How Language Mutates In The Corporate World
“No matter where I’ve worked, it has always been obvious that if everyone agreed to use language in the way that it is normally used, which is to communicate, the workday would be two hours shorter.” –New York Magazine
The missionary roots of liberal democracy
Statistically, the historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania and removes the impact of most variables that dominate current statistical research about democracy. The association between Protestant missions and democracy is consistent in different continents and subsamples, and it is robust to more than 50 controls and to instrumental variable analyses.It Doesn’t Matter If Anyone Exists or Not
The sheer profusion of actors online has foreclosed their need to be real at all: the armies of bots and the Russian sockpuppets, thecorporate tweeps and theAI deepfakes. One can just as easily get into a heated dispute with a bot account generating random replies, or with an automated customer-service agent matching inputs to outputs, as with a human foe who is frantically tapping wordsinto a glass rectangle. – The AtlanticGuide to effectively increase Wi-Fi access points within your home - ars technica – “…we’re going to teach you how to figure out how many Wi-Fi access points (APs) you need, and where to put them. These rules apply whether we’re talking about a single Wi-Fi router, a mesh kit like Eero, Plume, or Orbi, or a set of wire-backhauled access points like Ubiquiti’s UAP-AC line or TP-Link’s EAPs. Unfortunately, these “rules” are necessarily closer to “guidelines” as there are a lot of variables it’s impossible to fully account for from an armchair a few thousand miles away. But if you become familiar with these rules, you should at least walk away with a better practical understanding of what to expect—and not expect—from your Wi-Fi gear and how to get the most out of it…”
'Alcohol-fuelled bender': Senator O'Neill slams EY's governance, culture
Senator
Deb O'Neill has used parliamentary privilege to air allegations of
sexual harassment, illicit drug taking and alcohol-fuelled benders at
global consulting firm EY.
Inventor Of Computers’ Cut-Copy-And-Paste Functions, Larry Tesler, Dead At 74
A researcher and executive over the years at Xerox, Apple, Yahoo, and Amazon, Tesler had enormous influence over the experience most people have when using a personal computer today: in addition to cut-copy-and-paste, he developed such basics as WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get, meaning what you print out should look like what was on your screen), double-clicking, and how hard you need to press a mouse button. Indeed, he was a pioneer in simply asking regular users, as opposed to programmers, how they wanted their computers to work. – The Washington Post
Daily Collegian, ‘More Rivers To Cross’ Report Reveals Lack of Black Faculty, Student Bias at Penn State:
To biobehavioral health professor Gary King, an in-depth report highlighting the various obstacles many African American professors have faced at Penn State over the last 15 years raised the question, “Are we really all in?”
King hopes to bring this question to light among the community by sharing the “More Rivers To Cross” report, prepared by himself and African American studies associate professor Darryl Thomas.
Research from ASIS international analyzed the relationship between physical security, cyber security, and business continuity in modern organizations and provides relevant benchmarks to compare strategies, plans, and operations. The study looked at security convergence in the United States, Europe, and India.
According to the report, despite years of predictions about the inevitability of security convergence, just 24% of respondents have converged their physical and cyber security functions. When business continuity is included, a total of 52% have converged two or all of the three functions.
Comparatively, 96% of organizations that converge two or more functions report positive results, and 72% believe that convergence strengthens of overall security. Even in companies that have not converged, 78% believe that convergence would strengthen their overall security function. Source: Continuity Central, How many organizations have converged physical security, cyber security, and business continuity functions? (12.19), ASIS Foundation, The State of Security Convergence in the United States, Europe, and India (2019)
Higher salaries, legal protections and lack of discrimination said to be among the reasons most Palestinians would prefer to work for Israeli firms.
- The
world's biggest tax haven lurked behind a dos Santos penthouse
(25 Feb 2020)
- Warning sounded over tax crackdown on HNWs (25 Feb 2020)
- HMRC
targets ultra-rich £700bn assets (25 Feb 2020)
- Eamonn Holmes faces a £250k bill after losing his tax case (25 Feb 2020)
- Tax avoidance is a stain on our global public services (25 Feb 2020)
- Meat
company faces heat over 'cattle laundering' in Amazon supply
chain (24 Feb 2020)
- HMRC
sets up secret unit to probe inheritance tax avoidance
(24 Feb 2020)
- No
global digital tax by end-2020 would mean chaos - France
(24 Feb 2020)
- How national insurance distorts the picture of tax rates (24 Feb 2020)
- New tax rules to batter landlords in April (24 Feb 2020)
- Secretive
HMRC UK tax unit homes in on rich families (24 Feb
2020)
- Rishi Sunak promises to be fair over IR35 tax changes (24 Feb 2020)
- We
should embrace the idea of Britain as a tax haven post-Brexit
(24 Feb 2020)
- Non-Doms - Competing for the rich - Tax exemptions and special schemes for the rich (21 Feb 2020)
- OECD seeks input on draft Model Rules for Reporting for Platform Operators with respect to Sellers in the Sharing and Gig Economy (21 Feb 2020)
- OECD director:
Agreement on digital services tax underway
(21 Feb 2020)
- HMRC call waiting times soar
– and it could cost taxpayers dear (21 Feb 2020)
- Airport group's shareholder registered in official tax haven (20 Feb 2020)
What criminal clans and German family businesses have in common
- The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast is doing a two-parter on the disturbing criminal underworld of child sexual abuse that is posted online. Part one was Wednesday. Part two is today. The two-part episode is based on a Times investigative project about this horrifying topic. Last year, I talked to one of the reporters of this story — Michael H. Keller — about how this story was reported and written.
- Writing for Esquire, Charles Pierce looks at the controversy of Elizabeth Warren being left out of a Wall Street Journal poll.
- A must-read for music fans as Tom Maxwell writes about the legendary Jeff Buckley for Longreads. Maxwell writes, “The almost-unanimous belief amongst those close to Buckley is that much of the music that has emerged in his name since 1997 not only runs contrary to his perfectionist streak but would never have seen the light of day had he stayed alive.”
- Finally, I started today’s newsletter with the debate and I’ll let PolitiFact end it as it fact-checked last night’s craziness.