Ultimately, progress and innovation win.
~Travis Kalanick
“A pessimist is a man who thinks everybody is as nasty as himself, and hates them for it.”
―
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Back to the future ... Memories of Soviet Czechoslovakia came flooding back From envelopes of cash to cigarettes: The hidden agenda of China's widespread bribery culture
New Labor leader Michael Daley has held a secret press ..... Mr Carr's former staffer Kris Neill was working in Mr Daley's office.
600 journalists murdered over the past six years - 75 this year alone #Walkleys
Standing ovation for a legend of our profession Sean Dorney. Not a dry eye in the room for the @ABC’s longtime PNG correspondent. #Walkleystwitter.com/walkleys/statu…
Kate McClymont wins two Walkley Awards for Don Burke investigation - The Sydney Morning Herald
KHASHOGGI: Trump pledged loyalty to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince despite the murder of Washington Post
contributor Jamal Khashoggi. The announcement came despite ample evidence and
the insistence of his intelligence agencies and top officials that the Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the killing. U.S. Senator Bob Corker
(R-Tennessee) blasted Trump's kiss-up, saying: "I never thought I’d see the day
a White House would moonlight as a public relations firm for the Crown Prince
of Saudi Arabia."
KHASHOGGI ‘DESERVES BETTER’: Washington Post
Publisher Fred Ryan on the statement: "President Trump is correct in
saying the world is a very dangerous place. His surrender to this state-ordered murder will only make
it more so. An innocent man, brutally slain, deserves better."
A KIDNAPPED JOURNALIST REACTS: War photographer
Lynsey Addario, kidnapped in Libya in 2011, said Trump’s
abandonment of Khashoggi sends a message. “I thank God,” she tweeted,
that Trump “wasn’t president then.”
OPENING THE BOOKS: Where do journalists get their stories?
Tips, strange things and beat work, says ProPublica’s Jodi S. Cohen
Daley deprives ASIC of much-needed spin guru
Daley deprives ASIC of much-needed spin guru
The Sydney Morning Herald
Joanna
Litt’s husband, Gabe MacConaill, a 42-year-old partner at Sidley
Austin, committed suicide in the parking garage of the firm’s downtown
Los Angeles office last month.
My
husband took his life—our life—on Sunday, Oct. 14, one month to the day
before our 10-year wedding anniversary. We had been planning a trip for
over a year in anticipation of celebrating.
I’m
beyond lost and I don’t know how I’m going to get through the rest of
my life. Gabe was my best friend, my partner, my lover, and my constant.
I turned to him for everything, and he was always there with the most
perfect advice and words. He was my world, and after losing him, I can
absolutely say, my better half. Gabe and I did not have children (except
for our dog Ivy) and we made that deliberate choice so we could focus
solely on our life together, because we were happy. And now he’s gone.
He saw no other choice or path.
I
never thought in a million years that he could or would do that. And I
keep going back to one thought: “Big Law” killed my husband. ...
My
devices are sending and receiving data every two seconds, sometimes even when I
sleep
When I decided to record every time my phone or laptop contacted a server on the internet, I knew I'd get a lot of data, but I honestly didn't think it would reveal nearly 300,000 requests in a single week. So many apps and websites are simply impossible to use while also avoiding being tracked.
When I decided to record every time my phone or laptop contacted a server on the internet, I knew I'd get a lot of data, but I honestly didn't think it would reveal nearly 300,000 requests in a single week. So many apps and websites are simply impossible to use while also avoiding being tracked.
How podcasts work (New Yorker).
Black security guard who stops shooter is then shot and killed by police The Hill
Brexit shows that idiots and incompetents are in charge in UK Irish Times. PlutoniumKun: “Not quite as good as the heading, but Chris Johns is a mainstream business journalist (British, not Irish), it’s not usual that writers like this use this type of language.”
Tucker Carlson backs Ocasio-Cortez on criticism of Amazon HQ2 incentives: ‘World’s richest man’ Bezos just got $2B from taxpayers The Hill
The intersection between crypto and prediction markets
Brexit shows that idiots and incompetents are in charge in UK Irish Times. PlutoniumKun: “Not quite as good as the heading, but Chris Johns is a mainstream business journalist (British, not Irish), it’s not usual that writers like this use this type of language.”
Tucker Carlson backs Ocasio-Cortez on criticism of Amazon HQ2 incentives: ‘World’s richest man’ Bezos just got $2B from taxpayers The Hill
The intersection between crypto and prediction markets
Between you, me and thatdodgy-looking USB: A little bit of paranoia never hurt anyone
Let's lift our eyes from the balance sheet and take a
look around...
Climbing Ladders Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. UserFriendly: “Weren’t we just hearing about super star firms that accounted for all of the wage gaps less than a year ago? Or is it just Germany vs the US?”
PhD students have notorious dropout rates and mental health risks, but is it worth it for a career in the public service? Verona Burgess on how far a doctorate gets you, and where you might end up.
What does commissioning mean in the public service space? The definition is broader than many think — and the aim shouldn’t always be to outsource the work.
When Australia's chief scientist road tested a few good dinner jokes and also shared a few handy ingredients for innovation, boiled down to the number of Wiggles.
Climbing Ladders Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. UserFriendly: “Weren’t we just hearing about super star firms that accounted for all of the wage gaps less than a year ago? Or is it just Germany vs the US?”
Both reasoning from behavioral-economic first principles, and my personal experience, people are at their most evil out of fear, not greed. Growth means there is less fear going around.That is from Vitalik Buterin, reviewing Stubborn Attachments on Twitter. And this:
I have a different take on “growth is good for harmony” (52-53). Arrow’s theorem doesn’t become more or less true if a conflict is between, say (+5, +1) vs (+1, +5) or (+2, -2) vs (-2, +2). Rather, the reason why the latter is more disharmonious is loss aversion.And:
Redistributing money to the rich (p88) is risky because the rich are not necessarily aligned with general population. Caring for old people (p91) is valuable not just for the sake of present individuals, but also as a commitment to future old people who are present-day workers.Here is my earlier Conversation with Vitalik Buterin. And here is Garett Jones’s tweet storm on the book
In November 1931 Churchill also published an article entitled ‘Fifty Years Hence’ in Maclean’s Magazine, in which he made some absurd predictions — that we would grow only those parts of chickens we wanted to eat, for example — but also some astonishingly accurate ones. ‘Wireless telephones and television…That is from the new and excellent Andrew Roberts, Churchill: Walking with Destiny. It is true of course that the fifty years prediction was off. Here is the Churchill essay
ATO, bills
and paperwork bring thousands of small business owners to breaking point
ABC News, 23 November 2018. Paperwork and taxes are no-one's favourite pastime, but there is evidence they are causing thousands of small businesses owners great distress, and some are not coping. But there is also evidence the tax office could itself be adding to small business stress, with owners feeling hounded by the ATO's constant payment reminders.
ABC News, 23 November 2018. Paperwork and taxes are no-one's favourite pastime, but there is evidence they are causing thousands of small businesses owners great distress, and some are not coping. But there is also evidence the tax office could itself be adding to small business stress, with owners feeling hounded by the ATO's constant payment reminders.
Is a PhD worth doing for a career in the public service?
Verona
Burgess
PhD students have notorious dropout rates and mental health risks, but is it worth it for a career in the public service? Verona Burgess on how far a doctorate gets you, and where you might end up.
Commissioning public services: the definition and aims matter
Helen
Dickinson
What does commissioning mean in the public service space? The definition is broader than many think — and the aim shouldn’t always be to outsource the work.
Dr Finkel's high-concentrate formula for innovation success
When Australia's chief scientist road tested a few good dinner jokes and also shared a few handy ingredients for innovation, boiled down to the number of Wiggles.
The Fifth Risk and what it means for Australia
Daryl
Carlton
What is happening in
the US public service right now makes an interesting lab study from which
we could draw lessons for the Thodey Review.
Bloomberg Tax, A Global Digital Tax Showdown Looms. Here’s What Could Happen:
The world’s biggest tech companies are staring down the barrel of a new tax on their European revenue.
The
EU’s divisive effort to create a special tax for Google, Facebook, and
their peers is at a pivotal moment as proponents of the so-called
digital tax push for a December vote. The measure would impose a 3
percent temporary turnover tax on the biggest multinational tech
companies—those with 750 million euros or more in global turnover and 50
million euros in EU sales.
The tax is more than just a new levy. It could create deep fissures in the global consensus on how to tax major companies.
Hon. Bill Pascrell, Jr (D-NJ 9th District), Scrutinizing Trump’s Taxes is in Congress’s Power, 36 Yale J. on Reg.: Notice & Comment (Nov. 16, 2018):
I
read with great interest Andy Grewal’s recent post on plans by House
Democrats to compel the release to Congress of Donald Trump’s tax
returns [The Battle For Trump’s Taxes And The President’s Potential Revenge]
As a Democratic Member of the House of Representatives and the leader
of my caucus’s efforts to expose Trump’s financial records to sunlight, I
felt it appropriate to respond to Grewal’s piece.
Our
focus on Trump’s personal and business tax returns stems from Trump’s
refusal to provide a scintilla of transparency on his family’s corporate
empire. As the first man to become President not to release any of his
tax returns in decades, his rejection of democratic norms is bad enough,
made unbearable given the size, scope and opacity of Trump’s companies.
Recent investigations detailing widespread tax fraud and other financial crimes by Trump and his family only add to our urgency to scrutinize Trump’s returns. ...
