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All new: Truth & Beauty Operations

After many months — building your own sites is hard! — I am finally able to launch truth-and-beauty.net, my new portfolio site! It replaces the old moritz.stefaner.eu, which now lives at archive.stefaner.eu, as I was not able to (and probably won’t) migrate all old contents over. A few notes on technology – I knew I […]




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Leveraging Automated Market Analyzers: A Developer’s Guide to Building Financial Tools with Web Technologies

Building financial tools has never been more accessible. With the rise of web technologies, developers can create powerful market analyzers that are quick, responsive, and packed with features that were previously only available to large trading platforms. Here, we outline [...]

Read Article

The post Leveraging Automated Market Analyzers: A Developer’s Guide to Building Financial Tools with Web Technologies first appeared on CSS Reset.





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Poetic Ceramic Creations

Delphine Joly Pujol est l’âme poétique et inspirée qui se cache derrière OcciD Créations. Issue du milieu de la biologie, dont elle emprunte le vocabulaire pour intituler ses collections, l’artiste est passionnée de céramique depuis 15 ans. Fascinée par la naissance d’une pièce à partir des quatre éléments que sont l’eau, la terre, l’air et […]




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Bootstrap Hornbook Interactive Infographic

As per scientists around 90% of all information we perceive comes through our eyes. The visual side always has been quite important for humanity, we can see it from the culture of writings and visual art having very long history. The other suitable feature is laconism. We can experience the lack of time for finding […]




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The Lost Generation, by Kevin Gilbert

880 billion images will be made this year, in the USA alone. How important is it to makes sure image loss is minimised not to have a Lost Generation?







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No longer an Underdog, Sony cameras and lenses win multiple categories at TIPA 2022 World Awards

The Technical Image Press Association, otherwise known as TIPA, has just released its list of...

The post No longer an Underdog, Sony cameras and lenses win multiple categories at TIPA 2022 World Awards appeared first on Alphatracks.




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How Generative AI Can Add Human Delight to Your Virtual Event

We just celebrated 24 years of Viget. That’s two dozen years! This year, our Spring TTT in celebration of “Viget24” was a virtual extravaganza. We’ve put on a lot of virtual events over the years. Some with really strong themes and swag bags; some that focus on simple, meaningful time together; and others that let us enjoy learning something new as a team. Regardless of the rest of the experience, a key component of all of our virtual events is joyachieved often through intentional levity. We think it’s important to laugh together! We see laughter as a way to expedite connection, and connection leads to rapport which makes us better at collaborating — and in turn leads to more quality products for our clients. 

Experimenting and iterating is a critical way we try to continually get delight right. We’re pretty pleased with one of our experiments from Viget24 that we called “Lovely Spring Day”.

A Lovely Spring Day

As we were brainstorming for this TTT, we thought about how to throw some joyful levity pizzazz into the pieces of our virtual events puzzle that have become pretty standard. How do we add lots of delight without adding lots of time to the action-packed schedule? We zeroed in on the virtual backgrounds we’ve been creating for every event — they add a layer of specialness. Of place. This isn’t any old virtual meeting. This is a TTT! 

A small collection of past event-specific virtual backgrounds

Another key consideration for our team is figuring out creative ways to tie in inspiration from our industry and our work. AI has been an obvious contender —  we’ve discussed it and tied it in to some extent for the past several TTTs. But this time, we wanted to see how we could use AI for delight — marrying it with virtual backgrounds felt obvious. And so, a ”Lovely Spring Day” was born. 

The TL;DR is that we generated custom virtual backgrounds for every Viget employee that encapsulates their “ideal spring day.” We then played a 15-minute guessing game where people tried to guess who the background “belonged to.” Then, people had access to the full folder of AI-generated virtual backgrounds to look through. Vigets could then choose the background that spoke to them most and set it as their background. 

Read on for more on how we put this together!

Pre-Event Survey

To support all of our TTTs, we send out thoughtful pre-event logistics surveys 2-3 weeks before the big day. The survey lets us know where folks are joining from (where can we send their activity + snack packages?) and gives folks a chance to provide input on how the People Team can help folks enjoy and be present for TTT. This time, we also snuck in three questions, just “for giggles.”

  • In one sentence, describe your ideal spring day.
  • List three things that spark joy.
  • What color do you think suits you best?

We did not share why we asked these questions. Sneaky, sneaky! When it’s low-key like this, the element of surprise is often a quick way to level up the delight.

Asking for a Friend

With rich data in hand about what makes people happy in spring, we were ready to generate the backgrounds. I was stoked! I’ve been experimenting with ChatGPT for some time, so it was fun to be able to use the DALL-E 3 side of OpenAI’s GPT-4 model

Who knew Prompt Engineering would be part of my role as a recruiter-who-helps-support-TTT-planning? I played around with a couple different prompts to generate these background images. Ultimately, my goal was to create backgrounds that were meaningfully different from one another but still felt good (i.e., something you might feasibly want to set as your virtual background and nothing freakily AI, like uncanny valley hands).

Here are the prompts I landed on that got me to our set of virtual backgrounds:

  • Please generate an image (dimensions of a virtual meeting background) that encapsulates the vibe of a day with [ BLANK ].
  • Please generate an image (dimensions of a virtual meeting background) that features [ BLANK ].

In the blanks, I wrote the things people included in their surveys. Those blanks were filled with everything ranging from dogs, cats, and friends to beverages, specific temperatures, yard games, carbohydrates, hammocks and more! Sometimes, I’d include a detail I knew about that person myself, even if it wasn’t in their survey. Yes, I occasionally editorialized for both clarity and whimsy! This was for delight purposes, but also helped serve my goal of having the backgrounds be “meaningfully different from one another.” It’s amazing how many people’s ideal spring day is as simple as having 1) moderate temperatures and 2) no pollen!

I generated 55 images. Throughout the process, DALL-E nailed it. I only needed to regenerate 2 or 3 images with clarifiers (and only because they included AI-specific outliers like disembodied hands). Huzzah!

Here are some of my favorites, along with their prompts in the captions. Can you guess who they belong to?

Please generate an image (dimensions of a virtual meeting background) that features an outdoor brewery/taproom in the appalachian mountains. There's a playground with kids in the very distance. In the foreground, frisbee, soccer, volleyball, etc. with friends and family.
Please generate an image that encapsulates the vibe of a day ending with an outdoor dinner with lights near an outdoor shower. There should be some hiking boots scattered about.
Please generate an image that features a nice hot bath after a cold but sunny day, with a beautiful mug of green tea and a box of takeout that looks really good. The calendar shows April 25th.
Please generate an image that encapsulates the vibe of sitting outside in a nice purple adirondack chair with buc-ees paraphernalia around.
Please generate an image that encapsulates the vibe of a sunny, 65 degree day with a slight breeze at the ballpark watching a game. The image should feature cats, baseball, and art.
Please generate an image that encapsulates the vibe of being outside in a canoe along with carbs, bad jokes, and games (video OR board games).
Please generate an image that features endless mountain bike trails, a blue bike with a cup of coffee in the cupholder, and roaming cats.

IRL

Ok, so for the actual activity we had the images ready to go in a private Google Folder. I took twelve of the images and put them in a very simple deck. I shared my screen, introduced the activity, and invited people to guess who they think each image belonged to in Slack. It was so fun seeing people throw out guesses and then narrow in with any verbal hints I gave!

Each image took about a minute. Then, we shared access to the Google Folder, gave folks a couple minutes to choose a background that called to them (their own image or someone else’s), and set it as their background. It felt like a magical moment to witness people finding and resonating with their own image or delighting in the ridiculousness of their coworkers’. We saved about 5 minutes for this piece, which felt right.

The whole Lovely Spring Day activity took just over 15 minutes! It was a perfect way to transition from a long meal break into our next grouping of content. And, we got to see the different backgrounds throughout the rest of the meeting.

Oh, the humanity!

I think this activity was successful for a couple of reasons.

1. People laughed! 

Color commentary in the #ttt Slack channel

2. People felt seen. Some of these backgrounds were incredibly on point. Some of that was due to key folks having well-documented interests and a Slack-Famous Dog. 

Laura Sweltz has a famous love of books and an incredibly iconic beagle named Phoebe.

But some of it was due to the People Team knowing about our people — our coworkers — beyond the sentence they wrote in. This uniquely human involvement helped me call an audible as needed and tweak prompts slightly to make the backgrounds feel even more relatable.

Steven, Carolyn, and Laura Sweltz felt seen.

3. We could commiserate about our eventual AI overlords. (Did you notice that I say “please” in my prompts?!) Listen, Viget has plenty of practical, healthily skeptical people who are dubious about AI. GenAI is not always a fun, lighthearted thing. But using it in a fun, lighthearted way to do something it’s really good at was a nice use case and thought-provoking exposure even for people who are not into it.

4. We could see where we all align, and where we differ! It was amazing to see just how many people love picnics, covet their caffeine, and appreciate a bike ride. It was also cool to see some unique folks who simply crave a rainy spring day, or some beloved Buc-ee’s. What a rich tapestry of individuals — literally!




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Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera

This post: Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera was first published on Beyond Photo Tips by Susheel Chandradhas

Sony announced the Sony A9 iii on 07 November 2023, a 24.6 Megapixel Full-frame mirrorless camera with the world’s first global shutter full-frame stacked CMOS image sensor capable of shooting at 120 frames per second. The camera also boasts a processor, the BIONZ XR, that is 8 times faster than the previous Sony BIONZ X […]

This post: Sony A9 III: Game-changing Full-Frame Global Shutter, 120FPS 24.6MPx Camera was first published on Beyond Photo Tips




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For Generations Meiji Jingu Forest

In the heart of Tokyo nearly 100 years ago – in 1920 to be exact – more than 100,000 young volunteers planted 100,000 trees donated from all parts of Japan, to create a sacred forest for the new Meiji Shrine – a … Continue reading




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Getting To The Bottom Of Minimum WCAG-Conformant Interactive Element Size

WCAG provides guidance for making interactive elements more accessible by specifying minimum size requirements. In this article, Eric Bailey discusses the nuances of interactive element sizes and clarifies what it looks like to provide accessible interactive experiences using WCAG-compliant target sizes.




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Generating Unique Random Numbers In JavaScript Using Sets

Want to create more randomized effects in your JavaScript code? The `Math.random()` method alone, with its limitations, won’t cut it for generating unique random numbers. Amejimaobari Ollornwi explains how to generate a series of unique random numbers using the `Set` object, how to use these random numbers as indexes for arrays, and explores some practical applications of randomization.




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Kluge Interactive





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New Era Dawns -- Tech Bros Strut in the Corridors of Power

Carole Cadwalladr: The era that began with the Great Disruptor's first term is over. Beware the emerging elite.




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Hyderate


Hyderate, originally uploaded by !efatima.




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The Mammoth Cost of Operating America's Combat Aircraft

The Mammoth Cost of Operating America’s Combat Aircraft shows the operating cost per aircraft in 2018. Statista created this infographic when the non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an overview of mission capable rates and the cost of operating U.S. military aircraft in 2020. Over 40 aircrafts were examined, Statista chose to highlight these 15 in their infographic.

The non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released an overview of mission capable rates and the cost of operating U.S. military aircraft. It examined more than 40 different aircraft types, finding that only three of them reached their mission capable goals between fiscal years 2011 and 2019. In total, the report put the collective cost of operating all of the U.S. military's aircraft fleets at $49 billion in fiscal year 2018, taking operational & support (O&S) costs such as maintenance as well as supply support in account. O&S generally makes up 70 percent of a weapon system's total life cycle costs and it includes spare parts, depot and field maintenance, contract services, engineering support and personnel, amongst other factors.

It would be nice to see how many we have in service too. The stacked bars work well. As a reader you can tell the values between operating/support and maintenance, but the total is what matters.

Read more at Statista




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The Generation Gap

The Generation Gap infographic by Steve Perry highlights the birth years of different generations. The stats from 2022 led him to develop a few fun facts of the differences between the generations.

Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the United States, with an estimated population of over 72 million. While Millennials and Gen Z face challenges in building wealth, with factors such as student loan debt and rising home prices, Baby Boomers tend to have the highest wealth accumulation, with only 20% of the population they have 52% of the wealth in the country, benefiting from longer periods of economic growth and home ownership. Older generations have traditionally had higher voter turnout rates compared to younger generations. Millennials and Generation X are becoming increasingly politically engaged. Older generations are also delaying retirement and staying in the workforce longer, leading to a “graying” of the labor force and potential competition for job opportunities with younger generations.

Found on Tableau Public’s Viz of the Day




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How Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages Project Affects Photography Websites

Back in October 2015, Google announced the launch of a project that may change the internet forever. The Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project makes static pages and images load faster than ever before, and despite the youth of the project, big names like Pinterest, WordPress, and Twitter have all voiced their support. For photography website owners, the […]





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How Can We Better Support the Mental Well-Being of Veterans Returning from Service?

Military service is difficult, dangerous, and demanding. But for some veterans, returning to civilian life can also be a challenge. Going from the structure of active duty—with its purpose-driven roles, full-throttle environment, and sense of camaraderie—to the relatively humdrum life of a civilian can be jarring, particularly for veterans who’ve experienced trauma during their service and may suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  Researchers at Boston University, including Dawne Vogt and Casey Taft—both professors of psychiatry in the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine—are utilizing a variety of data-backed strategies to support veterans struggling to adapt to their new normal lives. 




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Make Art or Die? For Some Veterans Creating Art Can Heal from Trauma

Most people may be familiar with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and other common types of psychotherapy, but art therapy remains somewhat of a mystery to the general public. Not incorporating it into a treatment plan could be a huge missed opportunity for veterans who’ve experienced trauma and other patients in need of mental health support. “Art is a means of therapy and a way to heal,” says Marine Corps veteran Jerry Rael. “It helps me escape some of the things that I went through during my time in service.”  Art can also be therapeutic for families who have lost a loved one in battle, as seen in Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen. In the film, Marine Anthony Marquez carves battlefield crosses out of wood for each lost service member and then hand-delivers them to Gold Star families, including a grieving mother who had attempted suicide.




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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Shows Promise in Treating PTSD

New research data offers much-needed hope for veterans wrestling with combat-associated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study explores the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to address symptoms that persist despite standard treatments.




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US Federal employees and retirees: Contribute conveniently through the Combined Federal Campaign

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Monday, December 4, 2023 -- The Free Software Foundation, today, highlighted its participation as a charity in the 2023 Combined Federal Campaign, which is focused on human rights this week.




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Lab-Generated Antibodies Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance

Our immune systems generate antibodies that neutralize and help eliminate foreign pathogens. These antibodies or proteins are generated by specific immune



  • Cell & Molecular Biology

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NASA's Perseverance Rover Uncovers Water-Borne Minerals in Mars' Jezero Crater

Did life once exist on Mars, and if so, where will we find it? This is what a recent study published in AGU Advances hopes to address as a team of several



  • Space & Astronomy

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Galaxy Interactions and Cosmic Illusions: Webb's Stunning New Images

How did stars form 7 billion years ago, or approximately halfway between the Big Bang and now? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices



  • Space & Astronomy

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Galaxy Interactions and Cosmic Illusions: Webb's Stunning New Images

How did stars form 7 billion years ago, or approximately halfway between the Big Bang and now? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices



  • Earth & The Environment

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A Novel Link between Cancer and Aging May Provide a Therapeutic Target

Experts largely acknowledge cancer as a disease of aging.  The intricate relationship between aging and cancer is underscored by their shared mechanis




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The Path from Traditional Monoclonal Antibodies to Next- Generation Constructs

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have revolutionized targeted cancer therapies with unmatched specificity and potency. Since the first mAb approval in 1986, ad




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Immune Cells Surviving Fever-like Temperatures Adapt to Become More Effective

Inflammation represents a long-conserved biological process characterized by the release of chemical messengers that regulate the immune response.  Wh




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Diabetes and Prediabetes May Accelerate Brain Aging

Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes are linked to faster brain aging. Healthy lifestyle habits may protect against this effect.




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High Doses of Adderall Linked to 5x Higher Psychosis Risk

High doses of amphetamine-based medications for ADHD, like Adderall, are linked to an over five times higher risk of psychosis or mania.




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COVID-19 Lockdowns Accelerated Brain Aging in Teens

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated brain aging in adolescents. The effect was three times as strong in females than in males.




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COVID-19 Lockdowns Accelerated Brain Aging in Teens

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated brain aging in adolescents. The effect was three times as strong in females than in males.



  • Health & Medicine

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Lab-Generated Antibodies Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance

Our immune systems generate antibodies that neutralize and help eliminate foreign pathogens. These antibodies or proteins are generated by specific immune



  • Health & Medicine

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Immune Cells Surviving Fever-like Temperatures Adapt to Become More Effective

Inflammation represents a long-conserved biological process characterized by the release of chemical messengers that regulate the immune response.  Wh



  • Health & Medicine

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A Novel Link between Cancer and Aging May Provide a Therapeutic Target

Experts largely acknowledge cancer as a disease of aging.  The intricate relationship between aging and cancer is underscored by their shared mechanis



  • Clinical & Molecular DX

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Gene Therapy Significantly Improves Eyesight

A team of researchers report findings from a Phase I/II gene therapy clinical trial for patients with Leber congenital amaurosis, which found that the gene



  • Clinical & Molecular DX

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Galaxy Interactions and Cosmic Illusions: Webb's Stunning New Images

How did stars form 7 billion years ago, or approximately halfway between the Big Bang and now? This is what a recent study published in the Monthly Notices




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Gene Therapy Significantly Improves Eyesight

A team of researchers report findings from a Phase I/II gene therapy clinical trial for patients with Leber congenital amaurosis, which found that the gene




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Multiple Methane-Generating Microbes are Discovered

Archaea are a major branch of life, but we still have a lot to learn about these microbes, which were only discovered in the 1970s.




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Lab-Generated Antibodies Prevent Antimicrobial Resistance

Our immune systems generate antibodies that neutralize and help eliminate foreign pathogens. These antibodies or proteins are generated by specific immune




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2025 Municipal Finance Authority of BC Annual General Meeting

Organizer: Municipal Finance Authority of British Columbia
Location: Victoria




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[ENVS Lecture Series] A Rural Agrarian Reckoning: Multigenerational Farmers Seeking to Repair Soil, Agriculture, and Rural America Itself

Nov 21, 2024, 12pm EST

Sydney Giacalone, doctoral candidate in anthropology at Brown University, researches multigenerational farmers and ranchers across the U.S. who are transitioning away from conventional practices towards environmentally and social repairing approaches. This experience often involves questioning past education and internalized ideologies and learning to collaborate with nonhuman life to repair degraded ecologies. Join Giacaloneto learn more about her research.

BuildingCurtis Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Ave., Medford, MA)
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Alumni and Friends
Event Type: Academic Date/Deadline, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Event Sponsor Details: Environmental Studies Program
Event Contact Name: Sinet Kroch
Event Contact Emailsinet.kroch@tufts.edu
RSVP Information: RSVP only needed for virtual attendants
More infotufts.zoom.us…



  • 2024/11/21 (Thu)

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A1: Athens, Shibboleth, the UK Access Management Federation, OpenID, CardSpace and all that - single sign-on for your Web site

Andrew Cormack, Richard Dunning and Andy Powell, Eduserv will investigate the relationships between institutional single sign-on, Athens, Shibboleth, the UK Access Management Federation and more recent developments like OpenID and CardSpace and will give participants an opportunity to ask questions of a panel of experts from the community.




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Canada's Federal Pay Equity Act Takes Effect on August 31, 2021

Rhonda Levy and Barry Kuretzky examine Canada’s federal Pay Equity Act and offer tips to employers for establishing a pay equity plan.

Human Resources Director Canada

View (Subscription required.)




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Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

Are employers required to conduct human rights due diligence in their global operations?

The scope and scale of many employers’ global operations and their global supply chains are expanding. This expansion has led to a greater focus on the risk of corporate human rights abuses such as forced labor, child labor, and other forms of modern slavery.