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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

When Rulers Despise The Ruled.

When Rulers Despise The Ruled


French journalists arrested while covering anti-Adani protest - SBS News


Huawei secretly helped North Korea build wireless network: report



One of the worst': how Newstart compares to unemployment payments in rest of the world - The Guardian

Analysis: Meet the Johnsons: The boisterous blonds taking over British politics


Boris Johnson is tipped to be Britain's next PM. With his trademark hair, famous family, wealth and scandals, he is set to take some of the global spotlight from the US President, writes Samantha Hawley.



Cafe owner accused of arranging for own business to be burnt down


A man is charged after allegedly arranging to have his failing cafe business in Perth's north-east set on fire and then submitting an insurance claim for the damage.



AtlanticNo one has done more to dispel the myth of social mobility than Raj Chetty. But he has a plan to make equality of opportunity a reality.

By 1979, when Raj was born in New Delhi, his mother was a pediatrics professor and his father was an economics professor who had served as an adviser to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

When Chetty was 9, his family moved to the United States, and he began a climb nearly as dramatic as that of his parents. He was the valedictorian of his high-school class, then graduated in just three years from Harvard University, where he went on to earn a doctorate in economics and, at age 28, was among the youngest faculty members in the university’s history to be offered tenure. In 2012, he was awarded the MacArthur genius grant. The following year, he was given the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most promising economist under 40. (He was 33 at the time.) In 2015, Stanford University hired him away. Last summer, Harvard lured him back to launch his own research and policy institute, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Chetty turns 40 this month, and is widely considered to be one of the most influential social scientists of his generation. “The question with Raj,” says Harvard’s Edward Glaeser, one of the country’s leading urban economists, “is not if he will win a Nobel Prize, but when.”

LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: Ilhan Omar Says Boycotting Israel Is Like Boycotting Nazi Germany.“David Steinberg is doing the heavy lifting ... Over at Powerline, Steinberg has the receipts on Omar’s marriage to her brother. Did you know Omar isn’t really her last name? Interesting stuff, go check it out. It’s not just that Omar married her brother, which is gross, but she did it (allegedly) to commit fraud. I wonder what the consequences will be?”



It’s often instructive to hear what people say when talking among themselves rather than to the public at large.
Thus, note what what Ilhan Omar said when addressing a leftist group known as Netroots Nation:
“There’s a constant struggle oftentimes with people who have power about sharing that power. We are not really in the business of asking for the share of that power. We’re in the business of trying to grab that power,” she said.
That’s just a statement of a truth any observer can already see quite clearly. But at least it’s honest. It’s also a statement that isn’t limited to their plans for the Democratic Party, not by a longshot.

Squad Goals: Anarchy, to coin a phrase.




Biometric technology in the workplace: why unfair dismissal claims are just the (finger) tip of the iceberg
CCW, June 2019. Although biometric authentication systems can be implemented for a number of legitimate reasons, employers can face serious legal issues if implementation is not thought through properly. By way of example, biometric authentication systems can infringe upon employees’ right to privacy under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

UK MPs call for use of 'highly intrusive' facial recognition to be suspended
The Inquirer, 18 July 2019. The use of "highly intrusive" facial recognition tech should be suspended until concerns over its effectiveness and potential bias have been resolved according to the report, The work of the Biometrics Commissioner and the Forensic Science Regulator.




NEC suing Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission over failed IT contract


Hackers in search of personal information are bad. But digital fingerprint trackers might be even worse.


This week in digital tools for journalism
The half-sceptic speaks like Socrates, I know only that I know nothing.  The whole sceptic speaks like Francisco Sanches: Haud scio me nihil scire, I do not even know if I know nothing.

And:

The end of reason is a weariness of thinking.  Yet reason is so strong that even its weariness is a part of its strength and we dream rationally if we have learnt reason.

Watch, listen, and learn as pianist and composer Nahre Sol plays what you might think of as a very simple song, Happy Birthday, in 16 increasing levels of complexity. She starts out using a single finger and ends by playing an original composition that seemingly requires 12 or 13 fingers to play. This gave me, a musical dunce, a tiny glimpse into what a composer does.

Sol has a popular YouTube channel where she posts videos of her musical explorations, including Improvising in the Style of Different Classical Composersand The Blues, As Digested by a Classical Musician. (via open culture)


Cost-benefit Analysis of Leaning against the Wind
Treasury, July 2019. Setting interest rates higher than macroeconomic conditions would warrant due to concerns about financial instability is called ‘leaning against the wind’. Many recent papers have attempted to quantify and evaluate the effects of this policy. This paper summarises this research and applies the approach to Australia.
 

Those bits are from this (uneven) volume Philosophical Essays: A Critical Edition

  
Ardern displays enduring faith in government being a force for good
LEADERSHIP: “Times may be challenging but I absolutely believe politics can be a place for change, disruption, and a force for good. Good government need not be an oxymoron.”
For Sibling Battles, Be a Sportscaster, Not a Referee. "Narrate what's happening. Repeat back what your kids say to you. Try to be neutral." I'm totally trying this...in my best Phil Hartman play-by-play voice.

Good New Idea London Review of Books. John Lanchester.

Why “Incremental Change” Is Worse Than No Change At All Caitlin Johnstone

Terri Sewell, the Worst of the Black Caucus, Subverts $15 Wage Bill Black Agenda Report

Instagram’s anti-bullying AI asks users: ‘Are you sure you want to post this Guardian. UserFriendly: “If this works at all it’s because people will be afraid that zuck has a database somewhere that tally’s how many times you’ve bullied someone and that it might get out, which I’m sure it will with the next teen suicide lawsuit. The rare case of our orwellian surveillance state doing the slightest little bit of not evil while being very evil.”

How much is your data worth to tech companies? Lawmakers want to tell you, but it’s not that easy to calculate The Conversation

300 Californian Cities Secretly Have Access to Palantir Motherboard


JFK's hard-driving IRS chief revived the agency - The Washington Post


 LIKE A LOT OF COLD WAR ERA SOVIET PROPAGANDA, IT’S WELL-CRAFTED: Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theory Lives On. Why?

It’s all Gramscian Damage. And by the way, if you’ve never followed the link and actually read the Gramscian Damage piece, you really should. It explains so much.

#TheSquad Press Conference Backfires Spectacularly. As Jim Treacher says, the left wants the right to shut up. The right wants the left to just . . . keep on talking.



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