Canadian garages, which show that 61 per cent of the total sum spent on car repairs was completely unnecessary. Repeating the undercover experiment in the United States, he found the same thing: an industry characterized by systemic rip-offs where concern for reputation had little effect on service.

The Trauma Tamer

September 20, 2006June 20, 2008Jeff Science Leave a comment

Easing the Emotional Strain of Crippling Memories

While memories can be sweet, they can also be savage. Survivors of violence, rape or abuse can suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which forces them to relive their ordeal over and over. These flashbacks can be so debilitating that many PTSD sufferers find it hard to maintain relationships, hold jobs and—in extreme cases—simply leave the house. Now, however, the pioneering work of Karim Nader promises relief from trauma.

His experiments suggest damaging memories can be stripped of their potency by administering a common blood pressure drug, propranolol, as a traumatic event is being recollected. Nader’s findings, which were published in Nature, have caught the attention of the BBC and 60 Minutes.

Didn’t get the job? Could it be your name?

August 2, 2006June 20, 2008Jeff Business, Feature 1 Comment

It’s a difficult and little-discussed issue for many people on the hunt for work: What if the one essential on every resume and a symbol of your identity is hurting your prospects of landing a position?

A funny thing happened to Rajiv Prasad when he invented an alter-ego named Roger Pritchard — prospective employers responded to his job applications.

It was the mid-1990’s and, despite having a university degree and work experience in the high-tech sector, Mr. Prasad was having a hard time finding a job in a slumping Ottawa economy. So he tried an unusual experiment.

Curious about whether his Indian name was hindering his employment prospects, Mr. Prasad responded to five job postings with two versions of his resume. The only difference between them was the name at the top. One listed Mr. Prasad’s real name and the other listed a “white alias” named Roger Pritchard.

Management is from Mercury; IT is from Pluto

April 19, 2006June 19, 2008Jeff Business Leave a comment

They’re the star-crossed couple of the business world. The nattily dressed manager and the rumpled computer expert come from different backgrounds and often seem to speak different languages. When they work together, beautiful things can happen for a business. When the two don’t communicate well, their misunderstandings can lead to disaster.

Enter Professor Geneviève Bassellier, a specialist in information systems at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management. In her research, Bassellier acts as a marriage counsellor of sorts between the suits and techies, helping them understand one another and build a stronger, healthier relationship.

Further Secrets of the Snail Sex Love Dart

March 23, 2006June 20, 2008Jeff Science Leave a comment

How do you make love to a snail? Slowly, violently and with a mucus-coated love dart. McGill University biology professor Ronald Chase knew that “love darts” — sharp, slimy projectiles fired at prospective sexual partners — served to enhance paternity, he just wasn’t sure exactly how. He has now learned that the key to the ritual lies not in the projectile itself but in a special mucus on the dart that can double the chances of paternity.

Published in the bi-monthly Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Biological Sciences, the discovery by Chase and his graduate student Katrina Blanchard further explains how the love dart plays a key evolutionary role in certain species of snails.

The snails are hermaphrodites.. Read more from the McGill University Press Release

Return of the (philosopher) King

October 6, 2005June 20, 2008Jeff Feature Leave a comment

Ignatieff wows at Beatty Lecture

Michael Ignatieff delivered a hit for Homecoming on October 1, rousing a packed auditorium with a bold articulation of Canada’s present and future place in the world. Speaking at the annual Beatty Lecture, Ignatieff drew on history and political philosophy to offer a forceful vision of national identity and foreign policy. The speech was marked by several standing ovations for Ignatieff, who occupies a post as Director of Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and who will be taking a visiting professorship at the University of Toronto this January.

Anti-guru: Management prof bites big

June 9, 2005June 20, 2008Jeff Business, Uncategorized Leave a comment

Strategy gurus beware: management professor Henry Mintzberg is back with a new book that turns some favourite corporate conventions on their head. In Strategy Bites Back (Prentice Hall, 2005, 292 pages) Mintzberg serves up a lighthearted gallery of tidbits to debase and debunk anyone who proclaims to know the secrets of strategy.

Described by Business Voice as “a really cheeky little brat of a book which ought to be spanked soundly and sent to bed without any supper,” Strategy Bites Back promises to make strategy fun once again, slipping witty insight into sections with titles like “Forecasting: Whoops!” “The Soft Underbelly of Hard Data” and “Strategy is a Little Black Dress.”

Read more from the McGill University Press Release

Listening to the great beyond

April 14, 2005June 19, 2008Jeff Science Leave a comment

Seth Shostak believes in aliens. And there is a good chance you do too if you were one of the hundreds who heard him speak last March 30. In a jammed McIntyre Amphitheatre, Shostak delivered a rousing lecture in which he made a compelling case for the presence of beings on other planets who will be in touch with us before long.

Shostak is a senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, the American-based research group whose acronym stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He was at McGill to give a talk entitled “When Will We Detect Extraterrestrials?” for the Astrobiology Lecture Series.

What to make of the Anarchists?

March 31, 2005June 19, 2008Jeff OpEd Leave a comment

The hillsides ring with “free the people”/Or can I hear the echoes from the days of ’39?/With trenches full of poets/The ragged army, fixin’ bayonets to fight the other line.

-The Clash, “Spanish Bombs”

Now fading out of memory, the Spanish Civil War was the most romantic of conflicts, when literary greats like Hemingway and Orwell joined thousands of volunteers from around the world to fight fascism. It was a war for idealists, intellectuals, and the confused. Today, icons and signs from that conflict continue to flicker in Montreal, as a new generation searches for symbols of a better world.

During last month’s protests, small but lively bands of communists and anarchists punctuated the long processions filing down Sherbrooke. Some waved red flags, others black ones, in a mini-re-creation of a Spain from long ago.

Let Muslims Buy Space to Pray

March 16, 2005June 19, 2008Jeff OpEd Leave a comment

Like it or not, McGill University is correct in saying it has no obligation to provide a campus prayer space for Muslims. This is issue is a prickly one at the university, and it is back in the news after Muslim groups have challenged McGill decision to create an archeology lab in what is now a temporary prayer space.

Before getting into the harder questions, let’s reiterate two facts that are more or less incontrovertible.

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