The Globe and Mail (see here) is reporting today on a recent article from Forbes.com (see here) about so-called “love contracts” in the workplace. The name alone does not necessarily lead to the correct conclusion as to the actual purpose of these contracts: love contracts are meant to be signed between two romantically-involved coworkers stating that their relationship is consensual and that they understand the employer’s policy on harassment.

Indeed, office romances, while not uncommon, can make life difficult for employees and employers alike when they head south. Some time ago, my colleague, Gabriel Granatstein, wrote a column . . . [more]

The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association Health and Safety Committee has produced and published a report [PDF] that urges wifi be regarded as a workplace hazard in schools. The OECTA website glosses it this way:

A position regarding the use of Non-Ionizing Electromagnetic Radiation, including WiFi, in the workplace, Researched and presented by the OECTA Provincial Health and Safety Committee, January 2012

There are growing health and safety concerns regarding the widespread use of technology, such as cellular phones and wireless computer networking (WiFi), which produce non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation. It is estimated that at least 3 per cent of

Imagine my chagrin: there I am in a linguistics class in second or third year university and for the first time in my life I pronounce the word “ubiquitous”—only I don’t. What I say is more or less “you-bi-QUEE-shus.” Well.

It’s that way with some words, even for those with big vocabs. Written and spoken English are two different languages, after all, and we don’t always get to say what we see in cosy company. That’s where “misles” comes in. It’s not hard to imagine someone pronouncing “misled” as “MYzld,” particularly someone learning English. But even the best of the . . . [more]

“What _____ do” seems to be the latest meme. As a break from the serious issues surrounding things like the lawful access bill, here are some that might resonate with Slaw readers.

  . . . [more]

I heard lately of a case where someone mediating a dispute between A and B sent an email about the dispute to A with a bcc: to B.

A managed to examine the header of the email sufficiently to see the bcc: to B, and complained to the mediator.

My first reaction was “wow, I didn’t know you could do that!” Do lawyers now have to scrub their email headers the way they are supposed to scrub metadata out of documents before sending to the other side?

My second response was “wait a minute! What was the mediator doing sending . . . [more]

You may have noticed that you can type math equations directly into your Google search bar and get results. Mashable points out that this equation will give you a special result for Valentine’s Day:

sqrt(cos(x))cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

And if you thought that was neat and want to try something else, plug this one into your search bar:

1.5sqrt(-abs(abs(x)-1)*abs(3-abs(x))/((abs(x)-1)*(3-abs(x))))(1+abs(abs(x)-3)/(abs(x)-3))sqrt(1-(x/7)^2)+(4.5+0.75(abs(x-.5)+abs(x+.5))-2.75(abs(x-.75)+abs(x+.75)))(1+abs(1-abs(x))/(1-abs(x))),-3sqrt(1-(x/7)^2)sqrt(abs(abs(x)-4)/(abs(x)-4)),abs(x/2)-0.0913722(x^2)-3+sqrt(1-(abs(abs(x)-2)-1)^2),(2.71052+(1.5-.5abs(x))-1.35526sqrt(4-(abs(x)-1)^2))sqrt(abs(abs(x)-1)/(abs(x)-1))

This information came out last month, but is important to note. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (the SEC) put out information about investment fraud and social media in January:

• SEC – Investor Alert: Social Media and Investing – Avoiding Fraud (January 4, 2012) [PDF]
• SEC – Investor Bulletin: Social Media and Investing – Understanding Your Accounts (January 2012) [PDF]
• SEC – National Examination Risk Alert – Investment Adviser Use of Social Media (Vol. II, Issue 1, January 4, 2012) [PDF]

These alerts were prompted by charges laid on January 4th against Anthony Fields, an Illinois-based investment advisor who offered . . . [more]

The hot new thought (again) in some physics circles is that time doesn’t exist. Take a moment on this Friday to wrap what remains of your mind around that thought. Not possible. It’s like those “yes, but” thoughts you used to have lying awake at night when you were a kid and wondered what was outside the universe: nothing, right? Yes, but…

So lacking the math or the philosophical chops necessary to dispense with time, most of us reckon with it. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, ad infinitum. Yet of all of these measures, it’s really only . . . [more]

Early this year, the Department of Justice released, seemingly for the first time, a report titled “Costs of Crime in Canada, 2008” by Ting Zhang [PDF version]. Given the impending omnibus bill on crime and the likely large increase in the costs to the provinces from their associated responsibility for corrections, this report might be of some interest.

It consists, essentially, of a series of “appendices” that set out cost tables for, respectively, the criminal justice system, the victims of crime, third parties, and finally intangible costs (pain and suffering, value of loss of life) associated . . . [more]

I’ve been meaning for a while now to do a fillip on Issuu, the online magazine creation tool; and when I saw yesterday that CanLII had done up its strategic plan using Issuu, that gave me the push I needed.

As I said, Issuu is a digital publishing platform that lets you create a glossy online magazine, brochure, or report that can be read on pretty much any digital device. All of which is cool if you’re into self publishing. I’m pointing it out to you, though, as a source of a lot of fancy and free content . . . [more]

The state of Indiana may soon become the 23rd state in the US to adopt right-to-work legislation. With the Senate Committee having already passed the Bill, it will go to the full Senate. If there are no amendments, the governor of Indiana could be signing the Bill as early as tomorrow (see a news article here).

Back-to-work legislation prohibits contracts between employers and unions which require all employees to pay union dues as a condition of employment. As such, this type of legislation gives the non-member employee the option of paying union dues (or not). Supporters of this type . . . [more]

How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

from the Jan 21, 2012 online New York Times

Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, forcing an assembly line overhaul. New screens began arriving at the plant near midnight.

A foreman immediately roused 8,000 workers inside the company’s dormitories, according to the executive. Each employee was given a biscuit and