I haven't seen any of these, and most don't seem to have been published in the US yet; one hopes this will help bring them to the attention of publishers (and readers) abroad as well.
The shortlist will be announced on Malchkeon special day, 8 March, the winner on 18 April.
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”
~ Eric Hoffer,Reflections on the Human
People are dying for this stuff. The IRS auction website tells of an exciting opportunity to buy the “Contents of Funeral Home to include furniture, caskets, office supplies, embalming room supplies/tables/slop system, embalming machines, pulpit items, Hammond Organ and more.”
Keith Fogg, Quick Follow Ups on Vigon v. Commissioner and Private Debt Collection(Procedurally Taxing). “The IRS recently released sample CP40 notice letter. The letter alerts the taxpayer that their account has been assigned to a PDC. The hope is that the letter will prepare the taxpayer for the call(s) from the PDC and keep the taxpayer from having concerns that the PDC is a scam artist.”
Digital gurus "locked out" of robo-debt debacle
Centrelink to drop its organised crime busting program
The Mafia Manager: A Guide to the Corporate Machiavelli
Whatever it is, it must have
A stomach that can digest
Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems.
Like the shark it contains a shoe.
It must swim for miles through the desertUttering cries that are almost human
World Economic Forum: “Max Roser, the Oxford economist behind Our World In Data, has devoted his career to spreading a statistically informed view of global development. Chart how things have actually changed over history, he says, and you’ll see that we’ve come a long way. Roser recently released a commentary on the last two centuries. It sums up world progress with the following six charts…”
US prime property is magnet for illicit wealth, warns Treasury FTUS prime property is magnet for illicit wealth, warns Treasury FT
Study of fracking in four states uncovers over 6,600 spills
For some populists on both sides of the Atlantic, "expert" is now an expletive, a synonym for out-of-touch elitists' rejection of the commoner. According to the newly published "The Death of Expertise," politics is only a part of the problem. And if expertise is moribund, fact-checking must at least be down with a heavy flu. Read the Q&A with the book's author.
People are dying for this stuff. The IRS auction website tells of an exciting opportunity to buy the “Contents of Funeral Home to include furniture, caskets, office supplies, embalming room supplies/tables/slop system, embalming machines, pulpit items, Hammond Organ and more.”
Keith Fogg, Quick Follow Ups on Vigon v. Commissioner and Private Debt Collection(Procedurally Taxing). “The IRS recently released sample CP40 notice letter. The letter alerts the taxpayer that their account has been assigned to a PDC. The hope is that the letter will prepare the taxpayer for the call(s) from the PDC and keep the taxpayer from having concerns that the PDC is a scam artist.”
Digital gurus "locked out" of robo-debt debacle
Centrelink to drop its organised crime busting program
The Mafia Manager: A Guide to the Corporate Machiavelli
Whatever it is, it must have
A stomach that can digest
Rubber, coal, uranium, moons, poems.
Like the shark it contains a shoe.
It must swim for miles through the desertUttering cries that are almost human
In times of historical turmoil, we gravitate todead writers. The stories they tell — or we tell ourselves — tend to be comforting. But that doesn't mean they're convincing
... Dead Writers
The Tax Office believes it may have finally stopped a GST rort involving the gold industry that has cost more than $700 million in lost tax and revenue. The scam, which has been running for at least five years, has seen dodgy gold traders, refiners and organised criminal syndicates pocket the GST or claim fraudulent tax rebates on billion of dollars' worth of gold sales "We're talking about $600 million, $700 million, perhaps a billion dollars, laundered that should have been going to the states to run their schools, hospitals, etc. That's where the GST goes," Senator John Williams said Crackdown curbs gold GST rort after $700m lost
ATO deputy commissioner Timothy Dyce said: "Senator, it's a large amount of money and we're working very hard to recoup as much of that as we possibly can."
Restricting People’s Use of Their Courts Counterpunch. Ralph Nader weighs in.
Study of fracking in four states uncovers over 6,600 spills
For some populists on both sides of the Atlantic, "expert" is now an expletive, a synonym for out-of-touch elitists' rejection of the commoner. According to the newly published "The Death of Expertise," politics is only a part of the problem. And if expertise is moribund, fact-checking must at least be down with a heavy flu. Read the Q&A with the book's author.
What Gives Writing Style Guides The Right?
“To accept my definition of style is to concede that for it to assert itself, a number of pretty unusual characteristics have to coexist in one individual. As such, a gifted writer’s style is as irreducible and arbitrarily conferred as any talent; amenable to practice and refinement, sure, but at base as God-given and inimitable as Federer’s touch or Picasso’s hand. Here lies the existential challenge faced by the style guide or writer’s manual: beyond the nuts and bolts of usage and basic writerly manners, they are attempting to teach the unteachable.”e
One of the great pleasures of American current affairs television is its principled partisanship. Fox is right wing for those who think that way. For a lot of the mostly East Coast-based national media, liberalism remains at its core, which is why Trump chafes so much. An outstanding double-header comes on PBS, with the avuncular Charlie Rose on at 11pm from New York, leading in to Tavis Smiley at midnight from Los Angeles. Tavis is a generous host and he’s in the conversation, not just moderating it. His dialogue with Dick Van Dyke, all of 90 and still brimming, about seeing Mussolini in the cinema newsreels in the 30s intoning “I alone can fix this,” echoes to the present day.
A riveting guest a week or so ago was Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, and described as “one of America’s premier public intellectuals.” In his most recent text Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted. With the gifts of a preacher, Dyson said that “Justice is the translation of love. You can’t have love without justice.”
The conversation is a must see. See it here.
PBS.org
It takes a village - it takes a village ... (via Kevin Roberts)
One of the great pleasures of American current affairs television is its principled partisanship. Fox is right wing for those who think that way. For a lot of the mostly East Coast-based national media, liberalism remains at its core, which is why Trump chafes so much. An outstanding double-header comes on PBS, with the avuncular Charlie Rose on at 11pm from New York, leading in to Tavis Smiley at midnight from Los Angeles. Tavis is a generous host and he’s in the conversation, not just moderating it. His dialogue with Dick Van Dyke, all of 90 and still brimming, about seeing Mussolini in the cinema newsreels in the 30s intoning “I alone can fix this,” echoes to the present day.
A riveting guest a week or so ago was Michael Eric Dyson, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University, and described as “one of America’s premier public intellectuals.” In his most recent text Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted. With the gifts of a preacher, Dyson said that “Justice is the translation of love. You can’t have love without justice.”
The conversation is a must see. See it here.
PBS.org
It takes a village - it takes a village ... (via Kevin Roberts)