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Wednesday, January 09, 2019

Wicked Rage and Taxing Times

Anger is one of the densest forms of communication. It conveys more information, more quickly, than almost any other type of emotion.
~LL

After the Nazis’ invasion and defeat of France in 1940, the Germans forced the French to sign the terms of surrender in the very same railroad boxcar in which the Germans had capitulated to the Allies in 1918

What Was the Coldest Act of Revenge of All Time?


A big question


In 1964, Seabury Stanton, the president of a textile company, backed out of an oral agreement with Warren Buffett. Buffett promptly bought control of the company just so he could fire Stanton.
A curious thing happens every year between Christmas and New Year. Ten thousand literature professors and grad students from around the globe gather together in some big U.S. city or other for the Modern Language Association's annual convention. ...
Frantic, competitive, and buzzing with tweed and spectacles, the MLA certainly gets intellectual adrenalin pumping. But it generally isn't known for its sexploits. In fact, someone writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education once dubbed the MLA, "that annual bacchanal of sexless sadomasochism."
Yet a panel at this year's MLA (which just finished in San Francisco) proves that the annual literature convention is a whole lot sexier than first impressions might suggest. Over at Inside Higher Ed, Scott Jaschik reports on "Conference Sex," a panel which wowed this year's MLA crowd with theories, analysis, and confessions about conference nooky. It was also, apparently, "the only session at the MLA this year in which a panelist appeared in a bathrobe."



M
According to Jaschik, one presenter carefully categorized the different types of conference sex - ranging from "conference quickies" to "career-building sex" to "bi-curious experimentation by nerdy academics trying to be more hip."

Chronicle of Higher Education, Sex and the Conference


The Tax Office has defended the gender and experience of executives in its latest management shake-up, after a senior commissioner's retirement left its top ranks dominated by alumni of private sector advisory firms.
Former second commissioner Neil Olesen'sdeparture saw the top three positions at the ATO filled by tax practitioners hailing from private sector advisory firms for the first time in its history.
Former KPMG partner Jeremy Hirschhorn was elevated to acting second commissioner in November, after overseeing enforcement of tax compliance by large companies  Tax Office defends executive experience after top level shake-up

ATO calls out 'reckless and false' legal privilege claims in tax avoidance cases












Summer of Bondi Iceberg Swimmers
via Kirsten Aiken


January 2019






Journalist Pelin Unker sentenced to jail in Turkey over Paradise Papers investigation
  December 2018