“Human beings are difficult. We’re difficult to ourselves, we’re difficult to each other. And we are mysteries to ourselves, we are mysteries to each other. One encounters in any ordinary day far more real difficuty than one confronts in the most ‘intellectual’ piece of work. Why is it believed that poetry, prose, painting, music should be less than we are? Why does music, why does poetry have to address us in simplified terms, when if such simplification were applied to a description of our own inner selves we would find it demeaning? I think art has a right—not an obligation—to be difficult if it wishes.”
~Geoffrey Hill, interviewed by Carl Phillips in The Paris Review, Spring 2000 (courtesy of Kate Maltby)
“If you want lifetime employment, go into compliance.” [Daniel Yergin, WSJ via Arnold Kling]
Ever wish work was better? This week is for you...
Being busy needs to be visible, and deep thinking is not. Academia has largely become a small-idea factory. Rewarded for publishing more frequently, we search for “minimum publishable units.” The world wide cage aeon
Two miracles and 19 years later: why Mother Teresa’s journey to sainthood took so long The Conversation
You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you Mother Teresa: admiration and sainthood
“If you want lifetime employment, go into compliance.” [Daniel Yergin, WSJ via Arnold Kling]
Ever wish work was better? This week is for you...
Being busy needs to be visible, and deep thinking is not. Academia has largely become a small-idea factory. Rewarded for publishing more frequently, we search for “minimum publishable units.” The world wide cage aeon
Two miracles and 19 years later: why Mother Teresa’s journey to sainthood took so long The Conversation
You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you Mother Teresa: admiration and sainthood
"We don’t pretend to be, nor do we want to be, the final word on any subject. We would like to be a starting point, though. In cases where clickability and virality trump fact, we feel that knowledge is the best antidote to fear." — Snopes managing editor Brooke Binkowski
“The key point for leaders to realise is that a culture exists in your workplace whether you like it or not. And that’s the point: to develop and co-create a culture, you need to be ‘intentional’ about it. If you don’t think about it, it’s going to emerge anyway and, more often than not, you won’t like what you find.” Staying Power
Google, Uber, and the Evolution of Transportation as a Service
On August 26, 2016, “W3C published the report of the W3C Blockchains and the Web workshop held on 29-30 June, 2016, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Participants at the workshop found many topics for possible standardization or incubation, including various aspects of identity and proof-of-existence, as well as smaller blockchain primitives that could increase interoperability across different distributed ledgers….The organizers strove to have representation by different classes of stakeholders within the larger blockchain community, loosely organized around technology stacks and applications. The technology stacks include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, and others. Applications include identity and asset management, smart contracts, and infrastructure around a decentralized Web (IPFS). The workshop was deliberately aimed at non-payment uses for blockchains, since W3C already has an existing Web Payments activity where payments-related technology is discussed…”
Labor activists charge that pressure-cooker jobs and employer abuse are
leading to more work-related suicides. But how can companies by held to
account? How Abusive Employers Combined With Job Insecurity Lead to Suicides“A New Illegal Interview Question: How Much Did You Earn In Your Last Job?” [Evil HR Lady on just-passed Massachusetts law]
One of the rewards of practicing tax law is the opportunity to cross paths with colleagues who share our passion for our chosen profession, and thereby to build deeper connections. For some, those professional connections can grow into strong personal bonds, even into lifelong partnerships. So it was with Emily and Shane Kiggen, whose stories form the core of this issue’s Paths in Tax Crossing paths
The average American family had the same amount of wealth in 2013 as it did in 1989 World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum — “The Global Competitiveness Report 2015-2016 assesses the competitiveness landscape of 140 economies, providing insight into the drivers of their productivity and prosperity. The Report series remains the most comprehensive assessment of national competitiveness worldwide.”
The Economist Intelligence Unit – “The latest findings of The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Ranking (reg. req’d) – which provides scores for lifestyle challenges in 140 cities worldwide – show that although Melbourne has retained its crown as the world’s most liveable city, liveability has deteriorated in 29 of the 140 cities (20 per cent) surveyed over the last 12 months. The decline is largely a result of heightened fears over terrorism with more than 1,000 reported attacks in 2016 so far, with incidents in France, Turkey, the US and Belgium being the most high profile. Factors such as social unrest in many US cities due to the deaths of black people in police custody, tensions in Eastern Europe and Asia and the ongoing civil wars in Ukraine, Syria and Libya have compounded the decline. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s liveability rating, part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual’s lifestyle across five broad categories of Stability, Healthcare, Culture and environment, Education and Infrastructure. Global Liveability Ranking 2016
The SOCDS provides data for individual Metropolitan Areas, Central Cities, and Suburbs. Access to dozens of data sets.
Today’s Economic Hard Times Are the Culmination of a Long Series of Crises TruthOut (
“Search for LibGuides content and librarian authors, and find great examples of guides from our worldwide user community.”
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American Bar Association – “This free search engine searches the free full-text of over 400 online law reviews and law journals, as well as document repositories hosting academic papers and related publications such as Congressional Research Service reports. Several of the law reviews and legal journals (such as the Stanford Technology Law Review), working papers, and reports are available online only. Coverage may vary; for more complete coverage visit your local law library and fee-based online legal research services. Also see our list of reviews/journals/document repositories which have free full-text available online, but which must be searched/browsed manually. Viewing tip: for PDF files, click on the “View as HTML” or “Quick View” links for quick viewing.”
CBO measured wealth as marketable wealth, which consists of assets that are easily tradable and that have value even after the death of their owner. Those assets include home equity, other real estate (net of real estate loans), financial securities, bank deposits, defined contribution pension accounts, and business equity. Debt is nonmortgage debt, including credit card debt, auto loans, and student loans, for example.”
"Rie's Carlsruhe (Charles Hotson Ebden, pastoralist, overlander, businessman and politician, born at the Cape of Good Hope [South Africa] to wealthy parents, was educated in England and in Karlsruhe, Germany. He came to New South Wales and his stock were the first to cross the Murray River. In 1837 he settled on the Campaspe River west of Mount Macedon and named the area Carlsruhe after the German city. Later he became a successful politician in Melbourne and helped William Westgarth bring German immigrants to Victoria.)