Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Demeaning job interviews and bullying bosses are still far too common





Flaubert was in a sense the forerunner of writing scruples. I do believe that in the eighteenth century, say, Voltaire or Rousseau wrote much more naturally than people did from the nineteenth century onwards. Flaubert sensed this more than any other writer. If you look at Rousseau’s letters, for instance, they’re beautifully written. He dashed off 23 in a day if necessary, and they’re all balanced, they’re all beautiful prose. Flaubert’s letters are already quite haphazard; they’re no longer literary in that sense. He swears, he makes exclamations, sometimes they’re very funny. But he was one of the first to realise that there was appearing in front of him some form of impasse. And I think nowadays it’s getting increasingly difficult because writing is no longer a natural thing for us.

– Sebald (via here)


Zachary Liscow (Yale), Is Efficiency Biased?, 85 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1649 (2018) (reviewed by David Gamage (Indiana) and Theodore Seto (Loyola-L.A.):
Efficiency is a watchword in policy circles. If we choose policies that maximize people’s willingness to pay, we are told, we will grow the economic pie and thus benefit the rich and poor alike. Who would oppose efficiency when it is cast in this fashion?
However, there are actually two starkly different types of efficient policies: those that systematically distribute equally to the rich and the poor and those that systematically distribute more to the rich.


Suspended CEO loses court bid to restrain council from firing him


Mark Stapleton launched action in the NSW Supreme Court last week believing he was about to be sacked.


Star casino dealer and two high rollers used hand signals to fleece $3m: court

The trio were acquitted after a District Court judge found that no one had been “deceived”, a court heard.



Worker allegedly threatened with sack after asking to attend funeral


A worker was allegedly threatened with the sack after asking for compassionate leave to attend his father-in-law's funeral.



AI Researchers Made A Bot That Wrote Convincing News Stories. It Was So Good They Shut It Down


These excellent results have freaked the researchers out. One concern they have is that the technology would be used to turbo-charge fake news operations. The Guardian published a fake news article written by the software along with its coverage of the research. The article is readable and contains fake quotes that are on topic and realistic. The grammar is better than a lot what you’d see from fake news content mills. And according to The Guardian’s Alex Hern, it only took 15 seconds for the bot to write the article.  – Gizmodo



Jokers please: first human Mars mission may need onboard comedians Guardian

Far Out Wasn’t Far Enough


Tomi Ungerer has died at the age of 87.  Here’s the obituary by Agence France Presse. And here’s the lede: “The renowned French cartoonist, author and illustrator [was]  a lifelong activist who protested against racial segregation, the Vietnam war and the election of US President Donald Trump . . .”  And here’s the Washington Post obit

Ungerer speaks: “I have the full respect of a piece of white paper, which I then shall rape with my drawing or my writing. When I draw, it’s the real me.”


Existence is never neutral. No moment is insignificant or lacking in tonality. Each one can shine with a singular light, vibrate intensely, and suddenly can seem to unveil the ultimate depth of things. Leaden grey is, after all, a colour of the sky just as much as turquoise – and yet, how many monotonous, atonal moments, their singularity flown, are reduced to nothing! How many moments become colourless, their music silent! Has the call of Being deserted us then? From what sphere does this uncanny indifference descend upon us with all its weight? Where does this uncanniness itself come from?
– Michel Haar (tr. Brick) Assassination A Seminal Study



Reed SmithFollowing up on my previous post, 'Big Law Killed My Husband': An Open Letter From A Sidley Partner's Widow:  American Lawyer op-ed, 'Scared. Ashamed. Crippled.': How One Lawyer Overcame Living With Depression in Big Law:, by Mark S. Goldstein (Counsel, Reed Smith, New Yoek):

It was Oct. 16, 2017. A Monday. My wife’s 32nd birthday. A day after the Jets blew a 14-point lead to the Patriots. It was also what I thought would be the last time I would ever walk through the halls of Reed Smith, the law firm at which I had spent the past four-plus years.

Roughly six weeks earlier, I had been diagnosed with severe depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety. I felt scared. Ashamed. Crippled. As if I was going to die. Perhaps most of all, I felt alone, particularly in a profession that often stigmatizes mental health disorders. A profession that tends to label them, instead, as “burnout,” or sweep them under the rug. The symptoms of my conditions, which had likely been percolating for some time, came on suddenly and swiftly over Labor Day weekend 2017. These symptoms included not only mentally crippling cognitions, but also physically impairing side effects as well. By early the following week, I knew that this was no mere passing phase; it could not be ignored.

Demeaningjob interviews and bullying bosses are still far too common


The Open Office and the Spirit of Capitalism American Affairs




Forget standing desks: to stay healthy, you’ve got to move all day Guardian


Forensic Report Raises Questions about Australian Tax Office’s Handling of Craig Wright Probe


  Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For – This year’s annual list of best companies to work for features Hilton in the top spot. But the companies on this list belong to a variety of industries, from grocery chains to tech organizations. Fortune research partner Great Place to Work evaluated everything from company perks to opportunities for innovation for this year’s list. Learn more about the companies – here.
Innovation by all. How do you encourage it? How do you harness it? And most important, how do you make sure you’re not stifling it? As we talked to top-performing companies of every size and across every industry on our 22nd annual list, the challenge of getting the best ideas from all your employees is the theme that came up more than any other. One obvious example is at our new No. 1: Hilton. Relying on a Millennial Team Member Resource Group is just one of the ways this 100-year-old hospitality company is making sure all employees (in this case, its youngest) get a chance to contribute their best ideas. Attempting to “actively solicit input, new ideas, learnings, and experiences” has become paramount, says Hilton’s chief human resources officer Matthew Schuyler.


The five books that helped Craig Palsson fall in love with economics




New ATO rules hobbled



Even as Michael Cranston shone more light on problems at the ATO, public servants were undermining new rules designed to rein in it.



Bill Passed: Treasury Laws Amendment (Enhancing Whistleblower Protections) Bill 2018

When a conversation is not a conversation: party political discourse ...




How the Michael Cranston case unfolded | Newcastle Herald




ATO's crime fighters may face police investigation




Advice pertaining to refusal to process FOI requests received via righttoknow.org.au



ATO hits back at 'costly' calls to police its disputes, litigation process ...


Commonwealth litigants to enforceable model litigant obligations



Mathias Cormann solves the parable of loaves, fishes and a credit card


Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has attempted to explain the mystery of his free flights and an apparently magical credit card.



Paladin controversy prompts renewed scrutiny of $591m Nauru deal - The Guardian Paladin controversy prompts renewed scrutiny of $591m Nauru deal - The Guardian


 Chinese Policing Culture  from Kenrick Davis at Sixth Tone.