Sunday, September 09, 2018

Writing: Visualizing Data in 3D

As Tom Wolfe once wrote, quoting Malcolm Muggeridge, “We live in an age in which it is no longer possible to be funny. There is nothing you can imagine, no matter how ludicrous, that will not promptly be enacted before your very eyes, probably by someone well known

TV Seeks Diverse Writers But Is Having Trouble Finding Enough


"In more than three dozen interviews, writers, producers, and studio and network executives said heightened scrutiny in the wake of #OscarsSoWhite and other controversies has led to the concerted push, particularly for women of color in senior positions. ... [But relatively few are in the supply chain. It is a problem of Hollywood's own making." … Read More


In 2010, inspired by Elmore Leonard’s classic 10 Rules of Writing published nearly a decade earlier, The Guardian invitedsome of the world’s most celebrated living authors to share their own dicta of the craft. “Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied,” Zadie Smith counseled in the last of her ten. Midway through her list, Margaret Atwood grounded the psychological dimensions of the craft in the pragmatic and the physical: “Do back exercises. Pain is distracting.” Neil Gaiman thought eight rather than ten tenets would be sufficient — a meta-testament to his sixth: “Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.”
Among the contributors was Jeanette Winterson — a writer of exquisite prose and keen insight into the deepest strata of the human experience: time and languageour elemental need for belongingthe power of arthow storytelling transforms us.

Jeanette Winterson’s 10 Tips on Writing





Visualizing Data in 3D – “Microsoft has published a free data visualization tool called Charts 3D that allows PC and Surface Hub users to create 3D visualizations of multi-axis data without knowing how to code. After users import datasets, Charts 3D generates an interactive graphic, such as a geospatial plot, scatter plot, or line graph. Users can filter their data, switch between 3D and 2D, and alter the visualizations using voice commands.”

Exploring the effectiveness of social media | Bill 

On Friday 21 September, join the Hon Andrew Leigh at Crawford School, where he will outline the harms done by tax havens in his public lecture. Registration available on our website



Finding the oldest blockchain in the NYT classifieds



Airport security bins carry more germs than toilets, scientists say


Next time you go through airport security, it might be worth washing your hands afterwards.



fedscoop: “The Government Publishing Office (GPO) is tasked with “Keeping America Informed,” which practically means that the agency, through various channels, provides free public access to all the official publications of the federal government. In the days before the internet, this mandate was a lot easier to keep track of. In a recently released report, the Library of Congress’ Federal Research Division (FRD) explores how federal agencies tend to publish information these days (spoiler alert: online) and how the GPO can do a better job keeping tabs on official government documents in the information age. “The identification and acquisition of content are substantially more complex undertakings in the digital age as compared to the ink-on-paper era,” the report states. Before the web, agencies often approached GPO for publishing services, which made it easy for the agency’s Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) to collect information on publications. More recently, however, “the onset of direct-to-web publishing, together with the diminishing share of publications in print, weakened the link between Federal publishing and the deposit of documents for FDLP distribution.” This situation leads to the existence of so-called “fugitive documents” — documents that fall within the FDLP’s purview but have not been collected or documented. “Digital fugitives,” the report states, “result from the tremendous volume of digital content being produced, the diversity of formats being used to create information products, the inconsistency of website designs across the Government, and Federal agencies’ failure to notify the Superintendent of Documents of newly released information products…” [h/t pete Weiss]