text:
Q: NULL IN (1,2,NULL) returns false Why does this SQL-statement return 0?
SELECT CASE WHEN NULL IN (9,1,NULL) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END

A: SQL is based on three-valued logic, where there are three truth values: TRUE, FALSE, and UNKNOWN. The special NULL value is a placeholder for "missing data"  and if you compare something, anything, with missing data the result is unknown.
For example, is <missing data> equal to <missing data>? It's impossible to know, so the result is UNKNOWN.
In this particular case, you are trying to find out if <missing data> is in a given list: since the data is missing, it's impossible to know if it's in the list, and the query returns 0.
SELECT CASE WHEN NULL IN (9,1,NULL) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END

A: I don't know what RDBMS you are using since some of them has configuration on how NULL will be treated.
NULL IN (9, 1, NULL)

can be written as
(NULL = 9) OR (NULL = 1) OR (NULL = NULL)

and not of them were TRUE nor FALSE. They are all NULL. Since there are only two paths in the CASE statement, it falls under ELSE block.

A: It depends on how NULL is treated in the specific server.
For instance in SQL SERVER you may set ANSI_NULLS off and have it return 1:
SET ANSI_NULLS OFF

SELECT CASE WHEN NULL IN (9,1,NULL) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END

For further info you should read the remarks section of SET ANSI_NULLS

A: Because you can't compare null values using comparison operators. You can only use is null or is not null or using functions like COALESCE(), ISNULL(). For example
  SELECT CASE WHEN COALESCE(NULL,-1) IN (9,1,-1) THEN 1 ELSE 0 END

A: Null mean not defined.
NUll object is not equal to other NULL
NULL==1 return false
NUll==2 return false
NULL==NULL return also false


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text:
Q: VS2015 :After migration to X64 Middle Compiler has unresolved smbols I am Using Visual Studio 2015 an migrate from X86 to X64
I have an quite simple IDL for the MIDL Compiler
import "unknwn.IDL";
import "objidl.IDL";
import "ICmNamedObject.idl";
import "ipositio.idl";

[ uuid (96c63c60-24f6-11d0-8f8c-0020af9033c2), object, pointer_default(unique) ]
interface ICmMuxServer : IUnknown {
  HRESULT GetSigma        ( [out] ICmNamedObject** sigma );
  HRESULT GetDecMuxes     ( [out] ICMPosition** decmuxes );
  HRESULT updateMuxServer ( [out] BSTR* excStr, [in,string] LPSTR name, [in] ICmNamedObject* sigma, [in] DWORD count, [in,size_is(count)] ICmNamedObject** decmuxes );
}

The Stub Source for this IDL is
#include "AStdComp.h"

#pragma warning ( disable : 4232 ) // warning C4232: nonstandard extension used : 'pfnAllocate' : address of dllimport 'NdrOleAllocate' is not static, identity not guaranteed

#include "Gen/ICmNamedObject_p.c"

#include "Gen/ICmNamedObject_i.c"

The Problem is when i Compile my Project there is error
Severity    Code    Description Project File    Line    Suppression State
Error   LNK2001 unresolved external symbol ICmNamedObject_ProxyFileInfo NmsCmCommon D:\Home\Atiras\V77Ma_64Bit_Branch001\Src\Cm\NmsCmCommon\NmsCmCommonPs.obj   1
the NmsCmCommonPs uses this  ( an other ) IDLs
// cannot use precompiled header file!
#undef _WINDLL
#include "AStdComp.h"

#pragma comment(lib, "rpcrt4.lib")

#define TOOLLIBPROXY_UPDIRS 3
#include "ToolLibProxy.inc.h"

#define REGISTER_PROXY_DLL

// the following content is taken from the files *_d.c (ex: "NmsTaskDbSv_d.c")

#define PROXY_DELEGATION

#include <rpcproxy.h>

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"   {
#endif

EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IAssociated )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IComPort )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmConnection )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IEdit )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IIndex )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ILeasedL )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IMaia )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IMeridian )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IModemType )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IModem )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmMuxServer )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmNamedObject )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( INode )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IOverlay )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmPort )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IPositio )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IQueuedConnection )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( IRcd )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ISigma )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ISinglePort )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ITcpServer )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmTerminalServer )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ITopolog )
EXTERN_PROXY_FILE( ICmTty )

PROXYFILE_LIST_START
/* Start of list */
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IAssociated ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IComPort ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmConnection ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IEdit ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IIndex ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ILeasedL ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IMaia ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IMeridian ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IModemType ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IModem ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmMuxServer ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmNamedObject ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( INode ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IOverlay ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmPort ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IPositio ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IQueuedConnection ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( IRcd ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ISigma ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ISinglePort ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ITcpServer ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmTerminalServer ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ITopolog ),
  REFERENCE_PROXY_FILE( ICmTty ),
/* End of list */
PROXYFILE_LIST_END

#pragma warning ( disable : 4100 ) // 'lpvReserved' : unreferenced formal parameter
DLLDATA_ROUTINES( aProxyFileList, GET_DLL_CLSID )

#ifdef __cplusplus
}  /*extern "C" */
#endif

I suppose that the MIDL compiler created  X86 code  which causes this link error. When i look at the generated Files they seam to be generated for X86 and win32
/* this ALWAYS GENERATED file contains the proxy stub code */

 /* File created by MIDL compiler version 8.00.0603 */
/* at Mon Oct 01 14:19:52 2018
 */
/* Compiler settings for D:\Home\Atiras\V77Ma_64Bit_Branch001\Src\Cm\NmsCmCommon\ICmNamedObject.idl:
    Oicf, W1, Zp8, env=Win32 (32b run), target_arch=X86 8.00.0603
    protocol : dce , ms_ext, c_ext, robust
    error checks: none
    VC __declspec() decoration level:
         __declspec(uuid()), __declspec(selectany), __declspec(novtable)
         DECLSPEC_UUID(), MIDL_INTERFACE()
*/
/* @@MIDL_FILE_HEADING(  ) */

#if !defined(_M_IA64) && !defined(_M_AMD64) && !defined(_ARM_)

#pragma warning( disable: 4049 )  /* more than 64k source lines */
#if _MSC_VER >= 1200
#pragma warning(push)
#endif

#pragma warning( disable: 4211 )  /* redefine extern to static */
#pragma warning( disable: 4232 )  /* dllimport identity*/
#pragma warning( disable: 4024 )  /* array to pointer mapping*/
#pragma warning( disable: 4152 )  /* function/data pointer conversion in expression */
#pragma warning( disable: 4100 ) /* unreferenced arguments in x86 call */

#pragma optimize("", off )

#define USE_STUBLESS_PROXY

/* verify that the <rpcproxy.h> version is high enough to compile this file*/
#ifndef __REDQ_RPCPROXY_H_VERSION__
#define __REQUIRED_RPCPROXY_H_VERSION__ 475
#endif

#include "rpcproxy.h"
#ifndef __RPCPROXY_H_VERSION__
#error this stub requires an updated version of <rpcproxy.h>
#endif /* __RPCPROXY_H_VERSION__ */

#include "ICmNamedObject.h"

#define TYPE_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE   11
#define PROC_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE   73
#define EXPR_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE   1
#define TRANSMIT_AS_TABLE_SIZE    0
#define WIRE_MARSHAL_TABLE_SIZE   0

typedef struct _ICmNamedObject_MIDL_TYPE_FORMAT_STRING
    {
    short          Pad;
    unsigned char  Format[ TYPE_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE ];
    } ICmNamedObject_MIDL_TYPE_FORMAT_STRING;

typedef struct _ICmNamedObject_MIDL_PROC_FORMAT_STRING
    {
    short          Pad;
    unsigned char  Format[ PROC_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE ];
    } ICmNamedObject_MIDL_PROC_FORMAT_STRING;

typedef struct _ICmNamedObject_MIDL_EXPR_FORMAT_STRING
    {
    long          Pad;
    unsigned char  Format[ EXPR_FORMAT_STRING_SIZE ];
    } ICmNamedObject_MIDL_EXPR_FORMAT_STRING;

static const RPC_SYNTAX_IDENTIFIER  _RpcTransferSyntax =
{{0x8A885D04,0x1CEB,0x11C9,{0x9F,0xE8,0x08,0x00,0x2B,0x10,0x48,0x60}},{2,0}};

extern const ICmNamedObject_MIDL_TYPE_FORMAT_STRING ICmNamedObject__MIDL_TypeFormatString;
extern const ICmNamedObject_MIDL_PROC_FORMAT_STRING ICmNamedObject__MIDL_ProcFormatString;
extern const ICmNamedObject_MIDL_EXPR_FORMAT_STRING ICmNamedObject__MIDL_ExprFormatString;

extern const MIDL_STUB_DESC Object_StubDesc;

extern const MIDL_SERVER_INFO ICmNamedObject_ServerInfo;
extern const MIDL_STUBLESS_PROXY_INFO ICmNamedObject_ProxyInfo;

#if !defined(__RPC_WIN32__)
#error  Invalid build platform for this stub.
#endif

#if !(TARGET_IS_NT50_OR_LATER)
#error You need Windows 2000 or later to run this stub because it uses these features:
#error   /robust command line switch.
#error However, your C/C++ compilation flags indicate you intend to run this app on earlier systems.
#error This app will fail with the RPC_X_WRONG_STUB_VERSION error.
#endif

static const ICmNamedObject_MIDL_PROC_FORMAT_STRING ICmNamedObject__MIDL_ProcFormatString =
    {
        0,
        {

    /* Procedure GetName */

            0x33,       /* FC_AUTO_HANDLE */
            0x6c,       /* Old Flags:  object, Oi2 */
/*  2 */    NdrFcLong( 0x0 ),   /* 0 */
/*  6 */    NdrFcShort( 0x3 ),  /* 3 */
/*  8 */    NdrFcShort( 0xc ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 12 */
/* 10 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 12 */    NdrFcShort( 0x8 ),  /* 8 */
/* 14 */    0x45,       /* Oi2 Flags:  srv must size, has return, has ext, */
            0x2,        /* 2 */
/* 16 */    0x8,        /* 8 */
            0x1,        /* Ext Flags:  new corr desc, */
/* 18 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 20 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 22 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */

    /* Parameter name */

/* 24 */    NdrFcShort( 0x2013 ),   /* Flags:  must size, must free, out, srv alloc size=8 */
/* 26 */    NdrFcShort( 0x4 ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 4 */
/* 28 */    NdrFcShort( 0x2 ),  /* Type Offset=2 */

    /* Return value */

/* 30 */    NdrFcShort( 0x70 ), /* Flags:  out, return, base type, */
/* 32 */    NdrFcShort( 0x8 ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 8 */
/* 34 */    0x8,        /* FC_LONG */
            0x0,        /* 0 */

    /* Procedure GetIdRefString */

/* 36 */    0x33,       /* FC_AUTO_HANDLE */
            0x6c,       /* Old Flags:  object, Oi2 */
/* 38 */    NdrFcLong( 0x0 ),   /* 0 */
/* 42 */    NdrFcShort( 0x4 ),  /* 4 */
/* 44 */    NdrFcShort( 0xc ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 12 */
/* 46 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 48 */    NdrFcShort( 0x8 ),  /* 8 */
/* 50 */    0x45,       /* Oi2 Flags:  srv must size, has return, has ext, */
            0x2,        /* 2 */
/* 52 */    0x8,        /* 8 */
            0x1,        /* Ext Flags:  new corr desc, */
/* 54 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 56 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/* 58 */    NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */

    /* Parameter oidStr */

/* 60 */    NdrFcShort( 0x2013 ),   /* Flags:  must size, must free, out, srv alloc size=8 */
/* 62 */    NdrFcShort( 0x4 ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 4 */
/* 64 */    NdrFcShort( 0x2 ),  /* Type Offset=2 */

    /* Return value */

/* 66 */    NdrFcShort( 0x70 ), /* Flags:  out, return, base type, */
/* 68 */    NdrFcShort( 0x8 ),  /* x86 Stack size/offset = 8 */
/* 70 */    0x8,        /* FC_LONG */
            0x0,        /* 0 */

            0x0
        }
    };

static const ICmNamedObject_MIDL_TYPE_FORMAT_STRING ICmNamedObject__MIDL_TypeFormatString =
    {
        0,
        {
            NdrFcShort( 0x0 ),  /* 0 */
/*  2 */
            0x11, 0x14, /* FC_RP [alloced_on_stack] [pointer_deref] */
/*  4 */    NdrFcShort( 0x2 ),  /* Offset= 2 (6) */
/*  6 */
            0x13, 0x8,  /* FC_OP [simple_pointer] */
/*  8 */
            0x22,       /* FC_C_CSTRING */
            0x5c,       /* FC_PAD */

            0x0
        }
    };

/* Object interface: IUnknown, ver. 0.0,
   GUID={0x00000000,0x0000,0x0000,{0xC0,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x46}} */

/* Object interface: ICmNamedObject, ver. 0.0,
   GUID={0x96c63c60,0x24f6,0x11d0,{0x8f,0x8c,0x00,0x20,0xaf,0x90,0x33,0xbd}} */

#pragma code_seg(".orpc")
static const unsigned short ICmNamedObject_FormatStringOffsetTable[] =
    {
    0,
    36
    };

static const MIDL_STUBLESS_PROXY_INFO ICmNamedObject_ProxyInfo =
    {
    &Object_StubDesc,
    ICmNamedObject__MIDL_ProcFormatString.Format,
    &ICmNamedObject_FormatStringOffsetTable[-3],
    0,
    0,
    0
    };

static const MIDL_SERVER_INFO ICmNamedObject_ServerInfo =
    {
    &Object_StubDesc,
    0,
    ICmNamedObject__MIDL_ProcFormatString.Format,
    &ICmNamedObject_FormatStringOffsetTable[-3],
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0};
CINTERFACE_PROXY_VTABLE(5) _ICmNamedObjectProxyVtbl =
{
    &ICmNamedObject_ProxyInfo,
    &IID_ICmNamedObject,
    IUnknown_QueryInterface_Proxy,
    IUnknown_AddRef_Proxy,
    IUnknown_Release_Proxy ,
    (void *) (INT_PTR) -1 /* ICmNamedObject::GetName */ ,
    (void *) (INT_PTR) -1 /* ICmNamedObject::GetIdRefString */
};

const CInterfaceStubVtbl _ICmNamedObjectStubVtbl =
{
    &IID_ICmNamedObject,
    &ICmNamedObject_ServerInfo,
    5,
    0, /* pure interpreted */
    CStdStubBuffer_METHODS
};

static const MIDL_STUB_DESC Object_StubDesc =
    {
    0,
    NdrOleAllocate,
    NdrOleFree,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    0,
    ICmNamedObject__MIDL_TypeFormatString.Format,
    0, /* -error bounds_check flag */
    0x50002, /* Ndr library version */
    0,
    0x800025b, /* MIDL Version 8.0.603 */
    0,
    0,
    0,  /* notify & notify_flag routine table */
    0x1, /* MIDL flag */
    0, /* cs routines */
    0,   /* proxy/server info */
    0
    };

const CInterfaceProxyVtbl * const _ICmNamedObject_ProxyVtblList[] =
{
    ( CInterfaceProxyVtbl *) &_ICmNamedObjectProxyVtbl,
    0
};

const CInterfaceStubVtbl * const _ICmNamedObject_StubVtblList[] =
{
    ( CInterfaceStubVtbl *) &_ICmNamedObjectStubVtbl,
    0
};

PCInterfaceName const _ICmNamedObject_InterfaceNamesList[] =
{
    "ICmNamedObject",
    0
};

#define _ICmNamedObject_CHECK_IID(n)    IID_GENERIC_CHECK_IID( _ICmNamedObject, pIID, n)

int __stdcall _ICmNamedObject_IID_Lookup( const IID * pIID, int * pIndex )
{

    if(!_ICmNamedObject_CHECK_IID(0))
        {
        *pIndex = 0;
        return 1;
        }

    return 0;
}

const ExtendedProxyFileInfo ICmNamedObject_ProxyFileInfo =
{
    (PCInterfaceProxyVtblList *) & _ICmNamedObject_ProxyVtblList,
    (PCInterfaceStubVtblList *) & _ICmNamedObject_StubVtblList,
    (const PCInterfaceName * ) & _ICmNamedObject_InterfaceNamesList,
    0, /* no delegation */
    & _ICmNamedObject_IID_Lookup,
    1,
    2,
    0, /* table of [async_uuid] interfaces */
    0, /* Filler1 */
    0, /* Filler2 */
    0  /* Filler3 */
};
#pragma optimize("", on )
#if _MSC_VER >= 1200
#pragma warning(pop)
#endif

#endif /* !defined(_M_IA64) && !defined(_M_AMD64) && !defined(_ARM_) */

respektive

/* this ALWAYS GENERATED file contains the IIDs and CLSIDs */

/* link this file in with the server and any clients */

 /* File created by MIDL compiler version 8.00.0603 */
/* at Mon Oct 01 14:19:52 2018
 */
/* Compiler settings for D:\Home\Atiras\V77Ma_64Bit_Branch001\Src\Cm\NmsCmCommon\ICmNamedObject.idl:
    Oicf, W1, Zp8, env=Win32 (32b run), target_arch=X86 8.00.0603
    protocol : dce , ms_ext, c_ext, robust
    error checks: none
    VC __declspec() decoration level:
         __declspec(uuid()), __declspec(selectany), __declspec(novtable)
         DECLSPEC_UUID(), MIDL_INTERFACE()
*/
/* @@MIDL_FILE_HEADING(  ) */

#pragma warning( disable: 4049 )  /* more than 64k source lines */

#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"{
#endif

#include <rpc.h>
#include <rpcndr.h>

#ifdef _MIDL_USE_GUIDDEF_

#ifndef INITGUID
#define INITGUID
#include <guiddef.h>
#undef INITGUID
#else
#include <guiddef.h>
#endif

#define MIDL_DEFINE_GUID(type,name,l,w1,w2,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8) \
        DEFINE_GUID(name,l,w1,w2,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8)

#else // !_MIDL_USE_GUIDDEF_

#ifndef __IID_DEFINED__
#define __IID_DEFINED__

typedef struct _IID
{
    unsigned long x;
    unsigned short s1;
    unsigned short s2;
    unsigned char  c[8];
} IID;

#endif // __IID_DEFINED__

#ifndef CLSID_DEFINED
#define CLSID_DEFINED
typedef IID CLSID;
#endif // CLSID_DEFINED

#define MIDL_DEFINE_GUID(type,name,l,w1,w2,b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8) \
        const type name = {l,w1,w2,{b1,b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7,b8}}

#endif !_MIDL_USE_GUIDDEF_

MIDL_DEFINE_GUID(IID, IID_ICmNamedObject,0x96c63c60,0x24f6,0x11d0,0x8f,0x8c,0x00,0x20,0xaf,0x90,0x33,0xbd);

#undef MIDL_DEFINE_GUID

#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

In the  projects i could not find any setting for generating x64 Code instead of X86 Code

A: I could solve this Problem by Adapting the Midl Compiler Opions I actually use the following options
MIDL /Oicf /env x64 /x64  /protocol all  /error none /I......\BinDll\Ms\Include /out "$(IntDir)..\Gen" /I"%(RootDir)%(Directory)." /dlldata "%(Filename)_d.c" /iid "%(Filename)_i.c"  /h "%(Filename).h" /tlb "%(Filename).tlb" /proxy "%(Filename)_p.c" "%(FullPath)"
But now i have some other unresolved Sympols
NmsCmCommon.exp : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DllCanUnloadNow@0
NmsCmCommon.exp : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DllGetClassObject@12
NmsCmCommon.exp : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DllRegisterServer@0
NmsCmCommon.exp : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol _DllUnregisterServer@0

A: I could solve the Problem by removing the following pragmas
pragma comment(linker, "/EXPORT:DllCanUnloadNow=_DllCanUnloadNow@0,PRIVATE")
pragma comment(linker, "/EXPORT:DllGetClassObject=_DllGetClassObject@12,PRIVATE")
pragma comment(linker, "/EXPORT:DllRegisterServer=_DllRegisterServer@0,PRIVATE")
pragma comment(linker, /EXPORT:DllUnregisterServer=_DllUnregisterServer@0,PRIVATE")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Posted on 4. juni 2019 by Martin Berge, Jr.
Sudan: UN Chief Condemns Killing of Protesters by Sudanese Security Forces
Hentet fra AllAfrica | Av Margaret Besheer og Michael Attit
United Nations/Khartoum — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned a Monday attack by Sudanese security forces that broke up a protest site in Khartoum and killed or wounded dozens of people.
"He condemns the use of force to disperse the protesters at the sit-in site, and he is alarmed by reports that security forces have opened fire inside medical facilities," said a spokesman for Guterres at the United Nations in New York. "The Secretary-General reminds [Sudan's] Transitional Military Council of its responsibility for the safety and security of the citizens of Sudan. He urges all parties to act with utmost restraint."
Explosions and heavy machine gunfire were heard as security forces stormed a site outside the Defense Ministry where demonstrators had maintained a protest for the past eight weeks, demanding the military hand power over to a civilian authority.
Witnesses say that by mid-afternoon, the area had been cleared.
The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, which is close to Sudan's protest movement, now says the death toll stands at 30 with many more injured.
In remarks from the spokesman, Guterres also called for unimpeded access for first responders at the sit-in site and in hospitals where the wounded are treated, and called on Sudanese authorities to conduct an independent investigation and hold people accountable for the deaths.
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet also condemned the attack and urged the security forces to stop immediately.
"Those exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and expression must be protected, not targeted or detained," Bachelet said in a statement. "This is a fundamental tenet of international human rights law."
The U.S. embassy in Khartoum tweeted that the attacks on protesters "must stop."
Sudanese security forces' attacks against protesters and other civilians is wrong and must stop. Responsibility falls on the TMC. — US Embassy Khartoum (@USEmbassyKRT) June 3, 2019
The British embassy condemned the attack and called it an "outrageous step that will only lead to more polarization and violence."
Details of the raid
The sit-in began in April as civilians and military officials argued over the makeup of a transitional government, following the military overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in April, after mass protests against his 30-year rule.
With batons in hand, Sudanese forces dressed in police and military uniforms surrounded protesters near the military headquarters and began forcing the demonstrators to leave. Video on several media outlets shows Sudanese forces beating protesters lying face down on the ground.
Protesters say rapid response forces and paramilitary units surrounded two Khartoum hospitals.
The Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces — a coalition of political parties leading the protest — issued a statement calling on all demonstrators to continue with"the revolution."Protesters later blocked roads leading into and out of Khartoum.
Protest organizers have suspended further talks with the Transitional Military Council and called for civil disobedience across the country until the military hands over power to civilians.
The organizers also say in the statement that security forces who killed protesters must be brought to justice.
Media reports quote Transitional Military Council spokesman Shams El din Al Kabashi as saying the forces only targeted what he called "dangerous groups" that infiltrated the protesters in the sit-in area.
Kabashi says he believes that a return to negotiations is the quickest way to resolve the problem.
https://allafrica.com/stories/201906040002.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Rextar-X is the latest, upgraded and totally new design among Rextar series. We put a lot of consideration and effort to create Rextar-X. Operation software is more powerful by adopting smart buttons.
ALL POSDION REXTAR X-rays are designed with saftey in mind. Built-in leaded Double-Shield in Rextar units ensure that leakage from the x-ray sourse itself is almost eliminated; protecting the operator's who close to the device.
All Rextar series have the highest technical specification among portable X-ray devices. It contribute for both image quality and safety.
2. Ergonomical design reduce risk to exposure by scattered radiation.
3. Reliable safety protects user to stay with patient during X-ray procedure.
REXTAR-X (Conventional Film, Digital Imaging Sensor, Phosphor Plates).
These buttons are same as channel buttons on TV remote control. If you have typical patient types, you can categorize them into four cases. For these four cases, you can set up the exposure values onto each smart button. After that, you can take X-ray by only three steps, Power on -> Press one of four smart buttons –> Press exposure button. Or you can change the values as per your needs. The buttons indicate patient types (Adult or Child) and types of teeth (Upper, lower – Canine tooth, Molar tooth).
To take dental X-ray, operators have to position devices and place sensors or film to patients' teeth. And conventional portable X-ray equipment should be handled by both hands due to heavy weight and all function buttons are spread in right and left sides. So users need assistants or ask patient to hold film or sensor. But Rextar-X has been designed with a hand strap, and power button and exposure button are placed in one side. And compact size and light weight can make you to operate it by one hand only.
Focal spot size is an important factor to get a clear image in any X-Ray. By using Toshiba D-041 tube, Rextar-X provides smaller focal spot (0.4 mm) and smaller divergence of X-Ray (12°). You will experience the most sharp and clear images.
Tube voltage is the power of penetrating the bone. In the case of cheek bone, 60 kV could be the reason to cause unclear images as the tube power is not enough to penetrate.
Current is a flow of electric charge which means the quantity. In order to get a clear image, the power and current of the tube is and important factor.


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May 2011 | TALKINGPOINT | BANKRUPTCY & RESTRUCTURING
financierworldwide.com
FW moderates a discussion on the use of rights offerings to exit bankruptcy between David M. Sharp at Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC, Jonathan N. Helfat at Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C., and Gregory Milmoe at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
FW: Are you seeing more debtors in Chapter 11 use rights offerings to restructure their balance sheet and raise exit capital? What benefits can be gained from a rights offering in this context?
Sharp: Rights offerings became more prevalent in the wake of the credit market implosion. As a method to obtain financing at the conclusion of Chapter 11 proceedings, debtors have looked to rights offerings when traditional financing options were limited. Utilised not only as a vehicle to restructure their balance sheet and obtain exit financing, subscriptions also provide debtors with a strategic opportunity to influence the future of the company. Eligible holders who exercise their rights become owners of the company. By strategically targeting and controlling who is allowed to participate in the offering, debtors continue to play a major role in determining the future owners of the company.
Helfat: Since the credit crisis of 2007, Chapter 11 debtors have increasingly turned to rights offerings as a vehicle to finance their emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Rights offerings, which provide an alternative source of capital to traditional secured loans, are especially beneficial when traditional sources of financing are limited and/or prohibitively expensive – as has been the case over the past few years. Another benefit to rights offerings in the Chapter 11 context is the potential to exempt the new securities from the registration requirements of the US securities laws, because in certain circumstances Section 1145(a)(2) of the US bankruptcy code provides an exemption to registration.
Milmoe: A significant number of recent bankruptcy cases have utilised a rights offering in connection with their emergence from bankruptcy, including Vertis, Visteon, American Media, Aleris, Penton Media, Six Flaggs, Spansion and Tronox. While originally designed as a capital-raising technique, rights offerings tend to be used in bankruptcy because of two other attributes: fairness and value validation. In the often contentious context of bankruptcy, disputes about value are commonplace. A classic dispute involves a new money investor asserting that the enterprise value of the debtor is lower than the value proposed by existing creditors, and thus the 'new money' should receive a higher portion of the company's value than existing creditors. A rights offering in which creditors are afforded the opportunity to co-invest on the same terms as the 'new money' investor can stifle if not fully abrogate such debate. Similarly, where it is undisputed that an investment in the restructured company is at an attractive valuation, the fairness of permitting impaired creditors or equity holders to participate in the reorganised company's future upside may be helpful in garnering support for a plan of reorganisation.
FW: To what extent can investors use a rights issue for defensive and offensive positioning?
Helfat: Investors, such as hedge funds and other non-traditional lenders, often use rights offerings for both offensive positioning – as a sword – and defensive positioning – as a shield. When used as a sword, rights offerings provide investors with an opportunity to increase their ownership interest in the reorganised company and their control over the reorganised company's corporate governance, often at a discount to the reorganised company's perceived value. When used as a shield, rights offerings provide investors with a vehicle to protect their existing investment from dilution, or being eliminated entirely, in the Chapter 11. Of course, a Chapter 11 rights offering is not for everyone, as certain investment funds are prohibited from participating in the offering due to internal restrictions.
Milmoe: By offering to underwrite or 'backstop' a rights offering – take up all or a portion of the shares offered which are not subscribed for – an investor can increase the percentage of its investment in the debtor, while at the same time earning a handsome 'backstop fee'. A similar result can be achieved by existing investors if the rights offering contains an over-allotment provision – for instance, that offerees are permitted to acquire – usually on a pro rata basis – the rights which are not subscribed for by other offerees. This can be particularly true to the extent that it is known that some prospective offerees are unable, as a result of institutional policy or regulation, or unwilling to subscribe for new shares. A well heeled and enthusiastic investor may significantly increase its percentage ownership through a rights offering if it knows that other offerees will not participate. From a defensive point of view, rights offerings can permit an offeree to eliminate or at least reduce the dilutive effects of new money investors by maintaining the investor's relative position vis-à-vis other investors.
Sharp: In the current market, rights offerings can be employed as a strategy for investors to gain a greater share of equity from the reorganised company, resulting in a stronger position and stake in the restructured companies' capital structure. Investors are able to evaluate prior to participation if their investment will provide them with more control over the company and then determine the level of participation in the rights offering to secure the desired position. Conversely, investors can negotiate for certain key provisions to be included in the rights offering from the onset if they are large stakeholders and can negotiate structural procedures of the offering to guarantee they remain in an advantageous position.
FW: How important is it for debtors to plan and administer the rights offering process with care? In your opinion, what steps are indispensable?
Milmoe: The single most important aspect of using a rights offering in a bankruptcy is having a clear vision of the objective to be achieved. A close second is having a careful assessment of what could go wrong. If the principal purposes of the rights offering is fund raising, the debtor should fully understand what appetite investors have to invest addition funds: is there a single investor or small group of investors that is willing to backstop the offering and if so at what price? A non-backstopped rights offering to which nobody subscribed would be a failure if the purpose were fund raising. On the other hand, if the objective of the offering is to validate a lower valuation for the company, the same unsubscribed offer would be viewed as a rousing success – nobody was willing to put in money at that value so the company must be worthless. Careful thought should be given to each aspect of the offering: making the rights transferable may permit holders who do not have the wherewithal to exercise the rights to realise some value from the offering. However, it also allows an investor who wishes to substantially increase its ownership of the company's stock to do so at an attractive price.
Sharp: From the start of a Chapter 11 case, debtors should determine key elements that will serve as a framework for the rights offering. Key criteria that debtors must establish are the type of security that will be offered, the eligibility requirements for participation in the offering, and whether to allow the transfer of rights to another party. In addition, debtors must determine if an oversubscription privilege will be available. When holders of public securities are the rights offering participants, these elements will help determine the process to be followed by the banks and brokers (the nominees). Often the backstop purchaser – who agrees to purchase any unsubscribed shares – will be influential in determining procedures, depending on their desired level of share ownership. In addition, if claims holders are also granted rights, debtors should determine the procedures to follow for disputed claims to avoid complications or delays. Once the key elements are decided upon, debtors can work with professionals to map out every stage of the offering to ensure no detail is overlooked and the most efficient administrative strategy is employed.
Helfat: At first glance, the administrative execution of a rights offering might appear straightforward. However, the process can be complicated, especially when publicly traded securities are involved, and efficient administration of a well developed strategy is often crucial to the success of the rights offering. While the structure of a Chapter 11 rights offering is largely driven by the specific facts of the Chapter 11 case in which the rights offering is to be made, the most important aspects of a rights offering almost always involve issues of valuation and the terms of the backstop investor's commitment.
FW: The process carries a number of complications and challenges. Can you outline some of the issues surrounding eligibility requirements, pre-screening and accreditation procedures, transferability of rights, types of security and the role of backstop purchasers?
Milmoe: As noted, Section 1145(a) is not the only exemption from registration available for the issues of rights in an offering. If the rights offering in a private placement is limited to accredited investors or QIPs, the debtor need not comply with the registration requirements. Because the private placement exemption limits the kind of claimholders who may be eligible to participate in the rights offering, utilisation of the exemption may raise classification issues under the Bankruptcy Code which essentially requires that holders in the same class of creditors be treated alike whether or not they are accredited. However, as a practical matter, holders of claims of the sort that were issued solely to institutional purchasers in the first place – for example, bonds or back debt – if separately classified, may provide an opportunity to use a rights offering. While it is possible to require holders of a particular class of claims to certify that they are accredited in order to receive the consideration represented by the rights offering, if there are holders of claims in the same class that are not accredited, it will be necessary to offer to such holders other consideration which has essentially the same value as the rights offer to avoid running afoul of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. While possible, this approach raises a whole layer of additional valuation issues.
Sharp: Once eligibility requirements are determined, the debtor must communicate with all holders regardless of whether the security is held through designated intermediaries and channels, such as the Depository Trust Company (DTC) and the nominees. In the pre-screening process, debtors must take the necessary steps to confirm eligibility which can become challenging when working through the nominees to obtain the necessary certification and eligibility of the ultimate security holder. A main consideration is whether the rights offering will be administered through the DTC or outside of it, as that will determine the manner of ensuring eligibility. This will also impact the mechanics of the transferability of rights, if allowed. If the subscription is administered outside the DTC, it will add a layer of complexity to the process since all transfers need to be tracked to allow communication with the new beneficial holders. Most rights offerings will involve a backstop purchaser as a guarantee that the debtor will achieve its financing goals. Debtors will require a commitment from their backstop purchasers to either buy any remaining, unsubscribed securities that originate from a rights offering or purchase a set number of rights. If the backstop purchasers, often a consortium, want a larger stake in the company, they may not want an oversubscription privilege, which will limit the amount of rights available to other investors. In addition, debtors should determine if funding from the backstop purchasers will be required upon exercise of the rights, before the distribution of the rights or at a later date, and set up the necessary procedures and communication strategies with all parties involved.
Helfat: In general, claims against a Chapter 11 debtor are freely transferable and can be transferred together with any subscription rights appurtenant to such claim. However, most rights offerings in Chapter 11 prohibit the transfer of the subscription rights independent from the underlying claim in order to avoid jeopardising the exemption, under Section 1145(a)(2) of the US bankruptcy code, from the registration requirement of US securities laws. When the capital to be raised from a rights offering will be used to fund a Chapter 11 plan of reorganisation, it is almost always necessary to obtain a backstop commitment in order to satisfy the feasibility requirement of plan confirmation under Section 1129(a)(11) of the US bankruptcy code. To compensate the backstop party for the risk that the rights offering will be undersubscribed, the backstop party typically requires payment of a backstop fee and the option to acquire a minimum number of securities in the reorganised company.
FW: Have objections and valuation disputes become a common feature of rights offerings? What influence can this have on the process?
Helfat: Objections to rights offerings in Chapter 11 have become quite commonplace and generally fall into one of three categories. First, objections to the incentives and protections given to the 'backstop' investor, including arguments that the backstop or break-up fees are unreasonably high, or that the backstop commitments are illusory or insufficient to consummate a plan of reorganisation. Second, challenges to the valuation of the reorganised debtor's securities, and the extent of the discounted price for which the reorganised securities are being offered. Lastly, claims that a rights offering which limits participation to some but not all similarly situated creditors unfairly discriminates against the excluded creditors in violation of Section 1129(b)(1) of the US bankruptcy code. These objections can significantly influence the rights offering process. For example, a well-argued objection to the Chapter 11 debtor's proposed back-stop investment agreement may result in a bankruptcy court-ordered auction for the right to become the backstop investor. Additionally, as illustrated by In re Washington Mutual, 442 B.R. 314 (Bankr. D. Del. 2011), an objection by a creditor excluded from participating in the rights offering might result in the bankruptcy court's refusal to confirm the debtor's plan of reorganisation over such creditor's objection.
Milmoe: Assuming that interested parties have available to them the cash resources to participate in the rights offering, rights offerings tend to ameliorate objections to and disputes about valuation.
FW: When undertaking a rights offering, is it prudent to facilitate communication between all parties involved?
Helfat: Unlike outside of bankruptcy, where challenges to a proposed rights offering are uncommon, Chapter 11 provides an open venue for claimholders to challenge the structure and terms of a proposed rights offering in an attempt to further their own investment objectives. In this regard, failure to facilitate ongoing communication among the parties being affected by the rights offering can ultimately prove costly to the Chapter 11 debtor and the other interested parties seeking to consummate the offering. For example, a rights offering is typically a substantial component of the debtor's Chapter 11 plan of reorganisation. The process of seeking approval of the plan is costly and time consuming. Failure to identify and address the objections and concerns of those parties who will be impacted by the rights offering as part of the plan process may result in plan objections that will either be costly to defend or settle, or could potentially derail the debtor's efforts to reorganise if such objections are sustained by the bankruptcy court.
Sharp: Rights offerings present far-reaching implications for nearly all major creditors in a Chapter 11 case, including secured lenders, unsecured creditors and equity holders. It is prudent for companies to build consensus among investors and communicate with all stakeholders when contemplating or structuring a Chapter 11 rights offering to minimise potential challenges. Debtors and professionals must follow specific administrative procedures and processes to ensure they are communicating through the intermediaries and channels – for instance the DTC, brokers or banks – effectively. Debtor's counsel must communicate with the claims and noticing agent who manages the administrative process on behalf of the debtor to ensure that the rights offerings process is executed seamlessly based upon the determined mechanics.
FW: Can you note any recent high profile court decisions on rights offerings? How might they affect the process going forward?
Sharp: In the current market, we see a variety of companies using rights offerings as a vehicle to restructure their balance sheets. No two rights offerings are the same – each one differs according to the unique circumstances of the case. A recent court decision that has played a role in the Washington Mutual case was in January 2011 when the debtor was limiting participation in the rights offering to class members who held a significant securities stake. The judge overseeing the case decided that the eligibility requirement did not meet the legal standard and concluded that the rights offering needed to be made available to all members within that particular class. This resulted in the rights offering being removed from the Plan, and may impact other cases facing similar situations.
Helfat: While the majority of creditor objections to a proposed Chapter 11 rights offering are either consensually resolved or overruled without a written decision, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, in Washington Mutual, recently issued a written decision in which it sustained a creditor's objection to a proposed rights offering. In Washington Mutual, a creditor objected to confirmation of the Chapter 11 debtor's proposed plan of reorganisation on the basis that only creditors willing to invest $2m were eligible to participate in the proposed rights offering contemplated by the plan. In ruling that the rights offering was discriminatory, and therefore that the plan could not be confirmed over the creditor's objection, the bankruptcy court rejected the Chapter 11 debtor's argument that inviting all creditors to participate in the rights offering would be administratively difficult. Washington Mutual stands alone as the only recent high profile case where typical objections to rights offerings were sustained and, therefore, it is not clear what effect the decision will have on future rights offerings.
FW: What is the outlook for rights offerings in bankruptcy scenarios for the remainder of 2011?
Milmoe: While rights offerings can be useful in bankruptcies, the facts and circumstances of a particular case will dictate how significantly they will be used for the balance of 2011. Given the limitations, and because of US securities laws on the utilisations of rights offerings involving non-institutional investors, I do not anticipate that there will be a significant use of them for the remainder of 2011 for public stockholders or trade claims, except possibly as a tip where otherwise the stockholder or claimant would receive no consideration at all. Intercreditor dynamics will also pay a role in how often rights offerings will be used.
Helfat: Based on the growing use of rights offerings in large Chapter 11 bankruptcies as a cheaper alternative to secured financing facilities, a means to obtain control over the reorganised company, a mechanism to protect existing equity holders and a vehicle for institutional investors and equity sponsors to continue to realise the 'upside' of their capital investments in bankrupt companies, the remainder of 2011 will likely continue to see the use of rights offerings in large Chapter 11 cases.
Sharp: With the current state of the slowing US bankruptcy market, I do not foresee a rising tide of rights offerings for the remainder of 2011. However, I do foresee a continued increase in the number of debtors including rights offerings in their plan of reorganisation. If debtors have the ability to access capital from traditional means such as banks, distressed and institutional investors, alternative means for exit financing such as rights offerings will be less relied upon. However, as bankruptcy professionals de-mystify the process and become familiar with the mechanics and procedures, rights offerings will continue to be a strategic option for bankruptcy scenarios moving forward.
David M. Sharp is Director of Public Securities Services at Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC. With over 20 years of global securities experience, David brings substantial expertise to his role. He has overseen rights offerings, subscriptions and distributions, managed treatment elections and supervised securities voting for Chapter 11 cases such as Washington Mutual, Tronox, Inc., Loehmann Holdings, Inc., and Premier International, among others. He can be contacted on +44 (917) 281 4820 or by email: dsharp@kccllc.com.
Jonathan N. Helfat is a partner at Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C. Mr Helfat specialises in the representation of foreign and domestic banks, commercial finance companies, hedge funds and other specialty lenders and in the restructuring of secured loan transactions, including workouts, forbearance and restructuring agreements, Chapter 11 debtor-in-possession and 'exit' financing facilities and the use of cash collateral. He is co-general counsel to the Commercial Finance Association which he has represented in the filing of various amicus briefs before the United States Supreme Court. He can be contacted on +44 (212) 905 3626 or by email: jhelfat@oshr.com.
Gregory Milmoe is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Mr Milmoe co-leads the firm's Corporate Restructuring Group, and has wide-ranging experience including restructurings, hostile and negotiated mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and corporate financings, and transactions involving REITs. He is listed in the K&A Restructuring Register; has been named by Turnarounds & Workouts to its list of the top dozen restructuring lawyers in America; and was named a 'Dealmaker of the Year' by The American Lawyer in 2007. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. He can be contacted on +44 (212) 735 3770 or by email: gregory.milmoe@skadden.com.
THE PANELLISTS
David M. Sharp
Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC
Jonathan N. Helfat
Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston & Rosen, P.C.
Gregory Milmoe


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VAT: late payment by DD not a reasonable excuse?
In Gillens Limited v HMRC [2014] TC 03406 a company was late in making its VAT payment having failed to allow time for a payment to clear. It did not know that HMRC provides an accelerated payment solution in these circumstances (neither did we!).
A penalty surcharge of £1,903.55 (15% of the VAT due) was applied by HMRC as a result of Gillens Limited (G) submitting its VAT return and VAT payment (using a direct debit) one day late on two occasions.
A three day banking period is allowed by HMRC after the submission of a VAT return to allow payment to be made on time using a direct debit. This period cannot be shortened and is the only means of payment that can be initiated by HMRC.
There is an accelerated means of payment, which is apparently publicised on HMRC's website. This can only be initiated by the taxpayer and cannot be initiated by HMRC.
A director of the Gillens Limited (Mrs Walker) admitted that she was aware of the accelerated method, but thought that HMRC could initiate this, so she did not need to do anything to ensure that this particular VAT payment was not late.
The company appealed the surcharge on the grounds that it was a reasonable excuse that Mrs Walker believed that HMRC could have initiated the accelerated method.
However, the FTT stated: "...the Appellant should have appreciated the consequences of any delay. While we have a certain measure of sympathy for Mrs Walker who may have genuinely believed that an accelerated payment could have been made via direct debit, we do not consider that a reasonable excuse ...".
This seems rather harsh. Would the company have paid by bank transfer in time if it had realised that this would avoid a penalty? For HMRC "Mrs Oliver explained that the means of accelerated payment is publicised on HMRC's web site and in its publications". We are somewhat baffled by this because it is quite difficult to find anything on HMRC's website about "accelerated VAT payments". In fact all that comes up is the new consultation on tax avoiders being made to accelerate tax payments. If someone had shown the tribunal a search on "google" that problem might have been spotted.
Once you are set up with a direct debit one expects HMRC to initiate payment. The danger for the taxpayer is that they risk paying twice, once by direct debit and once by bank transfer using online banking (if that is the method that HMRC's representative refers to as "accelerated payment"). Many companies don't have the cash flow to be able to pay their VAT twice.
HMRC does provide a VAT payment calculator and what we assume is the "accerated payment" method is actually called HMRC's online payment service? We think! See VAT: penalties for Top Tips and links.
Gillens Limited v HMRC TC 03406


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«No Creo» () — четвёртый сингл колумбийской певицы Шакиры из её второго студийного альбома Dónde Están los Ladrones? (1998), выпущенный 17 февраля 1999 года. В песне Шакира выражает то, что она не верит ни в кого и ни во что, кроме истинной любви.

Видеоклип
Видео начинается в комнате, где Шакира выпрыгивает из окна на луг, на котором присутствуют эксцентричные люди. Она царапает потолок, проходит через тёмные комнаты, массовые беспорядки, плавает через ванную комнату. Видео также присутствует в её хите «Ciega, Sordomuda», вследствие чего появились слухи о том, что сцены были сняты спина к спине с «Ciega, Sordomuda».

Чарты

Примечания

Песни Шакиры
Песни на испанском языке
Песни, написанные Шакирой

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The true story of the
'big fish that got away'
'When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him' (Luke 5: 11) … fishing boats on a shore at Mount Athos (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Sunday 10 February 2019 (The Fourth Sunday before Lent):
9.30 a.m. Castletown Church, Kilcornan, Co Limerick, the Parish Eucharist (Holy Communion 2)
Readings: Isaiah 6: 1-8; Psalm 138; I Corinthians 15: 1-11; Luke 5: 1-11.
An icon of the Church as a boat, including Christ, the Apostles and the Church Fathers (Icon: Deacon Matthew Garrett, www.holy-icons.com)
May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Do you ever ask whether you are worthy of the call of Christ – the call to follow him, the call to be a disciple, the call that was first answered for you, on your behalf, at your behalf?
Sometimes, I have to question my worthiness to be priest. I am not a priest because I think it is my right to be one, or because I thought at one stage this would be a good career move. I am a priest because, despite my resistance to the call over many years, I believe God called me – called me many years ago, almost 50 years ago, at the age of 19.
This morning, in our readings, we hear how the call of Isaiah, the call of Saint Paul, and the renewed call to some of the disciples, including Peter, James and John, come not to people who feel they are worthy of this call, or have inherited a call, or have a right to speak on God's behalf.
Isaiah is in the Temple when he hears and responds to God's call. The Psalmist is in God's presence in the Temple when he finds God answers his prayer and gives him a new calling, new spiritual gifts. Saint Paul recalls his own call after all the other disciples have been called. Peter, James and John are called not only to speak on Christ's behalf, but to do what he commands and to follow him.
In all these readings, Isaiah, the Psalmist, Saint Paul and then Saint Peter, all express their feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness, yet accept God's call to speak in God's name unconditionally and in faith.
In the Epistle reading (I Corinthians 15: 1-11), we hear the earliest New Testament account of the Resurrection.
Here too Saint Paul describes Baptism as sharing in Christ's suffering and death and being raised to new life in Christ. So, Baptism has ethical implications for our discipleship: in the community of the baptised, ethnic and social barriers are shattered, for 'Christ is all and in all.'
In our Gospel story (Luke 5: 1-11), we hear a story of commitment to Christ, to his message and to discipleship. Christ calls Simon or Simon Peter to be a disciple, promising him he is to be a 'fisher of men,' and Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Christ.
This story begins by the 'lake of Gennesaret,' on the south-west shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowd is pressing in to hear Christ, the Word of God, preach the 'word of God' or the Christian message.
Christ gets into the boat with Simon Peter. There are two boats in this episode, and James and John are also fishing in one of the boats.
They not only listen to Christ, but they do what he tells them to do, and they are amazed at the consequences. Simon Peter acknowledges Jesus as 'Master' or teacher, and responds by falling down before Jesus in humility, pointing to himself as a sinful man, and calling Jesus 'Lord,' which becomes an expression of faith.
Peter, James and John make a total commitment to Christ, leave everything, and follow him.
In Christian art, the boat is often used as an image of the Church, while the fish is an image of Christ.
In the Early Church, the fish came to symbolise Christ because the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), meaning 'fish', is an acrostic for Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ, 'Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour.'
Some years ago, when I was visiting Kaş, a pretty town on the south coast of Turkey, I visited the former Church of the Annunciation. Kaş had once been a Greek-majority town known as Andifli, but the Greek ethnic community was expelled in 1923 in one of the early examples of 'ethnic cleansing' in 20th century Europe.
For 40 years, the Church of the Annunciation on the acropolis or hilltop above the town lay deserted and crumbling. But in 1963, 40 years after these people were expelled from Andifli, their former parish church was requisitioned as a mosque, and – despite its age – was renamed Yeni Cami (New Mosque). A minaret was added, along with a fountain with a quotation in Turkish, rather than Arabic, from the Quran: 'We made from water every living thing' (Surat al-Anbiyya, the Prophets, 21: 30).
Inside, the church was aligned facing east, a new mihrab or prayer niche facing Mecca and a minbar (pulpit) were inserted into the south wall, the frescoes were stripped away and the icon screen was removed. All obvious Christian symbols, including crosses, were picked out of the hoklakia or pebble mosaic in the courtyard. But no-one noticed the significance of the fish, symbolising the Greek word Ichthus (ΙΧΘΥΣ), so that dozens of fish symbolising Christ and the Christian faith are still scattered though this pebble mosaic.
This is, truly, the story of the 'big fish that got away.'
Have you ever spoken of someone or some thing as a 'good catch'? A person you had an emotional or romantic interest in? A job you wanted? A house you wanted to buy?
Can you imagine how Christ sees you as 'a good catch'?
If the Church is the agent of Christ, do we do a good job in drawing in his 'good catch'?
Are we trusting enough to do what he asks us to do as his disciples?
And are we trusting enough to know that he sees you, you and me, as a 'good catch'?
But that there are more and more 'good catches' that he wants us to draw into the boat, into the Church?
And the way to do this is to listen to what he says and what he asks us to do. 'When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him' (Luke 5: 11).
What he has been asking us to do in the readings in recent weeks – what he asked us to in his reading from the Prophet Isaiah, which we heard as our Gospel reading here two weeks ago [27 January 2019] are:
● to bring good news to the poor
● to proclaim release to the captives
● to proclaim recovery of sight to the blind
● to let the oppressed go free
● to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.
And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit
The Ichthus symbol remains discreetly unnoticed in the pebble mosaic of the former church courtyard in Kaş (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 5: 1-11 (NRSVA):
1 Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2 he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.' 5 Simon answered, 'Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.' 6 When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7 So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!' 9 For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.' 11 When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
'He saw two boats there at the shore' (Luke 5: 2) … two fishing boats at the harbour in Skerries, Co Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
The Collect:
O God,
you know us to be set
in the midst of so many and great dangers,
that by reason of the frailty of our nature
we cannot always stand upright:
Grant to us such strength and protection
as may support us in all dangers
and carry us through all temptations;
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of tender care,
in this Eucharist we celebrate your love for us and for all people.
May we show your love in our lives
and know its fulfilment in your presence.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Hymns:
321, Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty (CD 19)
358, King of glory, King of peace (CD 21)
395, When Jesus taught by Galilee (CD 48)
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch' (Luke 5: 4) … a fisherman at work in the Venetian lagoon at Torcello (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Labels: Castletown, Kaş, Mount Athos, Saint Luke's Gospel, Sermons 2019, Skerries, Torcello
'Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catchin...
The true story of the 'big fish that got away'


text:
The best argument against the Electoral College
by Tyler Cowen October 28, 2020 at 12:30 pm in
Contrary to conventional intellectual wisdom there are not many good ones, but this packs some real force:
Starting from probabilistic simulations of likely presidential election outcomes that are similar to the output from election forecasting models, we calculate the likelihood of disputable, narrow outcomes under the Electoral College. The probability that the Electoral College is decided by 20,000 ballots or fewer in a single, pivotal state is greater than 1-in-10. Although it is possible in principle for either system to generate more risk of a disputable election outcome, in practice the Electoral College today is about 40 times as likely as a National Popular Vote to generate scenarios in which a small number of ballots in a pivotal voting unit determines the Presidency.
And note this, which explains a good deal of the debate and rationalizations — on both sides:
This disputed-election risk is asymmetric across political parties. It is about twice as likely that a Democrat's (rather than Republican's) Electoral College victory in a close election could be overturned by a judicial decision affecting less than 1,000, 5,000, or 10,000 ballots in a single, pivotal state.
That is from a new NBER working paper by Michael Geruso and Dean Spears.
My Conversation with Michael Kremer
by Tyler Cowen October 21, 2020 at 11:56 am in
Self-recommending, here is the transcript, audio, and video. Here is part of the summary:
Michael joined Tyler to discuss the intellectual challenge of founding organizations, applying methods from behavioral economics to design better programs, how advanced market commitments could lower pharmaceutical costs for consumers while still incentivizing R&D, the ongoing cycle of experimentation every innovator understands, the political economy of public health initiatives, the importance of designing institutions to increase technological change, the production function of new technologies, incentivizing educational achievement, The Odyssey as a tale of comparative development, why he recently transitioned to University of Chicago, what researchers can learn from venture capitalists, his current work addressing COVID-19, and more.
COWEN: I've seen estimates — they're actually from one of the groups you founded — that a deworming pill could cost as little as 50 cents a year per person in many parts of Africa. So why isn't deworming done much more?
KREMER: You could say the glass is half empty, you can say it's half full, or you can say it's almost three-quarters full. I think it's about three-quarters full. When I first got involved in deworming, it was testing a small NGO program. We found phenomenal effects of that. The original work found health gains and education gains. Now we've tracked people over 20 years, and we're seeing people have a better standard of living or earning more.
Following the early results, we presented the results of the government of Kenya to the World Bank. Kenya scaled this up nationally, in part with assistance from the World Bank, primarily just in conveying some of that information.
Indian states started doing that, and then the national government of India took this on. They're reaching — a little bit harder to know the exact numbers — but probably 150 million people a year. Many other countries are doing this as well, so it's actually quite widely adopted.
COWEN: But there's still a massive residual, right?
KREMER: That is for sure.
COWEN: What's your best explanatory theory of why the residual isn't smaller? It would seem to be a vote winner. African countries, fiscally, are in much better shape than they used to be. They're more democratic. Public health looks much better. The response to COVID-19 has probably been better than many people expected, say, in Senegal, possibly in Kenya. So why not do deworming more?
KREMER: The people who have worms are pretty poor people. The richer people are less likely to have worms within a given society. Richer people are probably more politically influential.
There's also something about worms — they gradually build up in your body, and one worm is not going to do that much damage. The problem is when you've got lots of worms in your body, and even there, it's going to take time.
I've had malaria. I don't think I've had worms. I hope I haven't. When you have malaria, you feel terrible. You go from feeling fine to feeling terrible, and then you take the medicine. You feel great afterwards. With worms, it's much more like a chronic thing, and when you expel the worms from your body, that's sort of gross. I don't think, even at the individual level, do you have quite the demand that would be commensurate with the scale of the problem. That's a behavioral economics explanation.
I think there are political issues and then there are behavioral issues. I would actually say that a huge, huge issue . . . This sounds very boring, but this falls between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education, and each one of them has different priorities. The Ministry of Health is going to be worried about delivering things through clinics. They're worried about HIV and malaria, tuberculosis, as it should be.
The Ministry of Education — they're worried about teacher strikes. It's very easy for something to either fall between the cracks or be the victim of turf wars. It sounds too small to be, "How can that really get in the way?" But anybody who's spent time working in governments understands those things can very easily get in the way. In some ways, it's surprising how much progress has been made.
Here's one way the political economy works in favor. You mentioned democracy — I think that's a factor. I actually find — and I don't want to be necessarily a big fan of politicians — but in some ways, politicians hear how much this costs, and they think they can affect that many people for that small amount of money, and they're like, "Hey, I want to get on that. Maybe this is something I can claim as an achievement." We saw that in Kenya. We saw that in India.
COWEN: Let's say the current Michael Kremer sets up another high school in Kenya. What is it that you would do that the current high schools in Kenya are not doing? What would you change? You're in charge.
KREMER: Right. We've learned a lot in education research in recent years. One thing that we saw in Kenya, but was also seen in India and many other places, is that it's very easy for kids to fall behind the curriculum. Curricula, in particular in developing countries, tend to be set at a fairly high level, similar to what you would see in developed countries.
However, kids are facing all sorts of disadvantages, and there are all sorts of problems in the way the system works. There's often high teacher absence. Kids are sick. Kids don't have the preparation at home, often. So kids can fall behind the curriculum.
Whereas we've had the slogan in the US, "No Child Left Behind," in developing countries, education system is focused on kids at the top of the distribution. What's been found is, if you can set up — and there are a whole variety of different ways to do this — either remedial education systems or some technology-aided systems that are adaptive, that go to where the kid is . . . I've seen huge gains from this in India, and we're starting to see adoption of this in Africa as well, and that can have a very big impact at quite low cost.
Intelligent throughout.
How much does it matter who dies from Covid-19?
by Tyler Cowen October 20, 2020 at 7:47 pm in
In this latest Bloomberg column, I am referring in particular to the ages of the victims. The subtext of course is that many of the herd immunity theorists repeat (again and again) that most of the victims are quite old, which is indeed correct. Here is one excerpt:
By contrast [to 9/11], about 3,500 Americans die each year in fires. To repeat: That is each year. Yet Americans have not responded to deaths by fire as they did to 9/11, nor has a major public discussion ensued.
To be clear, the U.S. probably should do more to limit the number of fire deaths. But they do not threaten the nation and constitutional order in the way that terrorist attacks do. How people die is crucial in helping a nation and society scale its response and frame the debate over what to do.
Covid-19 is obviously more like 9/11 than it is like the annual toll of fire deaths. It commands the headlines every day, has created a global economic depression, is reshaping global politics and the balance of power, causes extreme stress for millions and has significantly harmed America's global reputation. Yes, there have been some anxiety-driven overreactions, but it is inevitable that humans will respond dramatically to a major worldwide pandemic.
To be sure, the number of U.S. victims is high — 220,000 and counting, plus some number of excess deaths from broader causes. But the event itself is so cataclysmic that "downgrading" those deaths by saying many of the victims were elderly doesn't make a big difference in terms of formulating an optimal response.
Pandemics have been civilization-altering events since the beginning of human history, and they still are — especially if we do not respond properly. The need to get the response right, not the relative worth of the young to that of the old, is the main thing that we should be obsessing about.
*Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton*
by Tyler Cowen October 20, 2020 at 1:10 am in
That is the new book by Nicholas McDowell, and it is one of my favorite non-fiction works this year. Milton is today more relevant than he has been in a long time, excerpt:
Milton's political development is shaped by his evolving understanding of the ways in which 'tyranny' — defined initially in ecclesiastical and clerical terms but which grows to encompass political organization — retards the intellectual and cultural progress of a nation. This understanding was shaped not only by historical experience of the unprecedented political turbulence of mid-seventeenth-century Britain, but by the interaction between that experience and his intellectula life. Milton's period of intensive and almost entirely orthodox reading in political and religious history in the mid-1630s, the record of some of which survives in the notebook that was rediscovered in 1874, revealed to him how clerical censorship and heresy-hunting had suppressed intellectual and literary life in other countries. Milton regarded the cultural decline of Italy under the Counter-Reformation and Inquisition from the glory days of Dante and Petrarch, two of his pre-eminent post-classical models of the poetic career, as the starkest instance of this process. His tour of Italy in 1638-9 confirmed the lessons of his reading: that in nations where 'this kind of inquisition tyrannizes,' as he put it in Areopagitica, learning is brought into a 'servil condition' and the 'glory ' of 'wits' is 'dampt.'
Recommended! Every page is enjoyable, and you can profit from this book no matter your prior knowledge of Milton may be. A sure thing for the year end's "best of" list.
You can pre-order here.
Keynes on what is required to make a great economist
The study of economics does not seem to require any specialized gifts of an unusually high order. Is it not, intellectually regarded, a very easy subject compared with the higher branches of philosophy and pure science? Yet good, or even competent, economists are the rarest of birds. An easy subject, at which very few excel! The paradox finds its explanation, perhaps, in that the master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts. He must reach a high standard in several different directions and must combine talents not often found together. He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher – in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature of his institutions must lie entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood; as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near the earth as a politician.
That is from Keynes's 1924 essay on Marshall, reprinted in Essays in Biography. Most of all, it is Keynes describing himself!
Why I reject the Great Barrington Declaration
Here is my 2x normal length Bloomberg column on that topic, as had been requested by Daniel Klein. The argument has numerous twists and turns, do read the whole thing but here is one bit (I will indent only their words):
"Here are the key words of the Great Barrington Declaration on herd immunity:
The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection.
What exactly does the word "allow" mean in this context? Again the passivity is evident, as if humans should just line up in the proper order of virus exposure and submit to nature's will. How about instead we channel our inner Ayn Rand and stress the role of human agency? Something like: "Herd immunity will come from a combination of exposure to the virus through natural infection and the widespread use of vaccines. Here are some ways to maximize the role of vaccines in that process."
And the close:
"In most parts of the Western world, normal openings for restaurants, sporting events and workplaces are likely to lead to spiraling caseloads and overloaded hospitals, as is already a risk in some of the harder-hit parts of Europe. Reopenings, to the extent they work, rely on a government that so scares people that attendance remains low even with reopening.
In that sense, as things stand, there is no "normal" to be found. An attempt to pursue it would most likely lead to panic over the numbers of cases and hospitalizations, and would almost certainly make a second lockdown more likely. There is no ideal of liberty at the end of the tunnel here.
Don't get me wrong: The Great Barrington strategy is a tempting one. Coming out of a libertarian think tank, it tries to procure maximum liberty for commerce and daily life. It is a seductive idea. Yet consistency of message is not an unalloyed good, even when the subject is liberty…
My worldview is both more hopeful and more tragic. There is no normal here, but we can do better — with vigorous actions to combat Covid-19, including government actions. The conception of human nature evident in the Great Barrington Declaration is so passive, it raises the question of whether it even qualifies as a defense of natural liberty."
MR Tyler again: You will note I do not make the emotional, question-begging argument that herd immunity strategies will kill millions (though I do think more people die under that scenario). If you argue, as many herd immunity critics do, that the elderly cannot be isolated, it seems you also should not be entirely confident that the currently non-infected can be isolated. The brutal truth is simply that a Great Barrington strategy put into practice would lead to rapidly spiraling cases and a rather quick and oppressive second lockdown, worse than what the status quo or some improved version of it is likely to bring. Total deaths are likely higher, along with more social trauma, due to the more extreme whipsaw effects, but no not by millions.
Let's accelerate those biomedicals, people!
*American Purpose*
…a new magazine, media project, and intellectual community called American Purpose is launching at www.americanpurpose.com, and can also be found on Twitter at @americanpurpose.
American Purpose, through digital publishing, conversation and convening, and podcasts, will offer a spirited examination of politics and culture. Our aim is to support the revitalization of liberal democracy at home, while addressing the authoritarian challenges to liberal democracy abroad. And we will offer lively and engrossing discussion of history and biography, arts and culture, science and technology.
"American Purpose is committed to building an intellectual community and a space for much-needed dialogue about the United States' role as the vanguard of classically liberal ideas and institutions around the world," said Francis Fukuyama, chairman of the American Purpose editorial board.
Status threat, not economic hardship, explains the 2016 vote
This study evaluates evidence pertaining to popular narratives explaining the American public's support for Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential election. First, using unique representative probability samples of the American public, tracking the same individuals from 2012 to 2016, I examine the "left behind" thesis (that is, the theory that those who lost jobs or experienced stagnant wages due to the loss of manufacturing jobs punished the incumbent party for their economic misfortunes). Second, I consider the possibility that status threat felt by the dwindling proportion of traditionally high-status Americans (i.e., whites, Christians, and men) as well as by those who perceive America's global dominance as threatened combined to increase support for the candidate who emphasized reestablishing status hierarchies of the past. Results do not support an interpretation of the election based on pocketbook economic concerns. Instead, the shorter relative distance of people's own views from the Republican candidate on trade and China corresponded to greater mass support for Trump in 2016 relative to Mitt Romney in 2012. Candidate preferences in 2016 reflected increasing anxiety among high-status groups rather than complaints about past treatment among low-status groups. Both growing domestic racial diversity and globalization contributed to a sense that white Americans are under siege by these engines of change.
Here is the article, by Diana C. Mutz, via someone on Twitter whom I have forgotten!
*Adaptation Under Fire: How Militaries Change in Wartime*
by Tyler Cowen October 9, 2020 at 8:34 am in
That is the new book by Lt. General David Barno and Nora Bensahel, here is one excerpt;
This emphasis on decentralized, independent battlefield actions, long a part of German military thinking, once again became a central tenet of German army doctrine in the modest force of the post-Versailles period. Mission orders were regularly emphasized and practiced during peacetime training exercises. moreover, the German army relentlessly critiqued the performance of its leaders and units in exercises and war games. Commanders and staff officers at all levels were expected to do so candidly and objectively, without regard to personal embarrassment or potential career damage. This candor extended to critiquing the performance of senior officers and higher headquarters as well. These principles made German doctrine inherently adaptable in the face of battle.
And then a few pages later:
In stark contrast to the Germans, in the French army there was "no large-scale examination of the lessons of the last war by a significant portion of the officers corps." Partly as a result, the lessons that the French army drew from world War I led to a warfighting doctrine that was nearly the polar opposite of that developed by the Germans. The French army assumed that the next war in Europe would largely resemble the last. The staggering number of French casualties during World War I led French leaders to conclude that an offensive doctrine would prove both indecisive and prohibitively costly. They reasoned that a defensive doctrine would best preserve their fighting power and prevent the enemy from winning another major war through an offensive strike. As a result, nearly all French interwar thinking focused on leveraging defensive operations to prevail in any future war.
Overall, it is striking to me just how much substance there is in this book per page — a rarity to be treasured! You can order it here.
Claims about politics (speculative)
Among white liberals under 30, nearly half have a mental health condition, compared to 21-26 % among centrists and conservatives. H/t @ZachG932 https://t.co/iG9saHtvRR
— Eric Kaufmann (@epkaufm) April 12, 2020
First, I don't think "liberals" is exactly the right word here, but I'm not going to relitigate that one now. Second, as I've argued in my The Age of the Infovore (and in some forthcoming writings you haven't seen yet), I don't think "mental health condition" is appropriate in this context. Furthermore, what are called "mental health conditions" often are sources of insight and can be positively correlated with talent.
That all said, I don't think you can understand modern American discourse, most of all social media, without recognizing that "the intellectual Left" has higher neuroticism — as defined by Five-Factor personality theory — than say centrists. The Right of course has its own correlations, but that is a topic for another time.
My Conversation with Audrey Tang
by Tyler Cowen October 7, 2020 at 10:55 am in
For me one of the most fun episodes, here is the audio, video, and transcript. And here is the longer than ever before summary, befitting the chat itself:
Audrey Tang began reading classical works like the Shūjīng and Tao Te Ching at the age of 5 and learned the programming language Perl at the age of 12. Now, the autodidact and self-described "conservative anarchist" is a software engineer and the first non-binary digital minister of Taiwan. Their work focuses on how social and digital technologies can foster empathy, democracy, and human progress.
Audrey joined Tyler to discuss how Taiwan approached regulating Chinese tech companies, the inherent extraterritoriality of data norms, how Finnegans Wake has influenced their approach to technology, the benefits of radical transparency in communication, why they appreciate the laziness of Perl, using "humor over rumor" to combat online disinformation, why Taiwan views democracy as a set of social technologies, how their politics have been influenced by Taiwan's indigenous communities and their oral culture, what Chinese literature teaches about change, how they view Confucianism as a Daoist, how they would improve Taiwanese education, why they view mistakes in the American experiment as inevitable — but not insurmountable, the role of civic tech in Taiwan's pandemic response, the most important remnants of Japanese influence remaining in Taiwan, why they love Magic: The Gathering, the transculturalism that makes Taiwan particularly open and accepting of LGBT lifestyles, growing up with parents who were journalists, how being transgender makes them more empathetic, the ways American values still underpin the internet, what he learned from previous Occupy movements, why translation, rotation, and scaling are important skills for becoming a better thinker, and more.
This bit could have come from GPT-3:
COWEN: How useful a way is it of conceptualizing your politics to think of it as a mix of some Taiwanese Aboriginal traditions mixed in with Daoism, experience in programming, and then your own theory of humor and fun? And if you put all of that together, the result is Audrey Tang's politics. Correct or not?
TANG: Well as of now, of course. But of course, I'm also growing, like a distributed ledger.
COWEN: You're working, of course, in Taiwanese government. What's the biggest thing wrong with economists?
TANG: You mean the magazine?
COWEN: No, no, the people, economists as thinkers. What's their biggest defect or flaw?
TANG: I don't know. I haven't met an economist that I didn't like, so I don't think there's any particular personality flaws there.
COWEN: Now, my country, the United States, has made many, many mistakes at an almost metaphysical level. What is it in the United States that those mistakes have come from? What's our deeper failing behind all those mistakes?
TANG: I don't know. Isn't America this grand experiment to keep making mistakes and correcting them in the open and share it with the world? That's the American experiment.
COWEN: Have we started correcting them yet?
TANG: I'm sure that you have.
Definitely recommended.
Why are North and South India so different on gender?
From Alice Evans:
Region is a strong predictor of female survival, literacy, autonomy, employment, and independent mobility. A woman with the exact same household wealth/ caste/ religion will likely have more autonomy if she lives in the South.
It does not seem to be a function of wealth, nor was colonialism a major factor. And cousin marriage, which is more prevalent in the south? Alice notes:
Southern women may have gained autonomy despite cousin marriage, not because of it.
Islam, however, is one factor:
In sum, gender segregation became more widespread under Islamic rule. Men continue [to] dominate public life, while women are more rooted in their families, seldom gathering to resist structural inequalities.
But perhaps most significantly:
Female labour force participation is higher in states with traditions of labour-intensive cultivation…
Wheat has been grown for centuries on the fertile, alluvial Indo-Gangetic plain. Cultivation is not terribly labour-intensive, though cereals must still be processed, shelled and ground. This lowers demand for female labour in the field, and heightens its importance at home.
Rice-cultivation is much more labour intensive. It requires the construction of tanks and irrigation channels, planting, transplanting, and harvesting. Women are needed in the fields. Rice is the staple crop in the South.
Pastoralism may have also influenced India's caste-system. Brahmins dominate business, public service, politics, the judiciary, and universities. Upper caste purity and prestige has been preserved through female seclusion, prohibiting polluting sexual access. These patriarchal norms may be rooted in ancient livelihoods. Brahmins share genetic data with ancient Iranians and steppe pastoralists. Brahmins also comprise a larger share of the population in North India and only 3% in Tamil Nadu.
Over the centuries, male superiority may have become entrenched.
Northern parents increasingly support their daughters' education, but this is primarily to improve their marriage prospects, not work outside the home.
There is much, much more at the link, including some excellent maps, visuals, and photos.
Fifty Shades of QE: Conflicts of Interest in Economic Research
by Tyler Cowen September 30, 2020 at 2:42 pm in
Ho hum, nothing to see here…
Central banks sometimes evaluate their own policies. To assess the inherent conflict of interest, we compare the research findings of central bank researchers and academic economists regarding the macroeconomic effects of quantitative easing (QE). We find that central bank papers report larger effects of QE on output and inflation. Central bankers are also more likely to report significant effects of QE on output and to use more positive language in the abstract. Central bankers who report larger QE effects on output experience more favorable career outcomes. A survey of central banks reveals substantial involvement of bank management in research production.
That is a new NBER working paper by Brian Fabo, Martina Jančoková, Elisabeth Kempf, and Ľuboš Pástor. Here is very good commentary and analysis from John Cochrane.
The Elite Quality Index
by Tyler Cowen September 29, 2020 at 12:31 am in
Here are the top ten, by Tomas Casas and Guido Cozzi:
China comes in #12, Mexico wins for Latin America, Poland overperforms and France (!) underperforms. Botswana is #23, and Argentina…uh-oh. I don't quite understand how the index is constructed, but how much a given elite focuses on Value Creation and avoids rent-seeking seems to be a key consideration. The degree of Regulatory Capture counts as a negative. Overall, the U.S. does very, very well on many metrics, but does poorly on Value Extraction.
Here is the underlying paper. Here is the sponsoring organization. Here is a lengthy treatment of the methodology. For the pointer I thank Chandran.
European paintings show a rise in trustworthiness
by Tyler Cowen September 25, 2020 at 2:41 am in
Building on recent advances in social cognition, we design an algorithm to automatically generate trustworthiness evaluations for the facial action units (smile, eye brows, etc.) of European portraits in large historical databases. Our results show that trustworthiness in portraits increased over the period 1500–2000 paralleling the decline of interpersonal violence and the rise of democratic values observed in Western Europe. Further analyses suggest that this rise of trustworthiness displays is associated with increased living standards.
That is from a new paper by Lou Safra, et.al. in Nature. Scroll down a few pages for some good photos, basically the people in the paintings look less pissed off over time. Via Lionel Page.


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On Air: Leaders & Legends
GAO will release report on pandemic cyber, expand reviews to include supply chain in near future
David Thornton@dthorntonWFED
The Government Accountability Office is planning to release a report in early fiscal 2022 about the cybersecurity impacts of technologies adopted in response to the pandemic. When government agencies shifted to mass telework, that presented a whole host of new challenges for IT personnel who weren't used to having the majority of their endpoints outside traditional network boundaries, and catalyzed the current push to adopt zero trust.
"I can't discuss the findings of the report necessarily," said Jennifer Franks, director of IT & Cybersecurity at GAO, during an August 31 FedInsider webinar. "But it was obvious to us that the threat surface had indeed expanded for these agencies, with more employees working remotely. And that this was a risk agencies were willing to indeed accept to maintain the health and safety of their employees, among other reasons, during the pandemic."
Franks said her team surveyed and followed up with select agencies on their experiences moving to maximum telework, implementing federal guidance, the tools they adopted, the cybersecurity challenges they experienced, and how they overcame them.
Franks said that in the near future, GAO will also be expanding its reviews to take recent pushes to improve supply chain risk into account. She pointed to the SolarWinds incident and Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities as recent examples of how federal agencies can secure their own networks, yet still be vulnerable to attacks.
"So now not only do agencies have to worry about their network, but now we have to worry about the networks of the entities of supposed 'trusted' partners and suppliers," Franks said.
She also said every agency should be implementing a zero trust architecture and proactive threat hunting.
"This is another area that you can no longer just be passive and reactive to," Franks said. "If you take that stance, we'll always be behind the eight ball and constantly chasing after the next threat, instead of releasing in front of it, or even at least in line with the next cyber security curves. And threat hunting really is a proactive measure, and it gives more visibility inside of an enterprise's network. So if an agency could know what it needs to secure, it could know what it needs to monitor a little bit more efficiently and effectively to provide its goods and services for its customers."
Some agencies are already acting on this advice; Mike Witt, associate CIO for the Cybersecurity & Privacy Division at NASA, said he is currently working toward a software-defined access network infrastructure, which will provide a framework for zero trust at the agency. And Gary Stevens, executive director of Information Services Policy & Strategy at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said VA is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's zero trust lab team through the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence.
One thing both agencies are working on as part of those efforts is endpoint detection and response (EDR) capabilities. Stevens said that's not an easy task at an organization as large and complicated as VA, with varied considerations like telemedicine, HIPAA and electronic health records thrown into the mix. Part of dealing with those added complications is ensuring that all the data being collected is integrated into the EDR capabilities to understand it. That allows predictive analytics to come into play, which can also help navigate the complexity of the network and get to that point of being able to be proactive.
"The nugget that we all want to get to is how can you apply that predictive analytics capability and make sense of it through an integration of all these tools and all the various data elements that they're collecting, so that you can understand those patterns and then address them accordingly to identify those anomalies," Stevens said.
Witt said to get to that point, agencies need to test EDR solutions around their tangible functionalities, such as ensuring that they can be managed from an enterprise deployment, especially in sensitive areas of their infrastructure. Another thing to look for is whether it supports blocking access to certain areas for certain users, ensuring those who don't need it don't have access to the entire system. Or perhaps the ability to block certain users outside of specific timeframes, so users can only access the system on week days.
"Make sure your EDR solution not only meets your cybersecurity requirements, but also make sure that it is properly designed with the functionality to support your day to day system administration, operations and maintenance requirements as well," Witt said.
Read more: Cybersecurity
David Thornton
David Thornton is a digital editor of Federal News Network covering federal management, workforce and technology issues.
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GAO: Agencies could've been more transparent in pandemic response OTA's
Federal Newscast Read more
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It's official. Agencies must have zero trust in their networks. Now what?
Technology Read more
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AI, cloud to bring about 'next generation' of GAO oversight
Agency Oversight All News Cybersecurity Department of Veterans Affairs endpoint detection and response Gary Stevens Government Accountability Office Jennifer Franks Management Mike Witt NASA Technology zero trust
President leaves East Room after news conference