After a life marked by illness – chronic and acute – and several conditions that resulted in frequent hospital trips and stays, our friend’s adult son chose to end his life. He had suffered heart attacks and mini-strokes for a month straight. He stopped dialysis treatments and finished his life on his terms. Bill said his goodbyes. He donated his eyes so others could see. He asked that people celebrate his life as opposed to mourning his death. …
One of the co-founders of Facebook admitted what we all suspected: the program was designed to be addictive. …
Ken and I are shooting a TV commercial this morning. It’s not just for our Morning Show on CJBK; afternoon drive host Andy Oudman is also in it and although the script is a closely guarded secret, I gather we are taking part in a mock debate, so it sounds like it will be fun. I will post it here once it’s finished and on the air. …
If you’ve never had reason to buy advertising on Facebook, let me tell you that it works. You can micro-target your ad to reach the narrowest of demographics. Do you want to appeal only to Moms in their 30s with two children who belong to Pinterest and eat only organic arugula? Done. Or you can blanket the whole FB population. You control it and you set the budget. You pay by the click. It’s cheap and it’s effective. …
The Huffington Post conducted a fascinating experiment this week. They crafted an article with a deliberately false headline just to see how many people would share it without even reading it. Thousands did. …
Last week one of my former 680 News colleagues put a “did you know” post on Facebook concerning “hidden” messages on the iPhone. If you followed the simple instructions, you’d find messages sent to you that you weren’t aware of – I assumed it was bogus but I followed along and BAM! Dozens of messages appeared from people I do and don’t know. I couldn’t believe it! …
February is Black History Month. It’s unofficial right now but the Ontario government is moving to formally recognize it. How ironic and unfortunate that the issue of racism in London has shown its ugly face this month. …
My journalist friend Dan, who teaches part-time at Western University, tells his students something very wise. He says, I can’t teach you how to use what’s next in journalism, because it hasn’t been invented yet. …
If you’ve never played the online game Candy Crush, you might only know it from the requests to play that clutter up social media. That, by the way, is a problem with your privacy settings on Facebook. If you’re getting anything you don’t want on your page, it’s your fault. You can prevent it. But people would rather complain. And I digress. …
Game requests. Bar none, it’s the top thing people complain about. And it strikes me as so lame because the power to stop them lies with the requestee not the requester. …
There’s a saying that goes, when a child hands you a toy telephone, you answer it. So when my boss’s 8-year-old daughter needed someone to look after her goldfish while the family goes on vacation, I took that responsibility seriously! …
The 1,000,000th photo of a kid with ice cream all over their face sent me over the edge! I love kids. Kids are messy. Stuff happens. But it’s not adorable, like many parents think. So I randt. …
You hear about these Facebook scams.  We talk about them on the air because we know they are happening but until last weekend, it had never happened to me.  I was the intended victim. …
Could it be that the dreams of cookie lovers the world over have finally come true? …
I really wish my “friends” on Facebook would be a little more skeptical.  And that’s what launched Friday’s Brandt’s Randt. …
An author I know (Kevin Shea) posted a thread on Facebook last week, asking about the biggest celebrity moment his friends have had. Â …
This week’s randt appears to have touched a lot of nerves. Â Thanks to Facebook, it’s now possible to make all of your friends feel bad at once because they can’t get away to sun and surf during the deep, dark days of winter! Â But it’s the way those photos and status updates are presented that determines what the response will be. …
Brandt’s Randt – Go Ahead, Take a Winter Getaway, But…Read More »
