Google Virtual Reality Gets Real with Share Economies

Stop Googling. Let’s Talk. New York Times ...

The promises—and pitfalls—of the emerging technology

Virtual Reality Gets Real

Using Google’s new domain buying service, Sanmay Ved purchased world’s most popular website for $12 before transaction was cancelled
Sanmay Ved’s ownership of Google.com lasted a mere minute. The company quickly emailed to say it had cancelled the order and Ved was refunded
OMG Google

MacLean’s – Vanishing Canada: Why we’re all losers in Ottawa’s war on data – Records deleted, burned, tossed in Dumpsters. A Maclean’s investigation on the crisis in government data, by Anne Kingston, September 18, 2015.

The sharing economy is now a playground for Wall Street Gillian Tett, Financial Times

Government outlines ‘smartphone state’, via Uber and blockchain Wired

Jason Ward, known for his landmark report on Australian corporate tax avoidance last year, said the strong association of Uber with Netherlands “raises immediate suspicion” of tax evasion by the company Experts suspect tax avoidance by Uber Australia  

It’s not checkmate yet: Beijing to counter US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact South China Morning Post

The Nature Cure

  Antidote du joUr Mother Nature Network

Why some doctors are writing prescriptions for time outdoors. The Nature Cure

Can we moderns no longer understand Shakespeare?  If not, when will ...

The Amazing Inner Lives of Animals NYRB

Retrotopia: A Change of Habit The Archdruid Report on culture and nature around Commonwealth Bank Darling Harbour Sydney ...

Baseball player Yogi Berra — whose birth name was Lawrence Peter Berra — died in September

It is  appropriate to note the death of someone who is well known for sayings that have provoked the public to thoughts of puzzlement and paradox — and in such an amusing way.
A few quotes:
“I never said most of the things I said.”
“In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
“There are some people who, if they don’t already know, you can’t tell ’em.”
“It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.”
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
“I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question.”
“If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.”
We understand he had some achievements in baseball, too. The New York Times has an obituary.

Peter Reilly, Yogi Berra’s Sayings Worked Their Way Into Tax Decisions.

How to get kids to eat their vegetables.  And the true nature of Masonomics (photo, view carefully)

Chris Blattman on fear and behavioral economics, an excellent post

Rainbow beach, up the road from Redcliff and Gympy, sinkhole at Inskip Point beach may still be growing Daily Mail

Rare Australian jellyfish carried to California coast by warm El Nino currents Daily Mail 

Networking

As Confucius has once said, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

I practised my Faulty Towers acting skills and according to the feedback I achieved mountain of glory - Still I am not good for the Chasers yet ssss ;-)

Jon Kingsbury and I sent out an all-staff email to our Nesta colleagues inviting them to participate in an initiative we called Randomised Coffee Trials (RCTs) to encourage staff to speak and connect with co-workers outside their daily routines.
The art and science of network weaving

Cultural appropriation has become fair game for a drubbing at the hands of race activists. But who, after all, owns folklore? Tatranka re »

Speaking of networking, it was interesting to meet Mark Ponniah who is a charming Australian of Sri Lankan origin, who helped to mentor many finance related careers in his lifetime. Like Dr Cope, Mark has a fascinating philosophical background as Doctor of Philosophy Genetics... Cybercrime summits

Impossible to Fail

World Bank president: corporate tax dodging ‘a form of corruption’ 

• Sunlight is the best way to disinfect corporate tax havens 

• Birgit Huesecken (Cologne) & Michael Overesch (Cologne), Tax Avoidance through Advance Tax Rulings — Evidence from the LuxLeaks Firms
• Wall Street Journal editorial, American Tax Exceptionalism: The U.S. Again Ranks Near the Bottom on Corporate Competitiveness
• Competitiveness Index and Australia is number 7 just before Slovakia (Czechs rank 14th) - Estonia is again number one - Nude Zooland is second and the U.S. ranks 32nd out of 34 industrialized nations. ...

• Graeme Cooper (Sydney),The Defective Tax Jigsaw

• Richard Krever (Monash) & Peter Mellor (Monash),Legal Interpretation of Tax Law: Australia
• Kathleen DeLaney Thomas (North Carolina), User-Friendly Taxpaying
• Eric D. Chason (William & Mary),Taxing Losers, 18 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2016)

Tax Justice Blog, New CTJ Report: 358 or 72% of Fortune 500 Companies Used Tax Havens in 2014

Dear Ambassador, the Bahamas is most definitely a tax haven  

Ashcroft, Belize Banks and Questions About U.S. Tax Evaders  

KPMG tax 'sham' used by at least 25 wealthy Canadians, document says 

£300 million of Brighton and Hove property owned by tax haven firms  

The Twitter Government and Elections Handbook Twitter 

High-Frequency Firms Dominate Treasury Trading in Near Secret Bloomberg

ASIC: Avestra 'diverted cash to tax haven'  (22 Sep 2015

Mental As - A Rare Philosopher Inside the Sea Horse

Surprising Data on Who Owns U.S. Firms and How Much They Pay in Taxes Wall Street Journal

Global Corporate Cash Piles Exceed $15 Trillion Telesur

Disaster capitalism is a permanent state of life for too many Americans Guardian

Vale Ilona Double

I was very saddened by the untimely death of a friend, Ilona. 

Ilona was an extraordinary person and a true mentor. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her and remembered always.

Like my mum's sister Ilona, Ilona Double truly have a gift for helping others...

DOUBLE, Ilona Ruta. Passed away suddenly on Friday, September 25, 2015. Aged 55 years. Beloved mother of Julia and Alison. Loving wife of Matthew. Treasured sister of Inara and Irene. Sister-in-law of Jim and Lange. Precious auntie and friend of Daina, Zoe, Kate, Jessie, Ayden, Sarah, Simon, Samantha and their families. Reunited with Mum and Dad Vale Ilona Double

It is with great sadness that Cycling SA advises of the passing of Ilona Double.

Ilona Double and her daughter, Alison, were both active Cycling SA members. On behalf of Cycling SA, we would like to pass on our deepest condolences to Ilona’s family.  Vale Ilona Double

Back to Kinder: Glen and Gill of Tax Rules

Sydneysiders have been warned to expect commuter “chaos” this morning with buses headed in the wrong direction, cars towed away on crowded streets and bus stops bursting with passengers, as the most radical changes to the city’s transport network face their first rush hour test...

Richard Murphy notes that his book suggests ways the state could improve the lives of the British people – the prime minister’s conference speech joke is sadly at their expense The Joy of Tax is no laughing matter, David Cameron

  

Jack Townsend, Swiss Asset Manager Settles Up with DOJ Tax. A $295,000 fine. Another example of second prong of the IRS approach to international tax compliance — shoot the jaywalkers so you can slap the big offenders on the wrist.

Former Australian of the Year and serial entrepreneur Dick Smith has slammed the Turnbull government over proposed changes to tax disclosure laws, accusing the Coalition of caving in to the big business lobby.
Wealthy individuals are arguing reform to forthcoming Australia’s tax disclosure rules is necessary because the proposed laws apparently leave chief executives vulnerable to kidnapping.
Smith told Fairfax it was “absolute rubbish” that wealthy individuals would be at risk if their companies were forced to keep disclosing how much tax they pay.
“They do it themselves… they buy waterfront properties, big boats and big planes,” Smith said.
“I’m really disappointed in the Coalition on this, I think it is very important they don’t change this and I am asking the Prime Minister not to change this. Otherwise he will be ratting on typical Australians who pay their tax.”
The bill to alter Australia’s tax disclosure laws is currently before the Senate.

 

When the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a tax-exempt organization, called for Ben Carson to step out of the 2016 race for the White House, did they violate federal regulations?

Ben Carson seems to think so. In an email sent to supporters last week, Carson proclaimed:

“The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held a public press conference demanding that I withdraw from the presidential race.

Here’s the catch – CAIR is a tax-exempt nonprofit, and the IRS rules explicitly prohibit such groups from intervening in political campaigns on behalf of – or in opposition to – a candidate.”

Carson’s campaign has gone so far as to start an online petition asking the IRS to remove the organization’s tax-exempt status. Abuses of Tax excempt status: pro islam organization revoked

Western Australia's corruption watchdog has found that Lisa Scaffidi failed in her duties as the Lord Mayor of the City of Perth by not disclosing gifts and travel contributions including an all-expenses paid trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics worth almost $US37,000.

In a report released on Monday – less than two weeks before Ms Scaffidi stands for re-election – the Corruption and Crime Commission said there was "serious misconduct". It did not find Ms Scaffidi had acted corruptly. Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi

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Winning: What Makes Us Tick Before We Die

A scientific looks at people’s obsessions with besting their peers Why We Compete

What do crows know of death?

Lucky Australia as Deputy Mayor of Auburn wants to be PM. He also revealed that despite not having “what it takes to be a superstar”, he would grab whatever opportunity came his way. During the interview, Mr Mehajer also addressed allegations levelled against him in recent months.

He rejected claims he was part of a group of councillors dubbed the ‘super six’ who voted regularly in favour of each other’s business dealings.  Read more here. 

“Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied,” Zadie Smith counseled in her ten rules of writing .

• Sunlight is the best way to disinfect corporate tax havens 

Retrotopia: Public Utilities, Private Goods Archdruid

Plastic-eating worms may offer solution to mounting waste, researchers discover PhysOrg

It Is Very Expensive To Be Poor Pamela Foohey, Credit Slips

Are Bosses Necessary? Resume Writers and Jobs for the Boys and Girls

Striking staff at Air France have taken demonstrating their anger with direct action to a shocking new level. Approximately 100 workers forced their way into a meeting of the airline’s senior management and ripped the shirts from the backs of the executives. French Revolution MMXV

A radical experiment at Zappos may herald the emergence of a new, more democratic kind of organization.

Are Bosses Necessary?

How offices will change—for better and for worse - link to article in black - 

Thinking Outside the Cube

OECD Report: Improving Co-operation between Tax and Anti-Money Laundering Authorities: Access by tax administrations to information held by financial intelligence units for criminal and civil purposes  

Career Corner. Reminder: Please Take Vacation So You Don’t Die (Leona May, Going Concern).

News from the Profession. Accounting Had a Toxic Culture Before It Was Cool (Leona May, Going Concern). “As ‘The Great Email Chain of 2013’ demonstrates, the public accounting workaholic culture has spawned a whole bunch of work-obsessed, white-collar monsters.”

A common refrain at the conference was that public service organisations need to change to meet the challenges of the future. Lloyd listed the familiar pressures that are widely seen as requiring new ways of working — “the ageing population, digital transformation, excessive red tape, competition for investment and a general push for smaller government” — and said he thought public servants were “up to it”.

“The public service needs to be agile and quick to respond, to be informed by a willingness to experiment, and to trial options,” said Lloyd. “New institutional arrangements like the Digital Transformation Office will be required to overcome entrenched interests and ways of thinking.”
It’s exciting times, the APS commissioner says, despite some “inflexible” personnel management practices that are holding back change in his view. He also advocated responsibility being delegated down to lower levels, as did Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet head Michael Thawley earlier in the day, as well as visible, communicative leadership Too long, too complicated: recruitment needs to get back to basics

“UnlockTalent.gov is a comprehensive data visualization dashboard created by the US Office of Personnel Management to help Government leaders make data driven decisions and design initiatives to increase employee engagement and satisfaction. Employee engagement is the employee’s sense of purpose that is evident in their display of dedication, persistence, and effort in their work or overall attachment to their organization and its mission.”

The Future of Work: Workplace Dystopias, and How to Respond Pacific Standard

Via LLRX.com – Wearable tech data as evidence in the courtroom – Nicole Black discusses how data downloaded from wearable technology has entered into the discovery phase of personal injury cases. A wealth of data can be collected about the direct activities of individuals who are using wearable devices while exercising, as well as conducting routine and regular activities such as walking. The implications of this concept may have considerable implications on par with those pertaining to the use of social media.

Kids Who Use Computers Heavily in School Have Lower Test Scores, Major Worldwide Study Finds Hechinger Report. We linked to an earlier report about this study, but this headline is clearer about the main finding.

As San Francisco rent skyrockets, even employed people are homeless MarketWatch

Theoretical “auto-brothel” attack on mechanics’ computers could infect millions of cars BoingBoing 

Naked capitalism Economist. On porn on the web

Toys ‘R’ Us Brings Temporary Foreign Workers to U.S. to Move Jobs OverseasNew York Times 

From Radio to Porn, British Spies Track Web Users’ Online Identities Intercept. Important. New revelations based on Snowden docs.

America’s most secretive court invites its first outsider ars technica
Something is rotten in the state of Germany Bloomberg

Leave it to Vlad (and the Supreme Leader) Foreign Policy 

Why the US should give Putin a free rein in Syria Quartz 

The Power of False Narrative Robert Parry, Consortium News 

Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s Atlantic. Wow. Look at the possible role of industrial meat

Fashion Bloggers Work 100 Hours a WeekHypeBeast

Finally, Yahoo has some good news for shareholders: Things could be worse Pando

Kafka's Cockroach: Brave New World of Spying

At some point over the course of this antipodean weekend you’re going to have an argument with someone about whether to put the clocks forward one hour, or back one hour. Despite a university degree and years of having to endure this mind-baffling time travel, every year it’s the same; if it’s lighter later, is it earlier sooner, or later earlier?

Police Program Aims to Pinpoint Those Most Likely to Commit Crimes New York Times “Pre-crime/Thought-crime.”

The story begins with a traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking to find himself transformed (metamorphosed) into a large, monstrous insect-like creature...

In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health. The Coddling of the American Mind

Ankit Panda @nktpnd

A Perfect Day For Bombing: Russian TV Forecasts Favorable Weather For Syria Strikes http://bit.ly/1VznQ4S 

4:28 AM - 6 Oct 2015

 
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A team of scientists at the Kaliningrad-based Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University has unveiled [Russian] the smallest cockroach robot ever which will be tasked with hunting out victims trapped under debris.
Russian scientists create cockroach spy robot The Stack

U.S. and China establish cyber working group with Cold War-esque ‘hotline’ DailyDot

The Windows 10 privacy debacle: Five big issues to consider TechRepublic
“No artist is pleased… There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

An epic from Italy about female friendship and fate The Hypnotic Genius of Elena Ferrante

‘I didn’t get into Parliament to be a bit of f***ing arm candy’: Female Tory MPs’ complaints after being made to walk alongside Cameron at party conferenceDaily Mail

Social Norms and Legal Design – Bruno Deffains and Claude Fluety. This version, September 2015.
“We compare fault-based and strict liability offences in law enforcement when behavior is influenced by informal prosocial norms of conduct. Fault tends to be more effective than strict liability in harnessing social or self-image concerns

American politicians are now eager to disown a failed criminal-justice system that’s left the U.S. with the largest incarcerated population in the world. But they've failed to reckon with history. Fifty years after Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report “The Negro Family” tragically helped create this system, it's time to reclaim his original intent The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration

Taking Care of Wisdom

The prohibitive cost of e-journal subscriptions and the wealth of critical research articles available only for fee continues to reverberate in different directions as individuals and groups work to bypass paywalls. Aaron Swartz spearheaded these efforts in 2013 when he downloaded millions of articles through MIT’s JSTOR account.  More recently, efforts to broaden access to journal articles have taken two markedly less extensive but nevertheless noteworthy paths – the rise of open access journals in legal and humanities and sciences subject matter, and via the Twitter hashtag #icanhazpdf. The latter is an access method founded by a scientist that openly circumvents paywalls by providing researchers with the ability to request fee-based copyrighted articles and receive them free from other researchers who have access. New paths will continue to open up access, and exiting ones – including abstracts and forthcoming versions of articles available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and legal and technology related articles on LLRX.com (19 years online – always free) with flourish as the demand for high quality free access to scholarly work has not diminished. I look forward to reading about and sharing future innovations that support knowledge sharing and dissemination.

Sydney Shooting, Oregon college shooting, Ikea Murders

The fatal shooting of a police employee outside the force's headquarters by a 15-year-old boy was a politically motivated attack linked to terrorism, NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says. Parramatta shooting: Andrew Scipione says teen shooting linked to terrorism

IKEA bloodbath in Sweden has thrown the progressive country into violent chaos as the refugee crisis takes its toll.
Last month, a devastated asylum-seeker who had been refused refuge responded with an alleged double-murder at the iconic furniture store, sending shockwaves around the nation.
Abraham Ukbagabir was told he would have to seek asylum in Italy because he had been “the subject of some altercation” there, according to a police report seen by The Washington Post.
A fellow Eritrean staying at the same shelter near Vasteras, 100 kilometres west of Stockholm, had just been granted permission to stay, and Ukbagabir was consumed with envy.
The furious 35-year-old invited his more successful compatriot, Yohannes Mahari, to accompany him to Ikea to buy a mobile phone. He led the younger man to the kitchenware department and began picking up pots and then butcher knives, slipping off the packaging on the blades.

Before a nervous Mahari could figure out what was going on, the older man had stabbed a Swedish mother and son and plunged the knife into his own stomach ... Ikea


Christopher Harper-Mercer was withdrawn and quiet as he grew up in southern California, spending most of his time indoors at his mother’s apartment and deflecting neighbors when they asked him how he was doing, or why he always wore the same outfit of combat boots and green Army pants. But there was one subject that got him to open up: guns
Umpqua community college shooting ;

Oregon college shooting victims

Quintessentially Sydney Story: Painter Richard of 16 fame

Mystery wedding couple found after epic Sydney Harbour photograph goes viral 



Its critics have called it ‘contemptuous’ and a ‘shocking breach of the public’s trust’. But who cares what the critics say when you have a former prime minister, a billionaire and some helpful tweaks to the law on your side? Bridie Jabour unpicks a quintessentially Sydney story
The rise and rise of Barangaroo: how a monster development on Sydney harbour just kept on getting bigger

Painters such as Richard Macca were spotted by paparazzis on Friday night at chiswickrestaurant.com while pollies such as Bob Carr were exchanging ideas about their new ventures on Thursday at lunchtime at Catalinarosebay.com

They didn’t do their due diligence.
They didn’t do it,
And now they rue it,
And how they will rue not doing it
With vigilance when they had the chance.
They talked the talk but didn’t dance the dance.

They committed the folly
Of failing to follow the lolly.
They didn’t learn about the booze,
They didn’t learn about the flooze,
The smack, the jack, and the lolly.
And, in short, they missed the trolley.

They overlooked some obvious flaws.
Why? Was it arrogance
Or the need to spare the expense
Or just a lack of common sense?
Who can say? Whatever the cause,
They failed to observe the clause.

They didn’t do their due diligence.
They didn’t do it,
And now they rue it,
And how they will rue not doing it,
How they will rue the day
They didn’t do their due diligence.
~ David Lehman

Hunters, Collectors and Gatherers: Massive Leak Reveals Everything About The Google Voice

It seems that a presentation for Google GOOGL +2.35% upcoming, Huawei-built Nexus 6P has leaked in full detailing a series of new features and confirming much of what we already had read about the phone from old leaks. The information claims to come from a PowerPoint deck that was to be used by training retail associates. The slides which were leaked via Reddit seem to show a lot of new information about the phones. 

Massive Leak Reveals Everything About The Google Nexus 6P

*Ideas for hunters and collectors

If you are hunting for prop for hire for shops, themed parties, the film, theatre & events industries try our selection of collectibles: 

Hunters and Collectors

Travelling Blogger and Collector

 Winner of the Bowness Photography prize 2015: Florilegium #1 (2014), by Joseph McGlennon.  Mysterious Images