~ Soren Kierkegaard
Svetlana Alexievich Q and A on the evil eye of Bennevolent Constantine
At Deutsche Welle Anastassia Boutsko has a Q & A with the Nobel laureate, Putin 'his own hostage': Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich on her opera debut.
The opera is Boris, which premiered at the Stuttgart Opera on Sunday; it's based on Alexievich's Secondhand Time.
"What is the correct response to a ruinous history? What, if anything, is the artist’s “duty”? Zadie Smith on Kara Walker Calling duty
Ruins are ripe for allegory. They remind us that human achievement is always marked by the inevitability of a fall Ruins
'Even death doesn't scare me': Virus storytellers challenge China's official narrative
Armed with smart phones and social media accounts, citizen-journalists in China are telling their stories and those of others from Wuhan and other locked-down virus zones in Hubei province.
A BILL WHITTLE PODCAST: The Cold War: What We Saw | Two Bombs – Episode 2.
The Golden Age Of White Collar Crime - HuffPost – The Highline:
“…The criminal justice system has given up all pretense that the crimes
of the wealthy are worth taking seriously. In January 2019,
white-collar prosecutions fell to their lowest level since researchers
started tracking them in 1998. Even within the dwindling number of
prosecutions, most are cases against low-level con artists and small-fry
financial schemes. Since 2015, criminal penalties levied by the Justice
Department have fallen from $3.6 billion to roughly $110 million.
Illicit profits seized by the Securities and Exchange Commission have reportedly dropped by more than half. In 2018, a year when nearly 19,000 people were sentenced in federal court for drug crimes alone, prosecutors convicted just 37 corporate criminals who worked at firms with more than 50 employees…But the rich are enjoying a golden age of impunity unprecedented in modern history. “American elites have become more brazen than they were even five years ago,” said Matthew Robinson, a professor at Appalachian State University and the author of several books on “elite deviance”— all the legal and illegal social harms caused by the wealthy. Elite deviance has become the dark matter of American life, the invisible force around which the country’s most powerful legal and political systems have set their orbit…”
A BILL WHITTLE PODCAST: The Cold War: What We Saw | Two Bombs – Episode 2.
Illicit profits seized by the Securities and Exchange Commission have reportedly dropped by more than half. In 2018, a year when nearly 19,000 people were sentenced in federal court for drug crimes alone, prosecutors convicted just 37 corporate criminals who worked at firms with more than 50 employees…But the rich are enjoying a golden age of impunity unprecedented in modern history. “American elites have become more brazen than they were even five years ago,” said Matthew Robinson, a professor at Appalachian State University and the author of several books on “elite deviance”— all the legal and illegal social harms caused by the wealthy. Elite deviance has become the dark matter of American life, the invisible force around which the country’s most powerful legal and political systems have set their orbit…”
More than half of Malta's traffic officers detained for fraud
Officials said 37 of the country's 50 traffic cops had been detained on suspicion they had filed for hundreds of hours of non-existent overtime over at least a three-year period.
POLITICIANS LIKE IT BECAUSE YOU CAN EXTRACT SO MUCH GRAFT OVER WHERE THE LINES GO AND WHERE THE STOPS ARE: Light Rail Is a Crime-Ridden Disaster. Then there are all the contracts you can let to cronies . . .
ALL CHANGE: The APS
Commissioner’s speech delivered to the APS Wide Conference in Canberra in
February 2020.
YOU GOTTA FIGHT FOR
YOUR RIGHT: A
dispute over payment regarding the use of licensed material by state public
servants.
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Several hundred metres of Sydney’s Metro remain under water, with drainage pumps in the underground tunnels unable to cope with the torrent of rainfall dumped on the city.
A new image understood to be of the inundated network reveals millions of litres of brown storm water sitting at platform height.
The Atlantic – Smartphones aren’t the only killers of work-life balance. “It’s a common existential crisis among American office workers that virtually nowhere is now safe from the pull of their jobs.
This Particular Moment: A Culture Of Meanness
“Our contemporary moment is a culture of meanness. It’s not based on facts. It’s not based on conversation… it’s destructive to our democracy and our institutions. Notice the bags under my eyes? That’s what it’s about
DING DONG – YOU GOT A
GONG! Nicholas
Gruen entertainingly explains the context behind the Australian honours system.
Revealed: how drugs giants can access your health records Guardian
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues February 8, 2020 – 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 Weiss, highlights 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: DHS Buys Phone Location Data, Skirting Fourth Amendment; Report: DMVs Sell Your Personal Information For Millions Of Dollars; The California Consumer Privacy Act explained; and IRS Launches “Identity Theft Central” Webpage.
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Revealed: how drugs giants can access your health records Guardian
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues February 8, 2020 – 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 Weiss, highlights 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: DHS Buys Phone Location Data, Skirting Fourth Amendment; Report: DMVs Sell Your Personal Information For Millions Of Dollars; The California Consumer Privacy Act explained; and IRS Launches “Identity Theft Central” Webpage.
In memoriam …
For Someone Born on This Date in 1933
I still remember
Holding your hand for hours
The day you left us.
Parasite: The South Korean film wowing the world - Al Jazeera
South Korean satire directed by Bong Joon-ho sweeps top prize after also winning best director, foreign language film and original screenplay
Review: 'American Factory'
It's clear throughout that every Dayton native is making a genuine effort to be tolerant. In the promo video, Obama admits he expected otherwise, saying "they exhibited a lot more trust than I would have expected." The sole exception comes when one worker asks why Chinese propaganda has to be playing in the factory lunchroom at all hours.
The Chinese executives, by contrast, belittle, stereotype, and insult their American employees. We're treated to several Chinese-language training sessions in which executives inform managers what to expect from Americans. Americans, they say, are "slow," "overconfident," and hard to train because of their "fat fingers." In one session, a company VP compares his American workers to donkeys and says, matter-of-factly, "we're better than them."
Why so many married couples are sleeping in separate beds.
It's clear throughout that every Dayton native is making a genuine effort to be tolerant. In the promo video, Obama admits he expected otherwise, saying "they exhibited a lot more trust than I would have expected." The sole exception comes when one worker asks why Chinese propaganda has to be playing in the factory lunchroom at all hours.
The Chinese executives, by contrast, belittle, stereotype, and insult their American employees. We're treated to several Chinese-language training sessions in which executives inform managers what to expect from Americans. Americans, they say, are "slow," "overconfident," and hard to train because of their "fat fingers." In one session, a company VP compares his American workers to donkeys and says, matter-of-factly, "we're better than them."
Why so many married couples are sleeping in separate beds.