“Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are [those] ready to believe and act without asking questions.”
To be close to Stalin was to risk death. What's it like to have been in his inner circle and survived?
It is sweet to beat the IRS. It’s even sweeter to make the government pay your costs. The taxpayers in Gary M. Dennis and Sharon D. Dennis v. Commissioner, T.C. Memo. 2020-98 (July 1, 2020) (Judge Panuthos) learned the sad lesson that victorious taxpayers won’t receive an award of costs and fees under §7430 when their only cost was their time and labor. Details below the fold.
Law: The Tight-Fisted Congress
Sometimes taxpayers best the IRS. Sometimes they win at the administrative stage and sometimes they have to go to court. In both situations, however, §7430 allows taxpayers to recover reasonable costs, including attorneys fees. Each stage must be analyzed separately.
Miranda Perry Fleischer (San Diego) & Daniel Jacob Hemel (Chicago), The Architecture of a Basic Income, 87 U. Chi. L. Rev. 625 (2020) (reviewed by David Elkins (Netanya) here and Susan Morse (Texas) here):
The notion of a universal basic income (“UBI”) has captivated academics, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and ordinary citizens in recent months. Pilot studies of a UBI are underway or in the works on three continents. And prominent voices from across the ideological spectrum have expressed support for a UBI or one of its variants, including libertarian Charles Murray, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, labor leader Andy Stern, and—most recently—former President Barack Obama. Although even the most optimistic advocates for a UBI will acknowledge that nationwide implementation lies years away, the design of a basic income will require sustained scholarly attention. This article seeks to advance the conversation among academics and policymakers about UBI implementation.
James Murdoch’s resignation is the result of News Corp’s increasing shift to the right – not just on climate (The Conversation August 2 2020)
James Murdoch is not the most obvious candidate for editorial heroism. His route to resigning from the News Corp board because of “disagreements over certain editorial content” has been circuitous and colourful.
James Murdoch is not the most obvious candidate for editorial heroism. His route to resigning from the News Corp board because of “disagreements over certain editorial content” has been circuitous and colourful.
A spirit of rebellion
We live in chaotic times, and this is having a clear influence on the creative industries, believes Maisie Benson, designer at B&B Studio. “People are turning to individual activism to try and deal with the growing sense of societal uncertainty, and we're seeing this assertive rebelliousness filter into design,” she explains. "Verbal identity and tone of voice has never been so important, and 2019 has seen a rise in the bold repetition of words and sentences in typography. We've also seen more outlined type, another visual protest to the traditional rules on legibility and messaging. And brands that attempt to replicate this aesthetic in an inauthentic way certainly feel the backlash.”
Designers are being energised by change-makers at the grassroots, and are also aware of their own ability to shape change, she adds. “So we’re seeing fonts inspired by handwritten protest messaging from the Berlin Wall, as well as Greta Thunburg’s handwriting.”
Curro de la Villa, creative director at 72andSunny Amsterdam, offers a similar take. “Overall I have the feeling that 2020 will be the year where imperfection and rawness become a more mainstream vibe, embraced by big brands on their visual identity like never before,” he says. “While invisible design is getting slicker and more present in functional design in the UIs of our phones, global companies want to go the other way and look more human, adopting an unpolished and almost punk tone of voice: it’s no longer a visual language that belongs just to small rebellious start-ups or fashion labels."
And that's a good thing, he feels. "It gives designers a chance to experiment, almost vandalise typefaces, use bold contrasty and unexpected layouts, absurd kerning, neon colours… all combined in crazy ways, embracing imperfection. This is happening in almost every discipline, and I'm loving the experimental side of it. We see it in photography: I love the messiness of Dexter Navy’s website and its photography. We see it in editorial content: the layouts of the online articles of The New York Times Magazine are always a beauty. And we see it in typography and 3D, such as Thom Yorke’s latest 3D animated music video.”
Intel investigating breach after 20GB of internal documents leak online. “US chipmaker Intel is investigating a security breach after earlier today 20 GB of internal documents, with some marked ‘confidential’ or ‘restricted secret,’ were uploaded online on file-sharing site MEGA.”
This breach could prove to be a huge bonanza for malware creators