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Thursday, October 04, 2018

How The Times Verifies Eyewitness Videos


I have a loyalty that runs in my bloodstream, when I lock into someone or something, you can't get me away from it because I commit that thoroughly. That's in friendship, that's a deal, that's a commitment. Don't give me paper - I can get the same lawyer who drew it up to break it. But if you shake my hand, that's for life.
~ Jerry Lewis


Text Analysis Systems Mine Workplace Emails to Measure Staff Sentiments
Footage of the microscopic world around us Business Insider 




Think incoming nuclear missiles or a massive terrorist attack, a man-made disaster of epic proportions, a meteor or some other sort of nationally scalable natural disaster yet to be imagined.
A nightmare, basically.









Penelope Trunk on how the world works


Why India can’t join Iran’s sanctions busters Economic Times of India (J-LS)
Delusions of Victory Carnegie Middle East Center (Chuck L)


Scott's changing spots
A year after the tragedy of Hurricane Maria, the 51st state has become the favorite playground for extremely wealthy Americans looking to keep their money from the taxman. The only catch? They have to cut all ties to the mainland (wink, wink).
The party known as Cocktails and Compliance—so called for mixing alcohol with tax advice—was thrown on a Friday evening in May, in a warehouse turned art gallery in Old San Juan. The host had kept his guest list confidential: It contained the names of hundreds of ultra-wealthy mainland Americans who'd moved to Puerto Rico to avoid paying taxes, most of whom were reluctant to advertise that fact. More than 1,500 mainlanders have established residency here since 2012, when the island rebranded itself as a tax haven, and the annual Cocktails is at the center of their social calendar.
The NYT has this report:  Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father (NYT 10/2/18), here.

Some interesting excerpts without getting too much into the details laid out:
The line between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion is often murky, and it is constantly being stretched by inventive tax lawyers. There is no shortage of clever tax avoidance tricks that have been blessed by either the courts or the I.R.S. itself. The richest Americans almost never pay anything close to full freight. But tax experts briefed on The Times’s findings said the Trumps appeared to have done more than exploit legal loopholes. They said the conduct described here represented a pattern of deception and obfuscation, particularly about the value of Fred Trump’s real estate, that repeatedly prevented the I.R.S. from taxing large transfers of wealth to his children. 
“The theme I see here through all of this is valuations: They play around with valuations in extreme ways,” said Lee-Ford Tritt, a University of Florida law professor and a leading expert in gift and estate tax law. “There are dramatic fluctuations depending on their purpose.” 
The manipulation of values to evade taxes was central to one of the most important financial events in Donald Trump’s life. In an episode never before revealed, Mr. Trump and his siblings gained ownership of most of their father’s empire on Nov. 22, 1997, a year and a half before Fred Trump’s death. Critical to the complex transaction was the value put on the real estate. The lower its value, the lower the gift taxes. The Trumps dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the properties, claiming they were worth just $41.4 million.

‘No regrets’: world’s biggest election loser runs for 96th time in Canada Guardian









How Health got Parliamentary Library to take down offending article
MY HEALTH RECORD: Parallels to the ABC’s Emma Alberici could not be more obvious: the minister was embarrassed, officials were incensed, but the independent Parliamentary Library stood firm in the accuracy of its analysis.

‘Be prepared for hard feedback’: dep secs’ graduate career advice
VPSC: “I just wandered around looking for issues I found interesting and by working on those sort of things it opens up the path to future jobs.”

CCTV systems could hurt councils with lax security, auditor-general warns
PRIVACY: Local governments have enthusiastically boarded the public CCTV bandwagon in recent years, snapping up federal and state grants, but have they done enough to manage the potential intrusion on individual privacy?

Affordable home-ownership scheme offers pathway out of social housing
CASE STUDIES: Shared equity models have a dual benefit of making home ownership affordable for people on modest incomes and freeing up scarce social housing for other households in need.
◾ Ten lessons from cities that have risen to the housing challenge



Wired: “On a clear, warm night earlier this year, several dozen University of California, Berkeley students folded themselves into gray chairs for a three-hour class on how to think like blockchain entrepreneurs. The evening’s challenge, presented by Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett, was to brainstorm how blockchain technology might be used to alleviate the city’s growing homeless problem. “We have at least 1,400 homeless people in our city, and that includes many right here at UC Berkeley,” Bartlett told the class. “So how can we use blockchain to fund a new prosperity? That’s a challenge I’d like you to take on.” The course, taught by visiting professor and former venture capitalist Po Chi Wu, is among a growing number of classes and research initiatives on blockchain technology emerging at universities. Blockchain—a method for creating and maintaining a global ledger of transactions that doesn’t require a third-party middleman such as a bank, government or corporation—is best known for its role in powering the virtual currency bitcoin. Applications for the technology are springing up in sectors including retail, humanitarian aid, real estate and finance. Although some analysts believe blockchain won’t gain widespread adoption for another five or 10 years, companies like IBM, Facebook and Google are investing heavily in the technology—and universities are taking note…”




Schneider on Security: “Some of us — myself included — have proposed lawful government hacking as an alternative to backdoors. A new report from the Center of Internet and Society looks at the security risks of allowing government hacking. They include:
  • Disincentive for vulnerability disclosure
  • Cultivation of a market for surveillance tools
  • Attackers co-opt hacking tools over which governments have lost control
  • Attackers learn of vulnerabilities through government use of malware
  • Government incentives to push for less-secure software and standards
  • Government malware affects innocent users.




The New York Times: Understanding the times Visual investigations based on social media posts require a mix of traditional journalistic diligence and cutting-edge internet skills.
“Visual investigations based on social media posts require a mix of traditional journalistic diligence and cutting-edge internet skills. In an effort to shed more light on how we work, The Times is running a series of short posts explaining some of our journalistic practices. Read more of this series here.

| RISKY BUSINESS



If you want to go behind-the-scenes of our most famous investigation, the Panama Papers, then you should watch the latest eponymous film.


A former boss used to say people loved knowing ‘how the sausage was made’ (that sausage being our journalism). If internal workings intrigue you, then the latest Panama Papers film is for you!


The film’s director Alex Winter said the risks that reporters and their sources take to bring to light such issues were at the heart of his story. “How do journalists get the truth out and speak truth to power in these times?


| CHEAP SEATS IN DC



For those of you in D.C. (or close), Winter’s film will be aired at The Double Exposure Investigative Film Festival on October 14 and you can get discounted tickets! Use the code PAPERSDX.


| GERMANS IN CHINA



Our German partners, Süddeutsche Zeitung, have continued to investigate how Siemens (an industrial giant) has operated in China between 2004 to 2014.


The investigation is highlighted by one deal that was struck between a sales representative and a hospital director. The sales rep’ paid nearly $1 million in bribes to the director, which was loaded into boxes then into a car.


Read the original reporting in German here.


| SECRET EXPENSES



There are 751 members of the European Parliament and each receives more than $5,000 monthly to cover expenses such as telephone, postal and internet services.
But a court has ruled against the public finding out how MEPs spend that money. It comes after an investigation by a group of ICIJ members fought for more transparency.
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