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Monday, April 30, 2018

Kim Jong Un Sits Down for Historic Talks With South Korea’s Moon: Treasury boss rejects auditor-general’s view of corporate planning rules



Treasury boss rejects auditor-general’s view of corporate planning rules
Commonwealth entities are several years into PGPA implementation, but it's only now that a departmental head has pushed back at some of its prescriptive expectations.


Robert Ulrich, KIT Library, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – “Research data are valuable and ubiquitous. But the sustainable availability of research data is a challenge for all stakeholders in the scientific community and it can be difficult to find appropriate repositories. re3data is a registry of research data repositories from across the globe


Note the rather unjournalistic choice of words in the Asia Times article: “In a photo-op that looks certain to become iconic, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will waddle across the inter-Korean border in the iconic truce village of Panmunjom at 9:30am on Friday for the third-ever inter-Korean summit…”. Watching the coverage on one of the local Korean TV affiliates, the body language of the 2 leaders at their face-to-face meeting was very friendly, and undiplomatic though it may be, “waddle” is an accurate description of the portly Kim Jong-un’s gait. Important as this event is, if they pre-empt my regular Korean evening dramas – tonight would normally be Queen of Mystery 2 followed by Let’s Watch the Sunset – for it, I’m gonna be pissed. :)



A PRIMER ON ‘INCELS:’ More information is coming out about that incident in Toronto on Monday where a van driver plowed into pedestrians on a busy street, killing 10. The CBC is reporting that the incident is shining a spotlight on the controversial world of "incels." The word stands for “involuntary celibate,” and is used by an online community of men that’s virulently misogynistic. Toronto police say Alek Minassian, accused in the attack, posted a cryptic message on Facebook that said: "Private (Recruit) Minassian Infantry 00010, wishing to speak to Sgt 4chan please. C23249161. The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys. All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!" The CBC story has a lot of information about the group, as does this Twitter thread by freelance journalist Arshey Mann.



SOBERING: The New York Times story and photos about the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice rightfully caught the attention of social media on Wednesday. The memorial in Montgomery, Alabama, is dedicated to lynching victims and features stark steel beams hanging from the ceiling. It opens to the public today. The images alone in the story are worth a look, but the interview with the memorial’s founder, Bryan Stevenson, is inspiring. But you should also head to the Montgomery Advertiser website, which has been running an array of stories on the new memorial, including a virtual walk-through with 100 searing photographs. (Use the full screen feature for an immersive experience.)

Sunlight Foundation: “To engage in a monumental understatement, it’s a big deal for the public’s information to be altered or disposed of without justified intention and public notice of the removal. In spring 2018, for the first time the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has begun using the Internet to inform the American public about its ongoing investigations of unauthorized dispositions in an online dashboard. In a year that continues to be marked by regression on transparency and accountability under the Trump administration, this is a welcome development that shines a bright light on a matter of significant public concern and shows continued commitment by NARA to its open government plan. “For many years in the Performance Accountability Report, we have included a table of all open and closed cases by financial year, but it was available only as an end-of-the-year snapshot and not as a real-time, ongoing tool that we have now via the website,” Laurence Brewer, chief records office of the United States, informed Sunlight in an email. For those unfamiliar, “unauthorized disposition” refers to the unlawful or accidental removal, defacing, alteration or destruction of federal records under 44 USC 3106 and 36 CFR Part 1230. This section of the U.S. Code requires federal agencies are required to “notify the Archivist of any actual, impending, or threatened unlawful removal, defacing, alteration, corruption, deletion, erasure, or other destruction of records in the custody of the agency.” The Archivist and NARA staff constantly monitor the media, nonprofit watchdogs like Sunlight, and feedback from the general public for potential unauthorized dispositions. (You can contact NARA at UnauthorizedDisposition@nara.gov if you are aware of a potential records issue or want more information.) NARA’s Records Management Oversight and Reporting Program is responsible for establishing case files as it investigates allegations, including communications with a given agency until the issue is resolved.  

NARA suggests that the public contact its Freedom of Information Act Office using a case ID. Once a given case is closed, NARA moves it to an  Unauthorized Dispositions Closed Cases page. A list of the cases that were open and/or closed prior to 2016 is available to the public online in past Performance Accountability Reports…”



Facebook Australia cops AU$31m income tax adjustment from ATO

ZDNet
After signing a settlement with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in October, Facebook Australia has been hit with a AU$31.3 million tax adjustment reaching back to the company's 2009 financial year. Disclosed in its earnings filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Facebook paid ...

Negative gearing: Australian politicians claim $3.8m in rental losses


Are rich Aussies getting away with blue murder when it comes to tax?