“Real artists are not nice people; all their best feelings go into their work, and life has the residue.” ~ W.H. Auden, letter to his brother (1927, quoted in Richard Davenport-Hines, Sex, Death and Punishment)
Good News: Sharing Essential Intel That Born on date 3000 BC: 5,000-Year-Old Chinese Beer Recipe Revealed
Ugly News: 2016 AD Recipe for Asian City Down Under: Sydney will be unrecognisable now that the planners have gone .... But while Ausies have this group we are safe or sort of Knitting Nannas interrupt first midcoast council meeting
Sharing was asking your neighbour to borrow a cup of sugar. Now it means posting a YouTube clip of a Divia cat sitting on a Roomba in a shark costume chasing a duckling on the "wall" of a "friend". That is to say, sharing has become both easier and a vexed concept.
alt.legal: The Forecast For Legal Analytics Is Mostly Sunny
The tragedy of modern man is not that he knows less and less about the meaning of his own life, but that it bothers him less and less.
~ via an amazing soul "Václav Havel: Heir to a Spiritual Legacy"
“To decide whether life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question of philosophy,” Albert Camus famously wrote — a statement that has only swelled in intellectual notoriety and spiritual significance in the half-century since. But beyond philosophy, when the will to live or die plays out in the personal realm, it creates a vortex of pain — not only for the anguished person contemplating suicide but for those who love them, to say nothing of the periloussocial contagion of suicide.
Lowering the Bar: Medicine in the 21st Century Medpage Today Statin drugs cause even more nerve damage
*“Who is RDA? The Research
Data Alliance (RDA) is an international organization focused on the development
of infrastructure and community activities aimed to reduce barriers to data
sharing and exchange, and promote the acceleration of data driven innovation
worldwide. With close to 4,000 members globally, RDA comprises individuals,
organizations and policy makers representing multiple industries and
disciplines, who are committed to building the social, organizational and
technical infrastructure needed to reduce barriers to data sharing and exchange,
and accelerating data driven innovation worldwide…”What Public Knowledge Does – Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open Internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy on behalf of the public interest.”
Public Knowledge Encourages Silicon Valley to Make Diversity in Tech a Priority By Shiva Stella, May 24, 2016 – “Recently, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published a “Diversity in High Tech” report investigating demographics within the technology sector, focusing on Silicon Valley. Conducted upon request by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), the report points out that the sector is predominately white and male. Examining executive-level positions in high-tech alone, the report determines that only 20% of the talent pool is female and that those of color make up less than 16% of it at that level.
“LexisNexis Legal & Professional today launches an interactive online tool that shows how the rule of law is measured and why it’s important. This first-of-its-kind data tool, the LexisNexis Rule of Law Impact Tracker, quantifies the relationship between rule of law and social and economic development.
An officials from the departments of Homeland Security and Justice are stressing the importance of continued collaboration to keep cyberattacks at bay Breaches: Justice official: Info sharing is the best revenge
A Plain English program goes well beyond the words
Dogs Test Drug Aimed at Humans’ Biggest Killer: Age New York Times (EM). The planet has too many people already and now we will make it worse by keeping the rich (as in big resource consumers) around longer.
AI will create ‘useless class’ of human, predicts bestselling historian Guardian
In Defense of the All-Male Book Club
Unemployed Detroit Residents Are Trapped by a Digital Divide NYT
Unemployed Detroit Residents Are Trapped by a Digital Divide NYT
Nicholas Gruen’s recent two-part series on the problems with the use of evidence in policymaking, and with policy evaluation offered a thought-provoking interpretation of the challenges involved in effective policymaking today. However, rather than creating another arm of bureaucracy devoted solely to evaluation as he suggests, I would argue that improving the dialogue between policymakers and researchers is a more effective solution with longer term benefits. ... Universities across the UK provided well written case studies of social, health and economic impact. These are all now accessible and searchable online....
Chicago Booth CRSP (Center for Research in Security Prices) – “2016 the Big Picture illustrates the investment returns of major asset classes from 1926 onward. The animated chart will open at full screen.” [David vun Kannon]
You probably haven’t even noticed Google’s sketchy quest to control the world’s knowledge Washington Post I most assuredly noticed Google Books and didn’t like it. My book is copyrighted and they have no business publishing even as much of it as they have.
You probably haven’t even noticed Google’s sketchy quest to control the world’s knowledge Washington Post I most assuredly noticed Google Books and didn’t like it. My book is copyrighted and they have no business publishing even as much of it as they have.
Center for Data Innovation – “Since President Obama’s first day in office, open data has been a major priority for the administration, and the United States has established itself as a world leader in open data. But until recently, legislative data—information about legislative activities, including bills and their status, lawmaker votes, committee meetings, public communications by members of Congress, lobbying information, and the products of legislative supp. Join the Center for Data Innovation for a panel discussion exploring the impact of open legislative data on the public and private sectors and identifying opportunities for both federal and state governments to better provide this data to unlock social and economic benefits.” [Via Kris Kasianovitz]
Microsoft Research Blog: “Progress in AI research and applications is exploding, and that explosion extends to our own team working on academic services. Continuing our work supercharging Bing and Cortana, we are also applying new technologies to Microsoft Academic, which serves the research community.
There’s only one week left for New South Wales public servants to contribute to the People Matter Employee Survey 2016, which closes on Tuesday, May 31. MMXVI Survey
The Economist, Ten Ways to Tell You Might be Sitting Next to an Economist:
An academic economist was taken off a plane last week after a fellow passenger became suspicious. He was feverishly scribbling what she thought was "terrorist code" or foreign lettering into a notebook. It turned out that Guido Menzio, an Italian economist from the the University of Pennsylvania, was working on some differential equations for a model on menu costs and price dispersion. Thankfully, Mr Menzio was allowed back on his flight. But passengers can't be too careful. Here are ten ways to tell you might be sitting next to an economist; police have also released pictures of two prime suspects
Aberdeen: the Granite City in crisis Telegraph
Aberdeen: the Granite City in crisis Telegraph
America’s Most Common Drug Ingredient Could Be Making You Less Empathetic Gizmodo (Re Silc; original)
The basic income is a dangerous idea that gives the state power to control every penny that citizens spend Independent
OIAC Investigates Veda for selling personal information
The Privilege of Buying 36 Rolls of Toilet Paper at Once The Atlantic. It’s expensive to be poor
Google’s Making Its Own Chips Now. Time for Intel to Freak Out Wired
Google’s Making Its Own Chips Now. Time for Intel to Freak Out Wired
If you thought your frumpy, over-talkative work neighbour Charles was bad, check this out. A man had admitted that he ejaculated into a female co-worker’s coffee cup, and rubbed his penis on her desk for years...