Was just reviewing a slide deck in Google Slides. Their little AI tool put a bubble at the bottom of slides--until I clicked it away--that reads "Beautify this slide." For one, I'm offended that it thinks my slides are ugly, but I also read it as "beatify this slide," which is a lot funnier. Oh holy slide deck ...
Dale Askey
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Librarian, father, baker, runner, dancer, etc. As we say in our house, the other Dr. Askey. Work: Vice Provost and Chief Librarian at U of Alberta. He/him/his.
Oh Britannica. Check out the map on their entry for Iqaluit and enjoy a laugh. How the mighty have slipped.
https://www.britannica.com/place/Iqaluit
https://www.britannica.com/place/Iqaluit
Iqaluit | History, Facts, Map, & Population | Britannica
Iqaluit, city, capital of Nunavut territory and headquarters of Baffin region, Canada. It lies at the head of Frobisher Bay, on southeastern Baffin Island. Iqaluit is the largest community in the eastern Canadian Arctic. It was established as a trading post in 1914 and became an air base during World War II.
Not a fan of Mark Carney for a variety of reasons, but that speech in Davos was a burner and suggests a strategy that I can support.
What really bothers me is that bad math and logic abounds in our communications, and by "our" I am implicating all Canadian institutions. For entities dedicated to ethical research and academic integrity, these kinds of sloppy math boasts are kind of execrable.
Sentences like this from Canadian institutions drive me bonkers:
"With two main campuses in Vancouver and Kelowna, UBC is home to over 70,000 students and 19,000 faculty and staff supported by a $3.9 billion dollar budget."
UBC does not have a less than 4:1 student to faculty ratio. If one multiplies 19,000 by $190,000 (their average salary), that is $3.6 billion. These absurd numbers that UBC, UofT, et al. claim for faculty are just silly.
The U of Alberta Library is pleased to launch a new research fellowship for those who want to work with our special collections. https://bpsc.library.ualberta.ca/fellowship
Hmm, just realized I said more women in leadership and then sandbagged on Marlaina. Hey, I'll still take my chances with less overall testosterone calling more shots. Gotta play the odds here.
As 2025 winds (or stumbles?) toward its end, my wishes for next year sound much like my wishes for any day of any year:
- Cities, nations, provinces/states, etc. all elect more women to leadership.
- The sensible people who exist between extremist polarities (in other words, 80% of humanity) get registered and vote, in any and every election.
- Canadians embrace supporting their own businesses and producers.
2026 will earn bonus points if it is the end of Marlaina Smith's reign of stupid.
Just laughed out loud at how narrow-minded (colonial?) my spellchecker is. I was writing an email and used the phrase "Indigenous knowledges" and it flagged the use of knowledge in the plural as a typo.
Theory: Canadian student organizations utilize food insecurity as a red herring when talking about tuition. Yes, food insecurity is real, but it impacts a far smaller percentage of students than these groups imply with their use of it as a trope. Doing so tends to blur and distort getting help to the students with actual need.