Author Archives: Robert Basil

Small changes here

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Robert Basil

I’ve replaced the feed for “Kwantlen Polytechnic University” with one for “University Canada West” to reflect my new academic home. Gone is the feed for “Education and AI” because it’s already impossible to avoid utter immersion in this topic. And … Continue reading →

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Devotion

Posted on September 4, 2025 by Robert Basil

Zach Helfand’s article describing the history and sensibility of The New Yorker‘s famous fact-checking department is hilarious – and, to me, enthralling – from top to bottom. “I find that often a fact checker forces you to tie a knot … Continue reading →

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Avoid unnecessary fates

Posted on August 11, 2025 by Robert Basil

Our website’s founding friend Chet Wisniewski has a new podcast: “Security. Take. Two. Real. Serious. Security.” Chet with his colleague Ben Verschaeren revisit notable IT security calamities with profound and lively stories – “once the truth is known, discovering lessons … Continue reading →

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Mind = Soul

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Robert Basil

Reading is a form of controlled hallucination. AI sidesteps one of the most wonderful miracles of the mind.

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Sure Why Not

Posted on July 8, 2025 by Robert Basil

God. The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like “a family discussion concerning candidates.” (The title is a fine … Continue reading →

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Almost time to go

Posted on June 14, 2025 by Robert Basil

Kwantlen Polytechnic University has been at or near the centre of my life for more than two decades. We’ll keep the newsfeed here up into my retirement years, though.

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Bryan Garner’s “Tip of the Day”

Posted on May 19, 2025 by Robert Basil

You really must subscribe. Today’s was delightfully humbling: racket; racquet. For the implement used in net games, racket is standard in American English and British English alike. The variant racquet appears in some proper names (e.g., the Palm Springs Racquet Club) seemingly because the “fancy” … Continue reading →

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Welcome them in.

Posted on May 14, 2025 by Robert Basil

In a piece for The Conversation Canada, my Kwantlen Polytechnic University colleague Jeffrey Meyers writes about Jason Stanley and Timothy Snyder, two eminent American scholars who fled Yale University and the United States, taking positions at the University of Toronto, … Continue reading →

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Pope Francis

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Robert Basil

“When people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.” “A little bit of mercy makes the … Continue reading →

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Amtrak’s social-media marketing

Posted on March 18, 2025 by Robert Basil

My favourite way to travel is by train, so I follow all of Amtrak’s accounts. They are very witty: When Southwest Airlines announced they were charging for bags, Amtrak posted on X, “Guess we’re the only ones doing free baggage now.” … Continue reading →

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