2017 has been filled with many tragic moments - as we walked through the national park a drama unfolded yesterday - One dead after boat capsize near Kurnell in Sydney's south, police say life jackets not worn
Cryptocurrency trader and Youtuber Alex Saunders called out National Australia Bank, ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac Banking Corporation on Twitter for freezing customer accounts and transfers to four different bitcoin exchanges - CoinJar, CoinSpot, CoinBase and BTC Markets.
NEWS FROM THE FRONTIERS OF BRAIN SCIENCE? Proof that the human mind is one part awesome, one part terror.
The Predator State James Galbraith, Catalyst
“The Anti-Corruption Principle” (PDF) Zephyr Teachout, Cornell Law Review (via). “While political virtue is pursuing the public good in public life, political corruption is using public life for private gain. Long, but a must-skim, at least.
At the age of twenty-five, instead of marrying a young man, she settled down as receptionist manageress of an apartment block full of young women. Day in and day out she sat at the front desk, dreaming her dreams, and determined to better herself. She would watch the young ladies of her own age going out to their work, and she would secretly read and read — several books a day, sometimes, keeping them hidden on her knee under the desk. Well, the whole of human life is contained in books. Love, desire, success and failure, death and grief... they're all there, in the world of books.
So she went on sitting at that desk, and her straight little back gradually began to bend a bit, but still she went on reading books and fed and nourished her mind in that way. And one day, before she had time to notice what had happened, she woke up to find that she was forty years old. Suddenly the shadow of tragedy passed over her at that moment — she didn't know why it was so, but she felt it, and that's what matters.
Derided by the public, attacked by politicians, a scapegoat and strawman for left and right alike, the humanities will nonetheless endure — even if there is no case to defence them
The Guardian Claims That It’s Time For ‘Woke Cinema’
This year (2017) was just of taste of what's to come, the paper says. There's political entertainment on its way, including A Wrinkle in Time and Black Panther, but that's not all (not by a long shot). "If Trump is agreed to have killed off political satire, political history could well be taking its place." … [Read More]
The lower your social class, the ‘wiser’ you are, suggests new studyAAAS (Chuck L). Correlation is not causation. My observation is that how good people are at conflict avoidance/management is heavily influenced, if not largely determined, by modeling from their immediate family members. And this article has an unduly simplistic model of “class”. One of the markers of old money is their manners, their relaxed stance in social gatherings, their attention to making sure other people feel comfortable. The implicit message is: “I am secure in my position and it’s therefore easy for me to be gracious.” And while the plural of anecdote is not data, arguably the greatest diplomat of all time, Talleyrand, came from an ancient and very aristocratic family and remained a powerful figure after the French Revolution.
Intangible assets are changing investment The Economist
From Richard Smith:
The $1Bn 2015 Moldovan bank fraud: a new report from Kroll, with a bit more on the roles of UK (especially Scottish) Limited Partnerships, the exquisite timing of the complex scam workings, and *$2.6Bn* laundered in total…https://t.co/VGoSebngwk @alisonthewlisspic.twitter.com/sZPu4gPevq— Richard Smith (@ncsmiff) December 23, 2017
A good education provides tools for understanding the world. Indoctrinationoffers just one lens. On many college campuses, that lens is power and privilege
The Most Remarkable Art-History Discoveries Of 2017…
"In 2017, we gained new insight on the early years of Leonardo da Vinci and the final ones of Andy Warhol; amateur archaeologists were rewarded with major finds; and several masterpieces were discovered, simply hiding in plain sight. From newly mapped Venezuelan petroglyphs to a long-lost Magritte, these are 10 of the most notable art-historical discoveries of the year." … [Read More]
Two koalas wrestle on road
Anthony Powell would purr if he could read this shrewd, fond biography by Hilary Spurling:
Although a distinguished book critic himself, not least for these pages, Powell held journalists in the same regard as reviewers ("stupid, incompetent, often envious, rarely grasping the point of any given book"). Private Eye parodied his posture like this: "20th January 1995. Re-read various fan letters confirming that I am the leading novelist of my generation. Why is it, one wonders, that my fans are so unusually percipient?… Re-read Hamlet by Shakespeare, a competent but unreliable author, though by now rather dated and always prone to worthiness. Never to my knowledge managed a novel."
Baby it’s cold outside: 10 great Irish winter escapes from the Blue BookCan you be partially pregnant?
Ian McKellen: Women partly to blame for sex abuse scandal
Scientists finally confirm there was life on Earth 3.5 billion years ago Quartz
Storytelling is inextricable from power: The act of reading is an act of submission. At best, reading novels is salutary. At worst, it erodes our sense of self Surreal Storytelling
Storytelling is inextricable from power: The act of reading is an act of submission. At best, reading novels is salutary. At worst, it erodes our sense of self Surreal Storytelling
Instapoets Are Having A Moment. Should We Take This Seriously?
The last time poetry saw this kind of action was with the cable knit sweater-clad poet and singer-songwriter Rod McKuen, who sold millions of books and millions more albums in the late 1960s and early 1970s with titles like “Listen to the Warm” — far outstripping the reach of not only an artist like Leonard Cohen, but most popular novelists of the time. (There were dusty McKuen books and records in my house growing up.) The backlash then makes today’s seem gentle