Friday, March 31, 2017

How To Find Meaning Beyond Your Work


How To Find Meaning Beyond Your Work


In 40 Years Huge Changes Had Taken Place At Work

"Leaving becomes hard and wrenching and yes, emotional. That's because I love this (agency). I love this work."
Tom Harkin reminded me of MC's speech  

Czech Cardinal Vlk, former window-washer, clandestine priest, dies

  • The Lord's Prayer contains 56 words.
  • The Gettysburg Address contains 272 words.
  • The Ten Commandments contains 297 words.
  • The USA Declaration of Independence contains 300 words.
  • The average USA TODAY cover story contains 1,200 words.
  • 40 Years Dealing with Certainties of Life 4,000 words

In your 40 years with this company, you have used up two truck loads of paper, sent out 1,600 reports, used up 1,800 pens and pencils, and, of course, told at least 10,000 jokes to lighten up the day for your co-workers. How much money you have made for the organization is in doubt, however...

 “I know two Ferdinand’s. One is a messenger at Prusa’s, the chemist’s, and once by mistake he drank as bottle of hair oil there. And the other is Ferdinand Kokoska who collects dog manure. Neither of them is any loss.”

The Good Soldier Svejk



The Closest image I can find that reflects the of Bondi peppered with Rainbows by Lou

Transnational Crime: God is Bohemian Kafka’s uncle

George Steiner, with Laure Adler, A Long Saturday: Conversations.  Steiner is one of the most knowledgeable people, even into his 90s.  From these conversations I learned that he started working for The Economist as an economics reporter after WWII, computers drive us to a notion of “minimal language,” “God is Kafka’s uncle,” he recommends North, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and Ben-Gurion once told him “Only one thing matters: send me your children.”  By the way, “Malraux predicted that the religious wars of the twenty-first century would be the greatest in history.”

“Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion,”the great painter Richard Diebenkorn counseled in his ten rules for beginning creative projects“One doesn’t arrive — in words or in art — by necessarily knowing where one is going,” the artist Ann Hamilton wrote a generation later in her magnificent meditation on the generative power of not-knowing“In every work of art something appears that does not previously exist, and so, by default, you work from what you know to what you don’t know.”


The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday the baby had been killed by the bloodthirsty Islamic State after the infant’s father contacted Australian authorities to seek help getting out of the war zone in the Middle East.

Intelligence agencies believe the murder was payback by Islamic State when it was discovered the father was planning to leave.



 I bet you were wondering where the (allegedly) embezzled money all went. [The Black Sheep]

Financial fraud losses in the UK last year topped £20m a day – report


That's £768.8m down 



Cyprus Bank Accounts: Did Paul Manafort Launder Money For Russia?

Deutsche Bank’s London Subsidiary Sentenced for Manipulation of LIBOR $775 million penalty 

Richard Phillips, The $767 Billion Money Pot Driving Tax Reform (Tax Justice Blog). “At the heart of this debate is the problem of corporations shifting their profits to foreign tax havens to avoid U.S. income taxes.”




Sam Brunson, Chuck Berry, Cash, and Taxes (Surly Subgroup):

Multiple accounts report that he demanded cash from concert promoters before he’d go onstage. There’s a lot of evidence that taxpayers who receive cash are much less likely to report it than taxpayers who receive payment by credit card, or even by check.
Of course, it may well be that receiving cash didn’t cause Berry to evade taxes; he may well have demanded cash in order to facilitate his tax evasion. Either way, though, his receipt of cash was a red flag; the IRS went after him and, days after performing for President Carter in the White House, he spentfour months in federal prison.
Getting paid in cash doesn’t make it tax-free.








Trust and Public Policy – How Better Governance Can Help Rebuild Public Trust. OECD, 27 Mar 2017. Pages: 160. ISBN: 9789264268920 (PDF) ;9789264268913(print). DOI: 10.1787/9789264268920-en
“Trust plays a very tangible role in the effectiveness of government. Few perceptions are more palpable than that of trust or its absence. Governments ignore this at their peril. Yet, public trust has been eroding just when policy makers need it most, given persistent unemployment, rising inequality and a variety of global pressures. This report examines the influence of trust on policy making and explores some of the steps governments can take to strengthen public trust.”

Bitcoin: 'Blood Diamonds' Of The Digital Era

 

Former NSW Labor minister Ian Macdonald found guilty of misconduct in public office

 

UK banks make £9bn in profits in tax havens  

The House tax plan won't stop big companies from gaming the system 

How Scotland is a 'perfect tool' for criminals  




Transnational Crime is a $1.6 trillion to $2.2 trillion Annual “Business”, Finds New GFI Report


Welfare recipients say Centrelink robo-debt system left them stressed and afraid



“…A team led by researchers from the Colorado State University (CSU), the Environmental Defense Fund, and Google Earth Outreach came up with a creative way of monitoring [methane gas]  leaks. They detail their project in a study published in the journal Environmental Science and TechnologyThe team added pollution trackers to Google Earth’s Street View cars. The tracker uses an infrared laser that act as a methane analyzer, capable of identifying methane fumes in real time. Previously, this could only be done in labs using a gas chromatography analysis…”

Implementation of IT Reform Law and Related Initiatives Can Help Improve Acquisitions

“The boy socialist of Oakland.” At 20, Jack London spent his time on soapboxes condemning capitalism. How did his political philosophy shape his  fiction 

The IRS: A Hidden Cause

 

Xero to increase investment in AI and machine learning


Cloud accounting company, Xero (ASX: XRO), is eyeing the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning space, calling it the “next wave of accounting innovation”.


Thursday, March 30, 2017

Political Vendatta


Two former allies of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie were sentenced to prison Wednesday for the petty political vendetta known as the Bridgegate scandal.
Ex-top aide Bridget Anne Kelly was hit with an 18-month sentence while former Port Authority executive Bill Baroni was ordered to spend two years behind bars. Judge sentences former Christie ally Bill Baroni to two years in prison, ex-aide Bridget Anne Kelly gets 18 months for Bridgegate 

Background to Fort Lee lane closure scandal - Wikipedia

 

Born to pun! Chris Christie's hero Bruce Springsteen joins ... - Daily Terror 

It's not all fun and games at Full Frontal. Political comedy is "grounded in research and journalism," says host Samantha Bee. "We have a team of journalists working here, and a fact-checker. We care deeply about facts." Read the Wired interview.

 

Other stories on our radar:

Mark Latham defamed me, says Kristina Keneally

 Mark Latham sacked by Sky News after calling school student 'gay'

@RealMarkLatham Twitter account comes back with bite


Sydney's population tops five million, ABS data shows

Presidents As Leaders: A fun place to work – and learn

— A poem? I don’t know much about that.
But I know one, and it is hot like fresh bread of Zummer.
When you eat it, a little is always left over.


TRAINING YOUR BRAIN so you don’t need reading glasses

Why Do We Want Good Musicians To Be Good People, Too?


Interesting question. But it’s not just musicians: “A product’s worth is often linked to the perceived ethics of those who produce it. When it comes to music, this means that artists are viewed as part and parcel with the work they create.”


Man versus machine: Evidence that robots are winning the race for jobs


Lessons of the Hermit


Hiding in a forest for 27 years, a man found what the rest of us can no longer comprehend: solitude in nature.  NATHANIEL RICH


In honor of President’s Day, we have decided to examine the leadership competencies of several US Presidents. The nation’s 33rd President had impressively high highs and exceptionally low lows during his tenure. At the end of World War II, and the decisive Allied victory, Truman enjoyed some of his highest approval ratings.
Leadership Competencies: Case Studies of US Presidents



Long before he encountered Marx, Lenin was radicalized by literature. He read Shakespeare, Goethe, and Pushkin aloud. He was hostile to the avant-garde... Cold Rivers of 1800s


“In business, government, philanthropy and the arts, and all over the globe, these men and women are transforming the world and inspiring others to do the same. Read more about our fourth annual list Fortune – World’s 50 great leaders.” 

From the New York Public Library Digital Collections – see these 100 year old color cards –  gallaher how to do it – they instruct us on how to do simple but still necessary and often fascinating tasks (that are often fun, calming, and help us focus and concentrate without distractions for online and or digital intrusions)


"Good morning Heads of Mission, welcome home."

Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop addresses an unprecedented meeting of senior diplomats in troubling times: "There is significant economic volatility, rising nationalism and protectionism driven by populist campaigns, terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation." (Full speech  )
 
Foreign policy in a time of disruption.  Senator Penny Wong addresses the same meeting: "Both the Minister and I operate in a democratic system where governments come and go. It is your role, and one on which we both depend, to provide continuity both in policy advice to government and the execution of government policy. That continuity is a function of your experience and your expertise – without which governments of any political hue cannot function." (Full speech)

Mick Fuller confirmed as NSW Police Commissioner to replace Andrew Scipione in the top job

  I studied how journalists used Twitter for two years. Here’s what I learned



When selecting the most enchanting school in every state, we considered the setting and scenery; the design of the buildings ... ; and the upkeep of the campus grounds. And we took plenty of other details into account, too, including knowledge from campus visits, in-depth virtual tours, first-person references and word of mouth, extensive general research, and hours upon hours of examining campuses from images shot at just about every imaginable angle.



Robotization Without Taxation? Robert Shiller, Project Syndicate

The Social Media Information Blog Investigator’s Guide to Tumblr – “Founded in 2007,  Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking website. The platform, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2013, allows users to share text, images, quotes, links, video, audio, and chats. Tumblr’s appeal is that it allows users to be creative and build independent content on a personalized page with little effort. How does Tumblr work? A large part of Tumblr’s appeal to its users is the simplicity and ubiquity of the features it offers. In fact, they claim on their website that “Tumblr is so easy to use that it’s hard to explain.”

A simple exercise that boosts presentation performance


STEPHEN J. MEYER

There’s a good chance that public speaking can be a valuable competency for just about everyone in your organization to have. The bad news: Most people dread it. The good news: Researchers have found a simple technique that can help.




Group learning: How it can help – and hurt – memory

STEPHEN J. MEYER
Learning often happens in groups. And multiple studies have shown that group learning has significant benefits. But it can also have a downside

We remember what we see (and touch)

STEPHEN J. MEYER
A new study demonstrates how using spoken words alone could be problematic for learning.

Productive failure: Should you ever let learners sink or swim in Cold River?

STEPHEN J. MEYER
Training professionals typically aim to create learning experiences that are positive and successful for learners. But it turns out that feel-good training could be less effective.


Need a boost of creativity? Take a walk

STEPHEN J. MEYER
Trying to get your creative juices flowing? Researchers found that a simple walk can significantly boost creativity.

Can distractions be a good thing?

STEPHEN J. MEYER
When you’re training people, you want to keep the learning environment free of distractions. Right? Well, maybe not.p

Sleeping in class might not be a bad thing

STEPHEN J. MEYER
Research suggests that critical learning tasks happen while we’re sleeping.


How clickbait can help you build better learning


STEPHEN J. MEYER

Recent research has explored how activating curiosity can promote positive behaviors. And the findings suggest that curiosity can also successfully boost learners’ motivation and engagement in workplace learning.



A fun place to work – and learn

STEPHEN J. MEYER
When employees informally share knowledge, work performance and engagement increase. And recent research has uncovered a surprisingly powerful way to encourage informal learning: fun.

Peer learning: It’s not just about sharing knowledge


STEPHEN J. MEYER

The importance of peer learning has been touted here at Insights before. It should come as no surprise that the more knowledge sharing that occurs between learners, the more powerful your workplace learning program becomes. But a recent study shows that knowledge sharing isn’t the only reason peer learning is successful. The social dynamics between…