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When the future looks cold and scary, you can always wrap yourself in the Canadian flag
The Globe & Mail: This week Conservative MP John Carmichael and Heritage Minister James Moore stood in the lobby of the House of Commons flanked by Canadian flags, in the manner of car salesmen surrounded by banners saying, “Your buck goes farther here” and “Check under the hood and see!” They were publicizing Mr. Carmichael’s private member’s bill, an Act Respecting the National Flag of Canada, which would defend the country from the sadly underreported scourge of flag-hating. If Bill C-288 makes it into law, all Canadians will have the right to fly our national flag – and woe betide those who try to prevent them.
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Dan Ariely: Should job descriptions be as vague as possible?
Business Insider: Dan Ariely, author of the wonderful Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions discusses the problem with specifics in job descriptions: Most of the time, when you hire people you don’t want to specify exactly what they are to do and how much they would get paid—you don’t want to say if you do X you will get this much, and if you do Y you will get that much. That type of contract is what we call a complete contract. Creating one is basically impossible, especially with higher-level jobs. If you try to do it, you cause “crowding out.” People focus on everything you’ve included and exclude everything else.