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Just when you thought Air Canada couldn't get any cheaper, or callous: sweet merciful crap. That link takes you to a CNN story this site picked up, explaining that Air Canada's regional operator, Jazz, has decided to save 25 kilograms of weight from each flight by getting rid of the life vests. The rules state that as long as your plane is flying within 50 miles of land, it's okay to do this - you can use the seat cushion as a flotation device instead. So as long as I can swim 50 miles I'll be okay? Oh sweet mother - I think I have to sign up for some advanced swimming lessons before going to my next client, which happens to be on the coast. Let's pray and hope - and assume for argument's sake - that in the unlikely event a plane needs to make an emergency landing it doesn't crash and crumple and otherwise disintegrate catastrophically. If you were to look for a place to land and there were no roads in the area, what would be a better touch-down pad? A bunch...
I just wrote a post inspired by an earlier article by Steve McIntyre-Smith, but that wasn't the only commentary on his writings I decided to prepare. I was also intrigued by his note regarding the fact that only 953 people, out of 2357 nationally, successfully passed the UFE in Ontario last year . He goes on to speculate about the demographic time bomb facing the profession. In the near future, the baby-boomer CAs are going retire. Steve, as are many, is worried that not enough students are joining the profession to fill their spots. He argues that current CAs should do more to "sell" the CA designation. When asked "what do you do?", they need something captivating to share with the listener, instead of just saying, "I'm a CA". Instead, saying something like "I make millionaires" through the work you do is more likely to grab people's attention. When speaking to junior staff, I myself have always liked to half-jokingly point out that...
Layoff talk is particularly interesting to hear when you're not on the receiving end. Otherwise, it sucks hard. Fortunately I'm sitting contentedly in the latter category, as are pretty much all my friends. The same can't be said for others, though . Playing tennis with some other CAs I found myself in a little "Big 4" mini-conference with reps from three of the firms participating. It's always an eye-opener to hear news from another company's perspective: Player 1 : "Your firm snapped up all the best employees. They asked everyone from their competitor how much they were offering, and immediately gave them a big boost on top of that." Player 2 : "Oh yeah, and your company stole a bunch of people from my group." Player 3 : "What happened?" Player 2 : "We laid off a bunch of people, and your company hired them all." Player 3 thinks - that sounds more like "picking up" rather than stealing. Ah, career moves in...
Last fall I was ready to write up a little article about the lack of glamorous in business travel. Well, then I got busy, put writing on hold, got to travel to Europe for a couple of weeks of work, and found the idea had shelved itself but quickly and quietly. Having said that, check out Gelato baby's account of a 36 hour trip home from Helsinki with an emergency stop in Glasgow to see how quickly things can go sour. It's a very amusing article. It also reveals how quickly travel can go wrong. All you need is one big missed flight to throw you for a loop. Which segues to the fact that it's been almost a year since my last vacation. It's about time to start planning the next one. This time it's going to be the West Coast. I'm not done going through the list of friends who have put down roots out there, but at the moment it's looking like I'll be able to see 15 or more people in 7 cities over a 10 day period. Wait, I just thought of another three. Make it...
One of the new things about tracking blogs through Google Reader is that you notice when people have made a posting that they subsequently delete. For example, there are two entries on Greg Mankiw's blog. And they have both since been deleted. The first link is to an article entitled "Mission Accomplished." The second link is to an article entitled "Making Milton Proud." Google Reader preserved not only the headlines, but the content of those articles too. First article: Mission Accomplished from Greg Mankiw's Blog by Greg Mankiw A reader emails me: After nearly two years as your reader, you've pretty much singlehandedly made me a fiscal libertarian out of a former democratic socialist. Second article: Making Milton Proud from Greg Mankiw's Blog by Greg Mankiw From an email this morning: After nearly two years as your reader, you've pretty much singlehandedly made me a fiscal libertarian out of a former democratic socialist. Wow, I did not just see...