Our dreams are precious crystal spheres that must be protected at all costs by the shattering blow of the hammer of reality.
~ On Twitter
Study: Power Doesn’t Just Corrupt, It Takes A Toll On Your Brain
The historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” But that’s not far from where Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, ended up after years of lab and field experiments. Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view. – The Atlantic
Since the 1800s our pollies have run a closed shop with their restaurants at Parliament House on Macquarie Street, leaving the rest of us to eat cake. But that's about to change.
While politicians take their winter break next month, Parliament House is opening its Strangers' Dining Room & Lounge to the proletariat for lunch.
Did it require an act of Parliament to make them open the doors for three weeks? "The Department of Parliamentary Services and Parliamentary Catering worked together on it," says Parliament House spokeswoman Samantha Brown in what sounds a little like the makings of an episode of Yes Minister.
The Christmas in July, Yuletide inspired lunch at NSW Parliament is held in the Strangers' Restaurant
ABC Thank God it is Friday: Duh: Study Shows Audiences Find Jokes Funnier When Crowd Laughter Is Added
“This research shows that while canned laughter does elevate the humour of a comedy, adding real laughter would get a better response.” – BBC
Richard Glover covered the threats facing humour ;-)
July 26: James O’Loghlin, Wendy Harmer and Tommy Dean.
Music from Agnes Sarkis, star of Opera Australia’s production of Madame Butterfly: https://opera.org.au/whatson/events/madama-butterfly-sydney
Eight Artists Withdraw From Whitney Biennial, Citing Board Member Whose Company Makes Tear Gas
One of the artists wrote toHyperallergic, “As a mother to a 2-year-old daughter, it terrifies me that my work is currently part of a platform that is now strongly associated with Kanders’ teargas-producing company Safariland. … I have recently taken her to several demonstrations and that further heightened my awareness of the situation. I do not want her to grow up in a world where free and peaceful expression is countered with means that have left people injured and dead.” – Hyperallergic
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New York Times, The Nordic Model May Be the Best Cushion Against Capitalism. Can It Survive Immigration?:
Swedes have long been willing to pay high taxes for a generous social safety net. But that willingness is being tested by an influx of refugees.
In a global economy increasingly besieged by rage over inequality and the pitfalls of winner-take-all capitalism, Sweden has long stood out as a kinder, gentler sort of country, a potential template for other nations eager to avoid destructive populism.
The so-called Nordic model that prevails in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland has been engineered to protect people from the commonplace economic afflictions assailing many developed countries, and especially the United States. There, the loss of a job can swiftly imperil health care, housing, sustenance and mental well-being. Under the Nordic model, governments typically furnish health care, education and pensions to everyone.
New York Times op-ed: Beware. Other Nations Will Follow France With Their Own Digital Tax., by Lilian V. Faulhaber (Georgetown):
The international tax system is behind the times. But we need coordinated reform.
Last Thursday, the French Senate passed a digital services tax, which would impose an entirely new tax on large multinationals that provide digital services to consumers or users in France.
next to the account profile in Firefox Lockwise as shown in a mockup from Mozilla below. Clicking on the saved login will open its subpanel that displays an alert that the “Passwords were leaked or stolen” as part of a data breach…”Police deny trying to censor Stefanovic's Informer 3838 documentary
"There
have been no efforts whatsoever to 'shut down' or stop the broadcast of
the sky news documentary," a Victoria Police spokesman said.
Robert Zaretsky, via The
Washington Post
In 1943, an obscure
staff member of the London-based Free French Forces completed a short proposal
for a new way to do politics following her country’s liberation. Her paper
remains outrageous even today. A frequently traveller from Spain to the US wonders about the differences between the two countries. "Why are homeless people so rare in Madrid and so common in San Francisco when here GDP per capita is half?"
The terrorism bill, known as Andy’s Law, has never been put to use.
Read more: The network of state bills ‘countering’ Sharia law.
