Tuesday, July 23, 2019

How To Escape the ‘Hyperactive Hivemind’ of Modern Work


The joy of serendipitous crossword solutions


Data of 'nearly all adults' in Bulgaria stolen
BBC, 17 July, 2019. Personal data belonging to millions of Bulgarians has been stolen in a cyber-attack on the country's tax agency.



Two arrested after climbing spire of Sydney CBD communications tower


Video footage shows two men atop the 111-metre tall and heritage-listed AWA Tower on York St, near Wynyard, just before 5pm on Monday.



'Kissing hands': The arcane traditions when Britain changes PM

What happens and when in this unusual week in British politics, when the Queen will appoint her new prime minister.

Western spies face a difficult future
 
HEROES: Maryville man becomes part of human chain, saves swimmers at Panama City Beach.“Dozens locked arms, creating a human chain to save two swimmers caught in rip currents at Panama City Beach over the weekend. An East Tennessee man said no one knew each other, but they worked together quickly to save lives.”



HMRC chief Thompson quits in move to head audit regulator
Sir Jon Thompson is to leave the top post at HMRC after just three years to take on the role of chief executive at Financial Reporting Council 


How To Escape the ‘Hyperactive Hivemind’ of Modern Work - BBC – “The constant ping of messages that keep us plugged into work chatter might be doing more harm than good. We feel we must respond – it is about work, after all. But always being switched on means we never have the chance to think deeply. And that is a problem for companies that want to get the most out of their employees. The next great revolution in the office will need to correct this, according to one man who wants to reset the way we work. He believes that the value someone can bring to a company will be judged not by their skill, but by their ability to focus. But how do we find the time to shut off distractions and do our best work? Our workplaces are set up for convenience, not to get the best out of our brains, says Cal Newport, bestselling author of books including Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, and a Georgetown University professor. In knowledge sector jobs, where products are created using human intelligence rather than machines, we must be switched on at all times and prepared to multitask. These are two things that are not compatible with deep, creative, insightful thinking.

When we are young, we learn things like manners, social cues and social values and incorporate them into our daily actions to the point that we don’t even think about them
SCARF-model


Weird wacky jobs in the future revealed

100 Jobs of the future 

Future of work 


Quartz Obsession: “Google-owned YouTube has a radicalization problem. So does Reddit. Twitter is full of fake news. Facebook is flooded with disinformation. The low-paid moderators hired to stem the tide of false and vile content are burning out. And even if you want to ditch the tech giants altogether, good luck with that—their ad reach canfollow you all over the internet. The web was created as an open exchange of information. Today, that dream often seems dead. But on the fifth-most popular website in the world, it’s not only still alive, but it also actually works pretty well. The biggest tech companies on earth rely on it to power search resultsfight disinformation and make smart speakers smarter. Wikipedia is fallible, and despite its goal of neutrality and ambition to gather all the world’s information, it is not without bias and conflict. Still, a surprisingly small team of volunteers keeps chipping away at disambiguating the world…”

Free Book Vending Machines Launched Across All NYC Boroughs - CBSLocalNY: “School has been out for a few weeks, and if you’re worried about your child going through summer brain drain, there are some innovative vending machines opening today that might help them out. When you think vending machines, it’s usually chips and soda. But these are filled with free books, and they’re for everyone, reports CBS2’s Cindy Hsu. The idea is to promote reading for toddlers to 14-year-old readers, especially in under-served communities. Marley Dias, from West Orange, N.J., is 14, and helped unveil the vending machines. “They can take as many as they want, they are free. One hundred percent, and you don’t have to return them,” she said. There are six vending machines throughout the five boroughs, and they’re part of the Soar With Reading program from Jet Blue. “Book ownership does help raise levels of intelligence in kids,” said Dias. “It raises curiosity, it raises their ability to feel conscious, aware and motivated to keep on learning…”

DataSpii: The catastrophic data leak via browser extensions Sam Jadali SecurityWithSam.com – Abstract – “We present DataSpii (pronounced data-spy), the catastrophic data leak that occurs when any one of eight browser extensions collects browsing activity data — including personally identifiable information (PII) and corporate information (CI) — from unwitting Chrome and Firefox users. 



HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS: Wind turbines, one of the most cost-effective and technologically sophisticated forms of renewable energy, are here to stay.


'Juvie' justice officers are not faint-hearted, but they're terrified of going to work

The only thing surprising about the riot at Baxter is that it didn't happen sooner.