Ode to the Bay 6 bus

At 6:29 a.m. every morning, you can find me thanking city council for not cutting morning service to the Bay 6 bus route.

At 7:29 a.m., you can find me writing articles like this:

Tim Hortons supersizes its coffee cups

Same people every day. We obviously have a seating plan.

Happy New Year!

Still warm from holiday memories – despite the – 27 C weather.

Cheers to an exciting 2012!

Champagne courtesy of my big brother. Photo taken on Instagram.

Design is a beautiful thing

I spent a large part of the past year learning about design thinking – a hard-to-define concept intended to put a little bit of creativity back into business. Here’s a story about a couple of Canadian schools trying to do just that.

B-schools use design to crack the creativity crisis

Oh haaaiiiiiii, Toronto! Boat cruise sunsets > average sunsets

MMA fights its way into the business section

For the love of entrepreneurs and non-traditional business ideas that work:

Lawyers, dentists wrestle their way onto MMA mat

And we made it into a video! Filmed & produced by the lovely Katherine Scarrow.

Video: Ultimate fighting huge hit with young professionals

Elliott Bayev, co-owner and coach at OpenMat

Footage from OpenMat gym

On the investment beat.

I got accused of promoting “statistics, damn statistics, and lies” for publishing the following article. Would’ve hurt more had he got the quote right.

Financial analysts ‘concerned’ about bid for TMX

And, just in case you haven’t heard it enough this summer… the price of gold! Is! Rising!

Miners’ shares get boost from soaring gold

Now this is a great investment.

Inspirational at 17-years-old

Science fair gold medalist, 17, invents better way to search Internet

Watch out, Google: There’s a new search master in town, and his name is Nicholas Schiefer.

My first trip to COTTAGE (not cabin) county - equally inspiring.

I <3 entrepreneurs

For a dose of optimism, simply speak with an entrepreneur. My first story on the startup beat. Very fun.

Conference links Canadian startups with Silicon Valley

Without a doubt, the best part of the 6 a.m. shift is the view.

Freedom From Pain

More than half of people around the world have virtually no access to painkillers. Millions of people suffer with end stage cancers, horrific wounds, and severe pain without the relief of morphine – the gold standard in pain treatment. Unlike so many global health problems, pain isn’t about money or shortage of drugs. Rather, the War on Drugs and outdated, inflexible bureaucracies are responsible for the suffering which some have likened to torture.

I was incredibly fortunate to be part of the UBC international reporting team that traveled to Uganda, Ukraine, and India to tell this story. Our half hour documentary, Freedom From Pain, aired on the Al Jazeera English program People & Power  at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20. Alison Lawton at the Mindset Social Innovation Foundation made our project possible.

Check it out below. And feel free to visit the International Reporting Program’s brand new website / follow us on Twitter! @IRPonline

Our team: Sarah Buell, Rebecca Cheung, Evan Duggan, Jes Abeita, Jenna Owsianik, Daniel Hallen, Niamh Scallan, Robyn Smith, Peter Klein, Trisha Doyle, Dan McKinney, Kim Frank

The week I started giving stock tips…

Best town to own a parking lot? Try Calgary

Western help for Egyptian entrepreneurs

Analyst upgrades CIBC