Thursday, November 17, 2016

One Foot in the Grave



Dissatisfaction with the present and dreams of the future are what keep us motivated, while warm fuzzy memories of the past reassure us that the feelings we seek can be had. In fact, perpetual bliss would completely undermine our will to accomplish anything at all; among our earliest ancestors, those who were perfectly content may have been left in the dust Pray that your enemies are content ...







Talk about, "Do no harm."

Kids Win the Right to Sue the US Government Over Climate Change MotherBoard Two feet in the grave

Baird Government ICAC reform disgraceful exercise to sack commissioner

Underworld shooting Sydney: Pasquale Barbaro’s links to Mafia - Gomorah 

Panama. Papers case Newspaper clippings are not evidence

What does 'literature' mean in our time? While names like Proust, Kafka and Woolf still stand for something, what that something actually is has become obscured by the claims of commerce and journalism. Perhaps a new form of attention is required. Stephen Mitchelmore began writing online in 1996 and became Britain's first book blogger soon after, developing the form so that it can respond in kind to the singular space opened by writing. Across 44 essays, he discusses among many others the novels of Richard Ford, Jeanette Winterson and Karl Ove Knausgaard, the significance for modern writers of cave paintings and the moai of Easter Island, and the enduring fallacy of 'Reality Hunger', all the while maintaining a focus on the strange nature of literary space. By listening to the echoes and resonances of writing, this book enables a unique encounter with literature that many critics habitually ignore. With an introduction by the acclaimed novelist Lars Iyer, This Space of Writing offers a renewed appreciation of the mystery and promise of writing.

Composer Michael Torke Had Huge Success In His 20s. Now He’s In His 50s And It’s A Different World

Meet the New Cold Warriors Hillary Trump Putin

Kindness of  Strangers at East Lattices ;-)
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.
In her altogether elevating On Being conversation with Krista Tippett, Nye tells the remarkable real-life backstory that inspired this beloved poem — a story that only lends more potency to the poem’s message


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“There was a lot of attention towards me. I’m in my 50s. I’m not quite one foot in the grave, but it does kind of feel like it’s all over. I’m glad that the royalties will pay my bills and that I have enough new work, but boy, it sure seems like a different world we’re living in.”


A Satire on Impermissible Satire ZNet

CRS report via FAS – The Terrorist Screening Database and Preventing Terrorist Travel, Jerome P. Bjelopera, Specialist in Organized Crime and Terrorism, Bart Elias, Specialist in Aviation Policy, Alison Siskin, Specialist in Immigration Policy,  November 7, 2016
welcome world edintfest

Fifteen Unsung Heroes Of Arts Administration

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“Unsung heroes of arts administration are the individuals who keep the trains running on time, who will never be handed the microphone at the annual gala to “say a few words,” who won’t have the opportunity after a career in the cultural sector to give a curtain speech, or even make the announcement asking us to silence our cell phones. Those veterans and rookies for which we all know full well that the show would not go on without them. Those people who make our workplaces more pleasant, including those who might secretly keep watering the office fern no matter how hard we try to kill it.”

Whistleblower protection: What must be done? 15 November 2016 – A GUE/NGL Conference 
See also: Film Festival on Whistleblowers- in Brussels 12 & 13 November Investigates the Panama Papers


New government proposals against tax evasion - positive despite loopholes TJN Gernany Blog (In German)
Swiss officials just seized 11 of the world’s most expensive cars from this African president’s son Quartz

ICAC shake-up: Commissioner Latham ‘invited to re-apply’

Hiring Your First Chief AI Officer

Blindsided by Trump’s Victory? Behavioral Science Explains
The pre-election polls and expert predictions weren’t just wrong. Most of them were wildly inaccurate. Yet we are told that we live in an age where data analytics is providing unprecedented insight into the future. What led to that disconnect   

BYWATER INVESTMENTS LIMITED & ORS v COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION; HUA WANG BANK BERHAD v COMMISSIONER OF TAXATION [2016] HCA 45 Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan said the decision means that any parties who set up complex structures offshore with the clear intent to avoid paying tax in Australia, should take a hard look at what they are doing and whether they want to run the risk of being caught and seriously penalised.
High Court judgement confirms blatant tax evasion 

 
























 



New research shows Australians are falling victim to identity crime at the rate of one every 20 seconds. Justice Minister Michael Keenan will also reveal on Wednesday that people convicted of terrorism offences in Australia have used false identities to plan terrorist attacks. New Face Verification Service to tackle identity crime