Author Archives: Robert Basil

Saudi Students and “Veblen Goods”

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Robert Basil

I’ve had a number of superb students at Kwantlen Polytechnic University from that country. This is awful news. From Inside Higher Ed this morning: Saudi Arabian students in Canada are caught in diplomatic crossfire. Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Education is … Continue reading →

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Over and over is the way it is

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Robert Basil

Colossal’s feature on Tracey J Lee‘s narrative gifs, “Vanishing Thoughts Explored,” is beguiling. (The above gif is called “In that Briefest Moment.”)

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Protecting yourself from the CRA phone scams

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Robert Basil

Just last week I received a voicemail from someone pretending to be a Canada Revenue Agency official. This person told me that liens were going to be placed on my bank accounts because I hadn’t “paid penalties for tax evasion.” … Continue reading →

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Editors are there for you.

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Robert Basil

This note appears in Seymour Hersh’s Reporter: A Memoir.  The last seven words are utterly splendid. Here is a congenial interview with Hersh by Christian Lorentzen.

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Love deserves …

Posted on June 16, 2018 by Robert Basil

In a marvellous Tukwila, Washington used bookstore the other week I picked up a copy of Yvor Winters’ Uncollected Essays and Reviews for $2.99. I am glad I did because it sure was worth it. I would have been happy … Continue reading →

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News Literacy 2018

Posted on May 30, 2018 by Robert Basil

Jay Rosen’s NYU School of Journalism’s News Literacy Project is an amazing service to all of us. The links and their analyses give us environmental scans and some helpful dives. As advertising revenue continues to decline, newsrooms are aggressively developing different … Continue reading →

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Designing for Accessibility

Posted on May 28, 2018 by Robert Basil

Karwai Pun’s posters on ‘designing for accessibility’ are very insightful and helpful. Writes Pun: We’ve shared these posters across [the UK] government for feedback and they can be found on GitHub. We are constantly improving and adding to them so please let us … Continue reading →

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Good scholarly habits

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Robert Basil

My dear friend Tierney Wisniewski, this website’s cofounder and coeditor, has started up a new blog devoted to her scholarly work and how she gets it done. I love her inaugural piece, “Good Scholarly Habits.” Tierney writes with great clarity and … Continue reading →

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Editing and Gender

Posted on May 9, 2018 by Robert Basil

The New York Times obituary of famed film editor Anne V. Coates is very charming. Ms. Coates vowed to find a way to make a career in cinema. She would need to overcome not only her family’s resistance but also … Continue reading →

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Peers

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Robert Basil

Clarissa has a couple of words: In a way, the censorship in US academia is worse than the Soviet kind. The Soviet censors were mostly dumb, uneducated people, and it wasn’t all that hard to pull wool over their eyes … Continue reading →

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