Saturday, May 21, 2016

Devil: Accidental Appraisal

“Leaving while your published story is still running is the weirdest feeling.”
 “I know. You feel like a deserter.”
“Also like a parent whose child ‘doesn’t need them’ anymore.”

According to Spanish newspaperEl Diario, the college’s entire student body - all of whom are members of military families - will have to attend the theological conference centred on “the fields related to the devil, exorcisms, being possessed, and hell.” In 2010, the priest made headlines in Colombia after telling a local newspaper the existence of the devil was real, but that he did not have“horns, wings, or a tail.”  Carlos J The exorcism culture that is Spain.

Accidental appraisal


Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil 

Mitch Maahs: Sports and Fitness Bill Would Provide Tax Advantages for Gym Memberships and Sports Equipment  (Davis Brown Tax Law Blog). The tax law — is there anything it can’t do?

As Franz Kafka and George Orwell explained the phenomenon in his Animal Farm, many decades ago. But people keep falling for it: Like Ponzi schemes, socialism is an evergreen form of fraud, egged on by suckers eager to believe the lies hucksters tell them. Which brings me to 2016 ...


DON’T BE EVIL: Google Honors Activist Who Deemed U.S. Government World’s ‘Main Terrorist’

"Federal Judge in Texas Demands Justice Dept. Lawyers Take Ethics Class": Michael D. Shear will have this article in Friday's edition of The New York Times.

Why a staggering number of Americans have stopped using the Internet the way they used to WaPo

via CL: In his recent book, Between Debt and the Devil, Turner’s conclusions are dictated by what he sees as the paradoxical character of modern developed economies. As currently structured, rich economies seem to need to borrow ever more money to generate economic growth. But that very addiction to debt makes them vulnerable to periodic busts that deeply damage the economy. Lord Adair Turner on the 'largely fictional' world of finance
 

Devils in Speedos at Bondi Icebergs  - New York Law Journal, Lawyer's Age Bias Suit Over Lifeguard Swimwear Is Revived: A Long Island bankruptcy attorney who lost his job as a summer weekend lifeguard after refusing to sport a Speedo [top photo] for his recertification test will be able to take his age discrimination suit to trial, an appeals court ruled

IF IT WEREN’T FOR FAKE HATE CRIMES, WOULD WE HAVE ANY HATE CRIMES AT ALL? University of Iowa student’s family recants claims of hate crime.
Marcus Owens, the black University of Iowa student whose family claimed he was the victim of a hate crime and racial slurs at the hands of three white men, has issued a public apology after an Iowa City police investigation showed him to be involved in three fights during the hours the assault was alleged to have occurred.
Complex life a billion years earlier than thought? PhysOrg. Chuck L: “This is a big deal if it’s confirmed.”

News from the Profession. What’s the Future of the CPA Brand?” (Caleb Newquist, Going Concern)

"A Nasty Split in U.S. Courts Over Human Rights": Law professor Noah Feldman has this essay online today at Bloomberg View

APPARENTLY, “FAT-SHAMING” DOESN’T PRODUCE CELIBACY: Number of overweight, expectant mums rising dramatically, health insurer warns

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: CDC labs cited for mishandled bioterror germs.
Maybe the CDC needs a little more focus

20-year review shows 90% of disasters are weather-related; US, China, India, Philippines and Indonesia record the most UNISDR

The goal of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project was to learn how behavioral insights could be applied to human services agencies that serve low-income and vulnerable populations in the United States. While each intervention was designed to respond to unique challenges faced by particular programs, seven behavioral concepts were used in almost every site. These seven concepts led to the “SIMPLER” framework: Social influence, Implementation prompts, Mandated deadlines, Personalization, Loss aversion, Ease, and Reminders Developing SIMPLER Solutions
 
 
“We are at the dawn of an extraordinary technological revolution, and it is transforming every part of the U.S. economy. Beyond social media and e-commerce, advances are coming to every industry and leaving a wake that could be either disastrous or transformative to every city in the country. In the same way a handful of cities became major commerce centers in the industrial era, new cities will emerge as leaders in the digital economy. Yesterday’s expertise will not guarantee tomorrow’s economic wins. Without leaders who understand this and act to help their communities transition, cities will fall behind. Innovation that Matters examines and ranks 25 cities’ readiness to capitalize on the inevitable shift to a digital economy. It carves out critical trends every U.S. city leader can learn from and offers recommendations local leaders can adopt to strengthen their region’s digital competitiveness
Rise and fall of social media 



FUN FACT: More than 30 Coalition MPs are reeling in a sweet, sweet average allowance of about $211,400 each year. And they will merrily do so for the rest of their lives, based on a scheme which will pay out about $46.4 million just next year, The Australian reports. Back in 2004, people complained about politicians’ excessive retirement perks. Then-Prime Minister John Howard closed the generious defined-benefit scheme for new MPs, but drew the line at retrospective changes to superannuation. Cheers for that, Howard. You da man. It’s not like Bronwyn Bishop abused the system enough in government or anything.

  Do No Evil: Google faces record-breaking fine for web search monopoly abuse Telegraph


Is China a House of Cards? Pepe Escobar, Sputnik

China’s Debt Bomb Barry Ritholtz


Shortly after his contemporary Charles Darwin compiled his amusing list of the pros and cons of marriage, Kierkegaard begins with this common conundrum and extrapolates from it the larger principle of how we confront our existential dilemmas:
If you marry, you will regret it; if you do not marry, you will also regret it; if you marry or if you do not marry, you will regret both; whether you marry or you do not marry, you will regret both. Laugh at the world’s follies, you will regret it; weep over them, you will also regret it; if you laugh at the world’s follies or if you weep over them, you will regret both; whether you laugh at the world’s follies or you weep over them, you will regret both. Believe a girl, you will regret it; if you do not believe her, you will also regret it; if you believe a girl or you do not believe her, you will regret both; whether you believe a girl or you do not believe her, you will regret both. If you hang yourself, you will regret it; if you do not hang yourself, you will regret it; if you hang yourself or you do not hang yourself, you will regret both; whether you hang yourself or you do not hang yourself, you will regret both. This, gentlemen, is the sum of all practical wisdom.

To get caught in this bind of “double regret,” Kierkegaard cautions, is to reduce eternity to “a painful succession of moments in time.” He writes:

It isn’t just in single moments that I view everything aeterno modo [in the mode of eternity], as Spinoza says; I am constantlyaeterno modo. Many people think that’s what they are too when, having done the one or the other, they combine or mediate these opposites. But this is a misunderstanding, for the true eternity lies not behind either/or but ahead of it.

Wittgenstein’s charisma. He lived philosophy as a personal struggle. That made him severe, ruthless, censorious, and depressed. And bewitching... Net Practice 

JACK DUNPHY: Fundamentally Transformed: City after City Seeing Rising Crime Rates:
Remember, the study was conducted before the uproar that followed the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, which was not a singular event marking a sea change in police work, but was rather a highly charged and highly publicized example of a trend that began years ago.  Indeed, back in 2001 I concluded a column at National Review Online with a little prayer that summed up the police officer’s lot, then as now: “God, if I have to hurt someone today, please let it be a white guy.”


FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORMED: Female Security Guard Arrested For Removing Man From Women’s Bathroom

New evidence shows Rolling Stone rape hoaxer created her ‘rapist.’