Friday, September 14, 2018

Technical Alchemists and Salisbury Spies

Darlene, go in there and pack up all your dreams
I'll have all I'll ever need, if you go with me
Darlene, sugar I can give you everything
And I want you for my darling, Darlene…

-T. Graham Brown ~ Darlene [New Stereo Recordings] - YouTube

The Subtle and Not-So-Subtle Force of Ageism

“So often, I see signs that they’re looking for someone younger. Ads ask for ‘digital natives’ and people who ‘live, eat, and dream social media.’”


  
'Up there with Monty Python' Argument Klinik: UK poison suspects' tale strains belief



What organisations can do to prevent burnout
"A supportive environment starts by focusing on these five factors." (Gallup)




Social return accounting: helping governments pick the best policy
NEW TOOL: Sydney academics have developed a rigorous method of “social return accounting” that expands significantly on previous ways of estimating the real outcomes of government spending proposals.

 



Lawyer's Weekly by Jacquelynne Willcox
Another day in Australia and another large class action launched. It comes after Australia’s regulators received a verbal bashing by former Treasurer, and current chair of the Future Fund Peter Costello, when he said they were, ‘not awake at the wheel’, writes Powell Tate’s Jacquelynne Willcox.




ANZ breaks out LEGO to bust staff silos
"Bank shouts success of its new LEGO Serious Play workshops as part of its broader cultural shift." (iTnews)


Chinese video surveillance network used by Australian government
"From military bases and the offices of government lawyers to street corners and on buses, we're being watched by cameras made by companies accused of spying for China." (ABC)




Nick Ripatrazone on Criticism as Performance and Twitter as Purgatory | Book Marks
William H. Gass transformed my idea of criticism; he was playful, expansive, omnivorous. “The true alchemists do not change lead into gold, they change the world into words”—Gass would inhabit a book in order to write about it. 

Three TextExpander Snippets You Should Be Using to Save Time Immediately: Brett Burney recommends and demonstrates an application from which we can all benefit: Text Expander – its saves you time immediately because it can type for you. And not only does TextExpander save you time, but it’ll also make you a better typist because it’s 100 percent accurate every single time. No typos or misspellings. 



Fortune 500 face £57.8bn tax in dispute


Tax disputes are escalating among Fortune 500 companies, as the increasing digitisation of activities makes it more difficult to agree on the location and source of corporate value and poses a growing threat to multinationals’ profitability, according to a research study by Baker McKenzie



HMRC posts 6% rise in fraud investigation tax take


HMRC’s elite fraud team, the fraud investigation service (FIS), collected £5.47bn in extra tax last year, an increase of £300m (6%) from the previous year, according to analysis by Pinsent Masons which suggests tax authorities are taking advantage of wider powers to launch civil investigations
 

Ralph Atkins, Switzerland’s banks try to put the past behind them (FT.com 9/5/18), FinTimes (Subsribtion).  

Key excerpts:
In total, Swiss banks have paid $5.5bn in US penalties since the first moves against them a decade ago. 
The Swiss would undoubtedly like to think the past is behind them. Times are certainly better. “After years of struggling with structural change stemming from the financial crisis, the tide has begun to turn,” consultancy KPMG reported recently in its annual survey of 90 Swiss private banks.