So is sometimes the flaw in a hero’s character!”
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'Industrial-scale pork barrelling': New sport grants scandal exposed
A contentious $100 million pre-election cash splash by the Federal Government was focused on marginal and target seats, the auditor-general says in a report raising the prospect the entire scheme was illegal.
US State Department Details Disinformation Methods
“The messages conveyed through disinformation range from biased half-truths to conspiracy theories to outright lies. The intent is to manipulate popular opinion to sway policy or inhibit action by creating division and blurring the truth among the target population.Unfortunately, the most useful emotions to create such conditions – uncertainty, fear, and anger – are the very characteristics that increase the likelihood a message will go viral. Even when disinformation first appears on fringe sites outside of the mainstream media, mass coordinated action that takes advantage of platform business models reliant upon clicks and views helps ensure greater audience penetration.” – Weapons of Mass Distraction (US Department of State)
How to Work From Home and Actually Get Stuff Done - LifeSavvy: “Although working from home sounds lovely and relaxing, it has its own set of challenges. You need to be diligent about scheduling or risk getting distracted. Here are some easy steps for boosting your productivity. Structure Your Day: You’re forced into a structure when you work in a traditional office environment. You have to get dressed (properly), commute, and attend meetings. You have the pressure of working around colleagues and you have defined times for starting and ending work. It’s harder to implement structure when you’re on your own. However, creating a solid routine is key to being productive.
- Wake up at a designated time: Just because you work from home doesn’t mean you should keep hitting snooze. One thing successful entrepreneurs have in common is that they get up early. Don’t let those productive hours slip by!
- Get dressed: This will help switch your mindset to “work mode,” making you feel more productive. Resist the urge to work in your PJs: take a shower and fix yourself up, even if no colleagues will see you.
- Do some work before breakfast: The usual recommendation is to start with a healthy breakfast, to fuel you for your busy day ahead. However, when you’re home all day, breakfast can be a drawn-out luxury, with reading, checking social media, and other distractions preventing you from getting started. Try diving into a quick work task, checking it off the list, and then sitting down to breakfast.
- Prep meals in advance: Try prepping your breakfast and lunch the night before. Avoid the kitchen during your work day—you’ll be tempted to cook elaborate meals or waste time mopping the floor.
- Eat in a separate space: Take your meal breaks away from your office—outside if possible. Pause all work activities, switch your phone to silent mode, enjoy the fresh air, and let your mind reset.
- Exercise: One great thing about working from home is flexibility. Hit the gym early, do a YouTube yoga class from the comfort of your living room, or go for a quick run if you’re feeling stuck or need a mid-afternoon boost.
- Utilize your productive time: Plan your day according to when you’re most alert and focused. If that happens to be first thing in the morning, then schedule demanding tasks at that time. If you experience a mid-afternoon slump, then plan on making phone calls, responding to emails, or meeting up with a colleague in person.
- Set specific hours: Don’t let your work blend from morning to night without any definition. Set boundaries, just like an office job would do. This might look like 9-5, or you can start at 8 and finish at 4. Some home workers even break their day into two different four-hour blocks with a rest period between them.
- Minimize interruptions: If you have others in your home during the work day, post a Do Not Disturb sign on your door or have a whiteboard that lists your work hours. When you first start working from home, the people you live with will assume that you’re home (and therefore available to them) instead of at work….
Arthur J. Cockfield (Queen's University), Tax Wars: How to End the Conflict over Taxing Global Digital Commerce, 17 Berkeley Bus. L.J. ___ (2020):
In the last two years, dozens of governments have proposed or introduced unilateral tax measures to tax foreign-based technology companies. The new tax innovations include special withholding taxes, diverted profit taxes, minimum taxes and digital services taxes. The rise of these unilateral measures threatens an international tax ‘war’ among governments that could stifle new business models or even the spread of the global digital economy. This Article reviews how international reform efforts have failed to constrain aggressive international tax planning and how the global digital tax conflict masks a growing dissatisfaction with how to tax value associated with global transactions.
One of Australia's 'first families of wine' McWilliam's enters administration after 141 years
One of Australia's 'first families of wine' goes into administration as declining business performance and a changing wine market force family-owned McWilliam's to seek outside assistance.
Forgiveness And Mercy: Our Most God-Like Power
Following up on my recent post, Forgiveness: Law, Faith, Christmas, And Hamilton: Wall Street Journal: David Skeel (Pennsylvania), Our Most God-Like Power (reviewing Martha Minow (Harvard), When Should Law Forgive? (W. W. Norton & Company 2019), and Malcolm Bull (Oxford), On Mercy (Princeton University Press 2019)):
A Billion Medical Images Are Exposed Online As Doctors Ignore Warnings - TechCrunch: Every day, millions of new medical images containing the personal health information of patients are spilling out onto the internet. Hundreds of hospitals, medical offices and imaging centers are running insecure storage systems, allowing anyone with an internet connection and free-to-download software to access over 1 billion medical images of patients across the world. About half of all the exposed images, which include X-rays, ultrasounds and CT scans, belong to patients in the United States. Yet despite warnings from security researchers who have spent weeks alerting hospitals and doctors’ offices to the problem, many have ignored their warnings and continue to expose their patients’ private health information.
The problem is well-documented. Greenbone found 24 million patient exams storing more than 720 million medical images in September, which first unearthed the scale of the problem as reported by ProPublica. Two months later, the number of exposed servers had increased by more than half, to 35 million patient exams, exposing 1.19 billion scans and representing a considerable violation of patient privacy. But the problem shows little sign of abating. “The amount of data exposed is still rising, even considering the amount of data taken offline due to our disclosures,” said Schrader. If doctors fail to take action, he said the number of exposed medical images will hit a new high “in no time.”
IFM-backed wealth disrupter linked to disgraced Demtel director
Aleks VickovichReporter
Milne was the founder of International Media Management, parent company of Demtel, the iconic 1990s infomercial producer and distributor of steak knives famous for the catchphrase "but wait, there's more".
In November 2010, he was convicted of one count of money laundering and one count of intending to dishonestly obtain a gain from the Commonwealth for his role in an alleged tax fraud relating to the Project Wickenby saga and sentenced to eight and a half years' jail.
Four years later, the High Court quashed his money laundering conviction, ruling that he should never have been convicted of it by the NSW Supreme Court. After a failed attempt in 2011, Milne did not appeal the dishonesty conviction to the High Court and it still stands.With his jail time and acquittal behind him, the 65-year-old resident of exclusive Kurraba Point on Sydney's lower north shore has turned his attention to the fragmented post-Hayne wealth management market.
