As we draw closer to the start of the Beijing Olympics savvy media dwellers will start to tally the number of Beijing-Olympics-focused articles, features, editorials, op-ed pieces, essays, rants, opinions, diatribes, thoughts and so forth spreading through all forms of media.

Topics will be all over the map, of course, but look for some tried-and-true pieces that are already part of the public conversation.

Tibet will appear here and there, with all manner of references to the mechanisms put in place by the Chinese government to stifle any possible suggestion of even a whisper of discord. These stories will dovetail with references to “protest pens” and increased border security measures to make sure no one smuggles a “Free Tibet” lapel pin into China. If (and this is a big if) an athlete stands to accept a medal and–gasp–whips out a protest lapel pin the world media will take loud notice.

Look for a few heartwarming notes about athletes away from home, forging new friendships in the Olympic Village, and adjusting to training conditions in Beijing. Blogs home to hometown newspapers are a nice touch, but a cozy blogpost home to the neighbourhood might be difficult to see and hear amid the media clutter of the Olympics.

The pollution in Beijing will be given a great deal of coverage. I visited Beijing in late 1999 and while there was, indeed, a 30 storey building across the broad avenue from my hotel I couldn’t see it 5 mornings out of 7. Back in those dark days daylight could not penetrate the morning smog (cheerfully called “fog” by private and state tour guides) and the city planners devised an ingenious solution for lighting the murky streets.

Streetlights about 4 feet tall interspersed with their regular counterparts serve to illuminate the day, like taller versions of garden or pool lighting found here at home, because light does not sink to street level. Pedestrians would be hopelessly lost without these lamp posts in miniature and I used them as dim beacons leading me back to my hotel. The air quality truly is terrible.

The old adage taught to children, “Stop, look and listen before you cross the street” is a handy guide for any visitor to Beijing where crossing even the quietest backstreet is an exercise in both courage and luck. Passenger cars are being reduced from the local trafficsape (a word I hope I just coined) using a “day on/day off” plan while old beaters that are deemed to be embarrassingly high on the pollution inducing scale are made to disappear. Reducing vehicular traffic is a clever move–look for media features about how citizens are coping without their cars–and will have the pleasant side effect of making crosswalks safer. (Urgent Footnote: When in Beijing always cross the street in a crowd. There is safety in pedestrian numbers.)

These are very useful devices.

Everyday, more and more people get one and use it to stay connected while away from their office.  However, if you’ve ever used one to exchange emails back and forth with a person or people who’s organization(s) insists on adding a ‘Notice of Confidentiality’ (in Canada often in both English and French) like this at the bottom of every message, you know it becomes a real pain in the ass to scroll through a thread.

NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY
This communication including any information transmitted with it is intended only for the use of the addressees and is confidential. If you are not an intended recipient or responsible for delivering the message to an intended recipient, any review, disclosure, conversion to hard copy, dissemination, reproduction or other use of any part of this communication is strictly prohibited, as is the taking or omitting of any action in reliance upon this communication. If you receive this communication in error or without authorization please notify us immediately by return e-mail or otherwise and permanently delete the entire communication from any computer, disk drive, or other storage medium.

If the above disclaimer is not properly readable, it can be found at: abc.com/legal 

AVERTISSEMENT DE CONFIDENTIALITE
Ce courriel, ainsi que tout renseignement ci-inclus, destiné uniquement aux destinataires susmentionnés, est confidentiel. Si vous n’êtes pas le destinataire prévu ou un agent responsable de la livraison de ce courriel, tout examen, divulgation, copie, impression, reproduction, distribution, ou autre utilisation d’une partie de ce courriel est strictement interdit de même que toute intervention ou abstraction à cet égard. Si vous avez reçu ce message par erreur ou sans autorisation, veuillez en aviser immédiatement l’expéditeur par retour de courriel ou par un autre moyen et supprimer immédiatement cette communication entière de tout système électronique.

Si l’avis de non-responsabilité ci-dessus n’est pas lisible, vous pouvez le consulter à abc.com/legale

COME ON!  Is all this text really necessary in every email sent from every person in your organization?  Particularly when some email messages are only a sentence or less (e.g. Yes, No, OK).

Do organizations actually think people read these notices and take the action of notifying the organization if they receive the message in error?

If a Notice of Confidentially absolutely needs to be there, would something simple like this, on one or two lines, not be sufficent?

Notice of Confidentiality: abc.com/legal  / Avertissement de confidentialite: abc.com/legale

And while we’re at it, I’d suspend Steve Downie for the season, mainly because his vicious hit was prompted by a desire to retaliate and was not simply an unfortunate hit that happened in the course of the game.  To my mind, the reason for the hit is as important as the hit itself, and a hit like that, given only because Downie didn’t like getting hit, means he needs to be gone for the season. 

As a hockey dad, it drives me crazy that NHL officials don’t see that young players emulate this stuff.

Get well soon, Dean, and then have the season of your life — that’ll be the way to get even with the Flyers.

One of my friends, Brad Myers of TD Waterhouse, is helping organize the GAME ON! Charity Hockey Tournament taking place during the day on Friday, November 30th at the Bell Sensplex.

I will be participating.

The daylong event will bring together members of the Ottawa business community to play hockey, network and, most importantly, raise funds for the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation to implement social programs that will benefit the children of cancer patients.

12 teams will be formed and each will play 3 fun games of hockey – no scorekeepers, no trophies.

7:00am to 8:30am – Registration & Breakfast
9:00am to 5:00pm – Hockey
11:30am to 2:00pm – Lunch
4:30pm to 6:00pm – Happy Hour

Space is limited to 132 players, so register now. (put ‘NA’ in the Team Information fields you’ll be asked to complete)

The Ottawa office of Thornley Fallis and 76design is looking for a part-time, Senior Accountant — approximately 10 hours per week, with flexible schedule after initial probationary period.

The person will prepare a variety of financial and payroll reports, reconciliations and GL adjustments. 

Requirements:

• Background in accounting or finance, a “math wizard”
• Highly organized and efficient, great documentation and formating skills (MS Excel & MS Word)
• Experience in preparation of financial statements 
• High-competency with a range of MS Office programs and applications, with knowledge of QuickBooks an asset 
• Ability to pass security screening to Secret level

If you are interested, send your CV to milroy@thornleyfallis.com.

So, I’ve taken most of my summer vacation already … decided to head west this year for a conference and to see family.

It was fun, I have to admit, but I learned a lot too, so in the interests of sharing, here are Stephen’s collected thoughts from his two-week sojourn in Western Canada:

1.  Wow, is it ever sunny in the summer — the sun not setting until after 11 p.m. was something it would take me some time to get used to …

2.  This is a really young country, and the West is even younger than that.  I come from a place (Prince Edward Island) where we can trace our family trees back four, five, and maybe more generations.  Finding someone in Alberta with roots that deep is practically impossible, which gives the whole province a bit of a transient air about it.

3.  Until you’ve never paid PST, you probably don’t understand why the GST is such an affront to an Albertan, and you probably won’t understand why that promise was such a cornerstone of a recent political party’s platform.

4.  There’s a lot of oil in Alberta, but even after that has run out, there’s even more coal.  An abundance of fossil fuels probably has a way of making you feel pretty self-sufficient.

5.  The Badlands are very cool, but Hoodoos are shorter than you think.  For a six-year-old, however, it doesn’t get much better than the Royal Tyrell Museum.

And, finally, I learned that, for young kids, you can’t spend enough time with family — there’s something about blood being thicker than water that is never more manifest than putting kids together who haven’t seen each other in a while but who know that somehow they’re family and they therefore stick together.  It was wonderful to see.

So that’s my trip, in review.  We went to the Rockies, we went to the West Edmonton Mall, and we sang karaoke, but we did it together, and in the end, that’s what made it memorable.

… like one of my good friends has a blog he doesn’t update, but I still found something cool on it.

This is the result of the “What Does Your Birthdate Mean” quiz:

Your Birthdate: December 18

You are a cohesive force – able to bring many people together for a common cause.  You tend to excel in work situations, but you also facilitate a lot of social gatherings too. Beyond being a good leader, you are good at inspiring others. You also keep your powerful emotions in check – you know when to emote and when to repress.Your strength: Emotional maturity beyond your years Your weakness: Wearing yourself down with too many responsibilities Your power color: Crimson red Your power symbol: Snowflake Your power month: September

So I don’t know if that’s me or not, but still …

In my volunteer life, I’m the chair of the Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer Association — so I clearly don’t agree with Chuck Klosterman about soccer.

Having said that, I do recognize that soccer is a relatively new sport in this country, and that there are not a lot of people with experience to coach the 3,400 or so young players we have in the association.

I am still surprised, however, that of our 200 or so teams, we probably had to recruit some 15 to 25 per cent of our coaches under duress (i.e. we need a coach or there’s no team).

I’m also surprised at the number of familiar faces I see in the larger group of eager volunteers — hockey coaches coaching again in soccer season, scout leaders coaching, etc. And when we put out the call for coaches in our panic, the people who stepped up were the ones who usually do that other stuff.

In fact, one woman we called gave me a list of activities she and her husband were involved in that was so complete they had one night a week they could devote to coaching soccer, but they would do it if we really needed them.  We told them that, thanks, we’ll make sure we find someone else who isn’t giving quite so much.

So, my pitch is this: if you’re not volunteering right now for something, please think about doing so.  You don’t need to become a coach for the Dragons — although, if you’re interested, we could use the help.

What I’d really like to see is a group of people getting together to figure out how they can help each other help out.

Definition of merge: to blend gradually into something else …

Gradually … i.e. not pull up to the end of the merge lane and stop.

In this city, and indeed in Ontario generally, I have noticed drivers — even if I leave a space in front of me to drive into, at speed, and therefore preventing the need for our lane to stop dead — will not merge correctly.

Instead, they will drive to the end of the merge lane, then try to cut in.

Or they will stop, at the start of the merge lane, and wait for someone to let them in.

To all those drivers: please visit Montreal for two weeks.  You’ll come back with an appreciation of the merge lane as a tool to be used.

Merci beaucoup.

Check this out, and if it doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, you’re missing something quite extraordinary.

I’m not normally given to underdog stories, but I know what I like, and I love that the British audience — probably not filled with opera fans — nevertheless knew enough to know they were in the presence of true, unadulterated talent.

Bravo, Paul, and congratulations on winning Britain’s Got Talent.  I don’t buy many CDs anymore, but I’ll be preordering yours.

Hat tip to Paul Wells for this.