Lovers of God: Practicing or Preaching Mentors ;-) and Justice Gap

Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbour. It makes you shoot at your landlord-- and it makes you miss him.

What is the diference between God and Chris?
God doesn't wander around Sydney thinking he is Chris ...

Close to Being a Devil, at Times to Sainthood

New York Times op-ed:  Is Your God Dead?, by George Yancy (Emory):

Is your God dead?

I don’t mean the God of the philosophers or the scholars, but, as Blaise Pascal said, the “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.” With no disrespect, I hope the question comes as a jolt. And without being outraged or quick to accuse me of “blasphemy,” know, too, that I am a hopeful monotheist. I might even be called a Christian, only I continue, every day of my life, to fail. Friedrich Nietzsche’s observation weighs heavily on me: “There was only one Christian and he died on the cross.” Call me a failed and broken Christian, but a Christian nevertheless.

So, is your God dead? Have you buried God in the majestic, ornamental tombs of your churches, synagogues and mosques? Perhaps prosperity theology, boisterous, formalistic and mechanical prayer rituals, and skillful oratory have hastened the need for a eulogy.

Smoking Gun Proof that Russia Hacked the Entire World George Washington 

From Music to Maps, How Apple’s iPhone Changed Business WSJ

If Your Company Isn’t Good At Analytics, It’s Not Ready For AI
Oliver Wyman, 7/6/17. Management teams often assume they can leapfrog best practices for basic data analytics by going directly to adopting artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.  But companies that rush into sophisticated artificial intelligence before reaching a critical mass of automated processes and structured analytics can end up paralyzed.

Tool for journalists: Enigma Public, for finding and analysing public data...

Etihad allows flyers to bid to keep adjacent seats empty

Here’s Why You Should Simply Give In to Google, Gavin Phillips, June 19, 2017: “Google powers internet search for just under two-thirds of U.S. adults. Google produces routers, installs fiber connections, and is working on driverless vehicles. Google’s Android is now the mobile operating system of choice for 86 percent of all smartphone users, and well over 50 percent of the U.S. smartphone market. There aren’t many areas where Google isn’t involved. But search and data remains the primary income source, and long shall it remain. Google has unfettered power over our internet search. Privacy advocates believe Google simply has too much power and too much responsibility for a single corporation to handle. Are those privacy concerns unfounded? Moreover, should we give in to Google for the best user experience? Let’s find out…” […And if you’re truly worried, you can always use a VPN to protect your data along with a Google search alternative – Yes to both!]

Block Amazon Houston Chronicle

It Takes an Army to Feed the World’s Amazon Addiction Bloomberg

Amazon’s Move Signals End of Line for Many Cashiers NYT

Tax Analytics: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning–Level 5
PWC. This paper was written for tax professionals and tax data scientists with an interest in machine learning and artificial intelligence

Tax compliance in a digital world
Deloitte, 2017. Perhaps nowhere is the need to change greater than in tax. Since virtually every decision or transaction undertaken in a business has a tax implication, and since the digital transformation is leading to entirely new business models such as centralization of certain functions into regional  or global shared services centers, tax needs to adapt—quickly—to align with and be relevant to the increasingly digital and automated enterprise.

BATA -- Who would have thought of expandable shoes, shoes that grow with your feet, that aren’t costly, and that last long enough to pass on to other children? Kenton Lee dreamed up and didn’t let go the idea, and now its a reality. 100,000 pairs of the adjustable shoes have been distributed across approximately 85 countries. Ideas right in front of us have extraordinary power. What is you surprisingly obvious idea? How will you make it happen

Poland has just mounted an impressive demonstration of what can be done to turn around government budgets when governments take on tax avoiders.  The eastern European country has slashed its forecast for its budget deficit by 90% and cancelled plans to issue new debt after government finances dramatically turned around. Ministry of Finance officials are putting that turnaround down to efforts to clamp down on tax avoidance and evasion by foreign companies operating in Poland. Last year researchers claimed that companies were using over 600 'legal structures' to shift profits out of Poland and discovered some foreign companies paying much less in taxes than domestic ones. Research carried out by Finance Uncovered and published earlier this year also found that Poland had one of the lowest corporation tax takes in the region, despite having a similar tax rate to neighbouring countries. 



Czech power company holds Facebook bikini contest to choose interns - CNET                   

The British Virgin Islands have embarked on a PR drive to tell the world that the country is not a tax haven. 

Following up on his book, What the Best Law Teachers Do (Harvard University Press, 2013), Michael Hunter Schwartz (Dean, McGeorge) is seeking nominations for his two forthcoming books:

What the Best Law Mentors Do (Harvard University Press Forthcoming 2019) ...

Legal Services Corp., The Justice Gap: Measuring the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Low-income Americans:

The phrase “with liberty and justice for all” in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance represents the idea that everyone should have access to justice, not just those who can afford legal representation.In criminal cases, legal assistance is a right. Americans accused of a crime are appointed legal counsel if they cannot afford it. As a general matter, however, there is no right to counsel in civil matters. As a result, many low-income Americans “go it alone” without legal representation in disputes where they risk losing their job, their livelihood, their home, or their children, or seek a restraining order against an abuser.