Friday, December 07, 2018

It's Not You, It's Me: Breaking Up With Books

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
— Baruch Spinoza, born in 1632 

It's Not You, It's Me: Breaking Up With Books





This Swedish Mall Is The World’s First Ever Secondhand Shopping Center Huffington Post 

These bohemian ants decorate their homes with the heads of their enemies National Geographic


The High Court will hear a case testing the public service's restrictions on free speech and political expression for bureaucrats, as it considers the 2013 sacking of a former Immigration Department worker for tweets criticising Australia's asylum seeker policy.
The UK has long been a particularly appealing jurisdiction for ultra-rich Russians, so much so that the city has been nicknamed Londongrad.


Saudi-backed lobbyist paid for 500 rooms at Trump hotel just after 2016 election

Lobbyists were reserving large numbers of hotel rooms as part of an unorthodox campaign using US military veterans.



A day of high farce ends on a low note





Grattan on Friday: Hokey-pokey politics as the government is shaken all about - The Conversation AU



A day of high farce ends on a low note

Two sets of legislation were at the centre of the giant parlia-storm that broke on Thursday afternoon, the details of which ordinary people, with normal lives to get on with, may have missed.

Labor agrees to pass encryption laws 'to keep Australians safe' over Christmas - 
Labor agrees to pass encryption laws 'to keep Australians safe' over Christmas - SBS News




'Cult leader' used defamation case to inflict pain on blogger: court








Online accounting company accused of running off with more than $1 million in tax returns

Last month, Hack listener Brooke said she lodged her tax return with ... said the matter will be classed as theft or fraud so will be dealt with as a crime and is thus outside of their powers.





Secret Service tests facial recognition system at the White House  

FCW.com: “The Secret Service started testing a facial recognition system in and around the White House last week, according to a privacy assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security on Nov. 28. The pilot uses a facial recognition system, unnamed in the privacy document, to pore over faces collected by the Crown closed circuit TV system that is used inside and outside the White House complex in Washington, D.C. The goal of the project is to determine whether a facial recognition capability can be used by the Secret Service to identify “known subjects of interest prior to initial contact with law enforcement” around the White House. These subjects of interest pose potential threats to individuals under Secret Service protection. They come to the attention of the Secret Service through their own direct communications with the White House as well as social media posts, reports from the public and the news media as well as information from other law enforcement agencies…” 



Regulating an Infrastructuralised Airbnb: Organisational, Regulatory and Civil Society Challenges and Responses


Uber happy? Work and well-being in the “gig economy”
Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford 2018. We explore the rise of the so-called “gig economy” through the lens of Uber and its drivers. Using administrative data from Uber and a new representative survey of drivers, we explore their backgrounds, earnings, and well-being.




If You Think This Sounds Astonishingly Corrupt, You Should Be Ashamed Of Yourself For Being So Negative:  Al Sharpton sells his life story rights for $531,000–to his own charity.



Ohio has become the first U.S. state to allow taxes to be paid in bitcoin
coin desk, 26 November 2018.  Companies in the state will be able to pay a variety of taxes, from tobacco sales tax to employee withholding tax to public utilities tax with the cryptocurrency.


Change, not 'change management' is the key



Paul Shetler

There is no magical one-step solution for digital transformation, but it does require decisive, sustained action. Paul Shetler explores how established organisations fall into traps along the way, and where attention needs to focus to achieve lasting change.


Cash is dead, long live cash: The problems with Australia’s digital ecosystem 
Reserve Bank governor Phillip Lowe has warned banks and telco giants there may be a need for tighter regulation to ensure the reliability of Australia’s digital payments ecosystem if key players can’t do a better job preventing outages.

ATO caves in on bank tax secrets - Financial Review


 
Order for the Production of Documents
 
Senator HUME (Victoria—Deputy Government Whip in the Senate) (09:31): I report to the Senate in accordance with yesterday's Senate order 1322, moved by Senator Patrick, regarding Senate order 1108, order for the production of documents to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee. As the chair of that committee, I report that the committee has not received any documents pursuant to the order from the Commissioner of Taxation. I further note that a letter from the Leader of the Government in the Senate to the Senate President, copied to me as Chair of the Economics Legislation Committee and to Senator Patrick, has advised that the Commissioner of Taxation has undertaken to provide the documents sought in the order to the committee by 21 December 2018, on the basis that the committee treats the documents and information in question as confidential. The commissioner has also agreed to appear before the committee to provide in camera evidence in relation to the information.
 
Senator PATRICK (South Australia) (09:32): I seek leave to make a one-minute statement.
 
Leave granted.
 
Senator PATRICK: I think that's a really good outcome and I'm grateful that the tax commissioner has reconsidered his position. I just point out to the Senate that this is a good day from an oversight perspective. We cannot have officials not obeying orders of the Senate. Once again, I think this is a very good outcome. Thank you.


Fighting Fraud with Distributed Ledger Technology » PaymentEye


UK Investigation – Facebook allegedly offered advertisers special access to users’ data and activities - Washington Post: [see also Motherboard for coverage w/out payall]”A key British lawmaker alleged Wednesday that Facebook maintained “whitelisting  agreements” that gave select companies preferential access to valuable user data several years ago, offering insight into how the company balanced concerns about user privacy with the business imperative of growing revenue. Damian Collins, chairman of a British parliamentary committee that has led a wide-ranging investigation into Facebook and its dealings with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, on Wednesday released a summary of findings drawn from documents from a lawsuit against the social network, along with more than 200 pages of documents, many of them labeled “Confidential.” Collins’ allegation echoes a key claim from the lawsuit, which was filed by an app developer in a California court. Facebook, which has long said it does not sell user data, on Wednesday denied that it used its data as a bargaining chip in exchange for advertising and other concessions, as the app developer, Six4Three, has alleged in its suit.