~H.I. Phillips (1889–1965)
Bangladesh, Cuba, Iran, Mali and Turkmenistan share an unexpected connection to Australia, and it isn't membership of a tourist destination hot list.
All are among the economies that are so lacking in complexity, and have such limited natural opportunities to develop new products, that Harvard University recommends they adopt industrial policy straight out of the post-colonial developing world: the "strategic bets" approach.
The advice comes from the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for International Development, which two weeks ago launched an online database of 133 economies that combines remarkably rich data with beautiful presentation.
Designed to map, literally, the economic progress and opportunities of the industrial and non-industrial world, the Atlas of Economic Complexity exposes an under-appreciated truth about Australia.
The enormous wealth generated by iron ore, coal, oil and gas masks, and probably contributes to, an economy that has failed to develop the industries needed to sustain its position among the top ranks of the developed world.
Best feature of the weekend — and journalism junkies will love this — was from “CBS Sunday Morning”: Pete Hamill on Jimmy Breslin and "the heralded world of beat reporters."
Women are stressed, ‘burning out’ at an alarming rate, new study finds.
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Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, October 5, 2019 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weisshighlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: EU can force Facebook and social media platforms to remove content globally; How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct; The whistleblowing process, explained; and ABA Tech Report 2019.
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Hackers use simple trick to target U.S. presidential campaign and government officials- Mashable: “Hacking email accounts doesn’t have to be a sophisticated affair. We are reminded once again of this fact thanks to a report released Friday by the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center detailing how a group of hackers targeted the email accounts of journalists, government officials, and the campaign of a U.S. presidential candidate. And here’s the thing, the bad actors didn’t use some fancy 1337 computer skills, but rather employed the oldest trick in the book: the password reset. According to Microsoft, over a 30-day period in August and September of this year, hackers likely affiliated with the Iranian government went after 241 email accounts and successfully compromised four. The MTIC dubbed the group Phosphorous, and explained how the team operated. “Phosphorous used information gathered from researching their targets or other means to game password reset or account recovery features and attempt to take over some targeted accounts,” reads the blog post. “For example, they would seek access to a secondary email account linked to a user’s Microsoft account, then attempt to gain access to a user’s Microsoft account through verification sent to the secondary account.” Importantly, MTIC writes that the four compromised accounts were not tied to the U.S. presidential campaign. But, still, this isn’t good. Password-reset features come in many forms, from questions about where you went to high school or your mother’s maiden name to sending a link or code to a secondary email address or phone number. The former opens victims up to attack by anyone who knows how Google works, while the latter makes your primary email only as secure as your linked secondary email or cell phone…”
10 Tips to Avoid Leaving Tracks Around the Internet : The New York Times – “Google and Facebook collect information about us and then sell that data to advertisers. Websites deposit invisible “cookies” onto our computers and then record where we go online. Even our own government has been known to track us. When it comes to digital privacy, it’s easy to feel hopeless. We’re mere mortals! We’re minuscule molecules in their machines! What power do we possibly have to fight back?…” offers good suggestions – remember – they will not work unless you implement them, and update them often
CHANGE: Why so few teenagers have jobs anymore.
POKE: Nudging is a
behavioural economics strategy designed to influence someone’s decisions in an
easy and low-cost way, says David Gruen.
The share of teens participating in the labor force peaked 40 years ago and has declined ever since. In 1979, nearly 60% of American teenagers were employed, an all-time high. Today, just over one-third, or 35%, of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 are part of the workforce.Flashback: Millennials Lack Crucial Work Skills.
Teens are less likely to work part-time while in school and also less likely to work over the summer, according to a study by the Hamilton Project and Brookings Institution.
“High school has become more intense,” said Lauren Bauer, a co-author of the study.
“We have increasing demands on what it is that high schoolers need to be doing and how much time that takes,” she said, including “not only homework and course requirements but other graduation requirements like public service.”
“There is less time in the day to hold down a job.”
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