Donald Trump didn't save the ethics committee. You did; Guardian, 1/4/17

Richard Wolffe, Guardian; 

Donald Trump didn't save the ethics committee. You did:

"As ethics experts from both the Bush and Obama administrations have written, the founders saw the so-called Emoluments clause as a way to stop corruption by foreign powers. If a president accepts any gifts and benefits from foreign nations, he faces the threat of impeachment.

Instead the newly-elected Trump claims, wrongly, that there is nothing to prevent him from being president of the United States and CEO of his company at the same time. “In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly,” he told the New York Times.

It takes real leadership to create a culture of ethics, and it takes very little leadership to destroy any semblance of ethics. It’s only natural that the House Republicans would follow Trump’s lead by treating ethics as some kind of low priority interference with their real business: business itself."

From Hands to Heads to Hearts; New York Times, 1/4/17

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times; From Hands to Heads to Hearts:

"The technological revolution of the 21st century is as consequential as the scientific revolution, argued Seidman, and it is “forcing us to answer a most profound question — one we’ve never had to ask before: ‘What does it mean to be human in the age of intelligent machines?’”

In short: If machines can compete with people in thinking, what makes us humans unique? And what will enable us to continue to create social and economic value? The answer, said Seidman, is the one thing machines will never have: “a heart.”

“It will be all the things that the heart can do,” he explained. “Humans can love, they can have compassion, they can dream. While humans can act from fear and anger, and be harmful, at their most elevated, they can inspire and be virtuous. And while machines can reliably interoperate, humans, uniquely, can build deep relationships of trust.

Therefore, Seidman added, our highest self-conception needs to be redefined from “I think, therefore I am” to “I care, therefore I am; I hope, therefore I am; I imagine, therefore I am. I am ethical, therefore I am. I have a purpose, therefore I am. I pause and reflect, therefore I am.”"

House Fires at Ethics and Shoots Self; New York Times, 1/3/17

Editorial Board, New York Times; House Fires at Ethics and Shoots Self:

"The O.C.E. is the only House body that investigates allegations from the public, including anonymous tips. Its staff of independent, nonpartisan professionals must be private citizens, not elected officials; most are lawyers and ethics experts. The O.C.E. refers cases it finds substantial to the Ethics Committee with recommendations. The committee is notoriously weak, but at least the O.C.E., by making its work public, helps hold legislators accountable. No wonder swamp dwellers of both parties have tried to put the O.C.E. more completely under the thumb of Congress.

The public protests over the House move to weaken the office were heartening. Even the conservative group Judicial Watch paused in its pursuit of Hillary Clinton to decry the Goodlatte proposal as a “poor way to begin draining the swamp.” The O.C.E. proposal has now gone back to the House, which will likely take the rest of the session to “study” it. Americans will be watching to see whether Mr. Trump, Mr. Ryan and other lawmakers return to this rotten idea."

There’s no good way to deal with trolls, so you might as well tattle to their moms; Washington Post, 1/2/17

Jessica Contrera, Washington Post; There’s no good way to deal with trolls, so you might as well tattle to their moms:

"People being harassed can alert the police, but law enforcement has struggled to identify and prosecute anonymous online harassers. Of the millions of people who were stalked and harassed online between 2010 and 2013, only 10 cyberstalking cases were filed in federal courts during that time, according to a review by “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace” author Danielle Citron. These situations nearly always involve not just one harasser, but dozens or even thousands threatening or spreading a false rumor about their victim.

“Every single individual who promotes [the rumor] is part of the problem, but none of them are actually criminally responsible,” explained Mary Anne Franks, the legislative policy director at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which advocates for laws to protect online victims.

Franks said there is no “one size fits all” approach for dealing with trolls, but she doesn’t recommend trying to reason with them.

“There is nothing you can say to them that won’t give them more to work with,” Franks said."

The Great A.I. Awakening; New York Times, 12/14/16

Gideon Lewis-Kraus, New York Times; The Great A.I. Awakening:

"Google’s decision to reorganize itself around A.I. was the first major manifestation of what has become an industrywide machine-learning delirium. Over the past four years, six companies in particular — Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and the Chinese firm Baidu — have touched off an arms race for A.I. talent, particularly within universities. Corporate promises of resources and freedom have thinned out top academic departments. It has become widely known in Silicon Valley that Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, personally oversees, with phone calls and video-chat blandishments, his company’s overtures to the most desirable graduate students. Starting salaries of seven figures are not unheard-of. Attendance at the field’s most important academic conference has nearly quadrupled. What is at stake is not just one more piecemeal innovation but control over what very well could represent an entirely new computational platform: pervasive, ambient artificial intelligence."

Algorithms: AI’s creepy control must be open to inspection; Guardian, 1/1/17

Luke Dormehl, Guardian; Algorithms: AI’s creepy control must be open to inspection:

"The issue of AI accountability is shaping up to be one of this year’s hot topics, ethically and technologically. Recently, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s computer science and artificial intelligence laboratory published preliminary work on deep learning neural networks that can not only offer predictions and classifications, but also rationalise their decisions.

Artificial intelligence achieved a lot in 2016. One of the goals in 2017 should be to make its workings more transparent. With plenty riding on it, this could be the year when, to coin a phrase, we begin to take back control."

Germany’s Latest Best Seller? A Critical Version of ‘Mein Kampf’; New York Times, 1/3/17

Melissa Eddy, New York Times; Germany’s Latest Best Seller? A Critical Version of ‘Mein Kampf’:

"The decision to bring out a new edition of a work that advocated an Aryan “master race” provoked fierce debate before publication. One side argued the new work was an important step toward illuminating an unsavory era in Germany.

The other insisted it would only encourage nationalists and xenophobes at a time when the country was engulfed in its own debate about refugees and the threat posed by foreigners."

Leave Your Laptops at the Door to My Classroom; New York Times, 1/2/17

Darren Rosenblum, New York Times; Leave Your Laptops at the Door to My Classroom:

"Focus is crucial, and we do best when monotasking: Even disruptions of a few seconds can derail one’s train of thought. Students process information better when they take notes — they don’t just transcribe, as they do with laptops, but they think and record those thoughts. Laptops or tablets can undermine exam performance by 18 percent. Other studies reveal that writing by hand helps memory retention. Screens block us from connecting, whether at dinner or in a classroom. Kelly McGonigal, a psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University, says that just having a phone on a table during a meal “is sufficiently distracting to reduce empathy and rapport between two people.”

For all these reasons, starting with smaller classes, I banned laptops, and it improved the students’ engagement. With constant eye contact, I could see and feel when they understood me, and when they did not. Energized by the connection, we moved faster, further and deeper into the material. I broadened my rule to include one of my large upper-level courses. The pushback was real: A week before class, I posted the syllabus, which announced my policy. Two students wrote me to ask if I would reconsider, and dropped the class when I refused. But more important, after my class ends, many students continue to take notes by hand even when it’s not required.

Putting aside medical exemptions, many students are just resistant. They are used to typing and prefer it to writing. They may feel they take better notes by keyboard. They may feel they know how to take notes by hand but do not want to have to do so. They can look up material, and there’s no need to print assignments. Some may have terrible handwriting, or find it uncomfortable or even painful to write.

To them, I’ll let the Rolling Stones answer: You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need. My students need to learn how to be lawyers and professionals. To succeed they must internalize an ethos of caution, care and respect. To instill these values and skills in my students, I have no choice but to limit laptop use in the classroom.

In Navajo Nation, a Basketball Elder Earns Respect; New York Times, 1/1/17

Michael Powell, New York Times; In Navajo Nation, a Basketball Elder Earns Respect:

"Mendoza took a battery of tests and aced math. He applied to a college and was awarded grants. He met his wife, Marjorie, a Navajo, in college. She got pregnant, and they dropped out. Mendoza worked in a factory, making $30,000 a year.

It was good money, yet again he felt an ache: He wanted to coach and teach children to navigate new worlds. When he quit his factory job, his friends hooted: “You’re crazy! You won’t make any money teaching!

He paused, laughing.

“Sure enough, my first job at Window Rock, I made $9,500 a year.”

Mendoza has worked ever since as a guidance counselor and coach in the Navajo Nation and the Apache Nation in the White Mountains. His wife teaches on the reservation.

These nations are bounded by mountains and forests and buttes, with embracing clans, leaders and spiritualism woven deep. Each is poor, plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse and fractured families...

The Apache reservation suffered an epidemic of teenage suicide. Mendoza is a master at infusing the rez ball whirlwind with offensive and defensive discipline. His proudest accomplishment, however, was this: None of his teenagers took their own lives.

“I told the kids, ‘I understand, I knew fear,’” he said. “I learned how anger can affect you.”"

House Republicans Back Down on Bid to Gut Ethics Office; New York Times, 1/3/17

Eric Lipton and Matt Flegenheimer, New York Times; House Republicans Back Down on Bid to Gut Ethics Office:

"House Republicans, facing a storm of bipartisan criticism, including from President-elect Donald J. Trump, moved early Tuesday afternoon to reverse their plan to kill the Office of Congressional Ethics. It was an embarrassing turnabout on the first day of business for the new Congress, a day when party leaders were hoping for a show of force to reverse policies of the Obama administration.

The reversal came less than 24 hours after House Republicans, meeting in a secret session, voted, over the objections of Speaker Paul D. Ryan, to eliminate the independent ethics office, created in 2009 in the aftermath of a series of scandals involving House lawmakers, including three that were sent to jail."

The Republican Ethics Vote: What Happened; New York Times, 1/3/17

Jonah Engel Bromwich, New York Times; The Republican Ethics Vote: What Happened? :

"Why would House Republicans want to do this? The office has been criticized by many Congress members of both parties, including those it has aggressively investigated, and Republicans have long been opposed to its existence. When Republicans recaptured the House in 2010, there was speculation that they might get rid of the office then.

Photo

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, announced on Monday that the House Republican Conference had approved a change to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics.CreditChristopher Gregory for The New York Times

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, a Republican of Virginia, said in a statement that the move on Monday night would strengthen the office. He also wrote that the change “improves upon due process rights for individuals under investigation.”

“The O.C.E. has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work,” the statement said.

But if passed by the full House, the new measure would effectively kill the office by stripping it of its independence. It would now report to the House Ethics committee, meaning that Congress would ultimately control the investigations of its own members.

The office would no longer take anonymous complaints and would not be authorized to make public statements or hire a “communications director or press spokesperson” to speak with news outlets.

It would no longer even be known as the Office of Congressional Ethics. Its name would be Office of Congressional Complaint Review."

INTERVIEW: KIERON GILLEN RETURNS TO STAR WARS WITH ‘ETHICALLY BROKEN’ DOCTOR APHRA; Comic Book Resources, 1/2/17

Dave Richards, Comic Book Resources; INTERVIEW: KIERON GILLEN RETURNS TO STAR WARS WITH ‘ETHICALLY BROKEN’ DOCTOR APHRA:

"One of the intriguing elements of the Star Wars Universe is its rich history both in terms of the time period of what’s been seen on screen, and the ancient periods of history that span thousands of years before the films and television shows. Games and comic books have mined that time period for stories in the past, but now there’s a Marvel Comics series about a character who mines that time period for her wallet.

Of course, that would be “Doctor Aphra,” the new ongoing series by writer Kieron Gillen and artist Kev Walker, which started with two issues last month. The book starring the titular ethically challenged archeologist who made her debut in the Gillen-written “Darth Vader” series."

With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Hobble Independent Ethics Office; New York Times, 1/2/17

Eric Lipton, New York Times; With No Warning, House Republicans Vote to Hobble Independent Ethics Office:

"House Republicans, defying their top leaders, voted Monday to significantly curtail the power of an independent ethics office set up in 2008 in the aftermath of corruption scandals that sent three members of Congress to jail.

The move to weaken the Office of Congressional Ethics was not public until late Monday, when Representative Robert Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced that the House Republican Conference had approved the change with no advance public notice or debate...

The surprising vote came on the eve of the start of a new session of Congress, with emboldened Republicans ready to push an ambitious agenda on everything from health care to infrastructure, issues that will be the subject of intense lobbying from corporate interests. The move by Republicans would take away both power and independence from an investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries."

The Rum War; 60 Minutes, 1/1/17

Sharyn Alfonsi, 60 Minutes; The Rum War

"Who makes the real Havana Club rum? And who owns the rights to sell the liquor under that famous brand name?"

Consider ethics when designing new technologies; TechCrunch, 12/31/16

Gillian Christie, TechCrunch; 

Consider ethics when designing new technologies:

[Kip Currier: Happy 2017! 1st post here for the new year.]

"In the weeks since the U.S. presidential election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been firefighting. Not literally, but figuratively. Widespread accusations assert that his social media company contributed to the election’s unexpected outcome by propagating fake news and “filter bubbles.” Zuckerberg has harshly refuted these allegations, but the case poses a thorny question: How do we ensure that technology works for society?

A Fourth Industrial Revolution is arising that will pose tough ethical questions with few simple, black-and-white answers. Smaller, more powerful and cheaper sensors; cognitive computing advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, predictive analytics and machine learning; nano, neuro and biotechnology; the Internet of Things; 3D printing; and much more, are already demanding real answers really fast. And this will only get harder and more complex when we embed these new technologies into our bodies and brains to enhance our physical and cognitive functioning."

U.S. Ethics Chief Ordered Gushing Responses To Trump’s Tweets; Huffington Post, 12/30/16

Mary Papenfuss, Huffington Post; 

U.S. Ethics Chief Ordered Gushing Responses To Trump’s Tweets:

"Newly obtained records reveal that the head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics personally ordered several oddly enthusiastic tweets after President-elect Donald Trump’s recent claim that he planned to sever ties to his business operations to avoid conflicts of interest as president."

You Could Have Bought A Ticket To Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve Party; Huffington Post, 12/30/16

Daniel Marans, Huffington Post; 

You Could Have Bought A Ticket To Donald Trump’s New Year’s Eve Party:

"Tickets were on sale for a lavish New Year’s Eve party that President-elect Donald Trump and his family are hosting at the Mar-a-Lago Club this weekend, which once again raises those thorny ethics question that have dogged Trump’s presidential transition.

Mar-a-Lago sold the tickets, the Trump transition team confirmed to Politico. They cost $525 each for members of the Mar-a-Lago Club and $575 for guests. Since Trump himself owns the Palm Beach, Florida, resort, those sales profit him personally. 

Simply buying a ticket could be seen as an effort to curry favor with the president-elect. Those seeking an in-person audience with him also had an incentive to buy since Trump will be there."

These common mistakes can lead to lawyer ethics complaints; ABA Journal, 2/10/16

Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal; 

These common mistakes can lead to lawyer ethics complaints:

"Oddball ethics complaints may get more attention, but it’s the run-of-the-mill problems that are most likely to trip up lawyers, according to lawyers who handle such cases.

BNA’s U.S. Law Week spoke with several experts about common errors. Here are five of them..."

What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company; Harvard Business Review (HBR), 12/29/16

Christopher McLaverty

Annie McKee, Harvard Business Review (HBR); 

What You Can Do to Improve Ethics at Your Company:

"Enron. Wells Fargo. Volkswagen. It’s hard for good, ethical people to imagine how these meltdowns could possibly happen. We assume it’s only the Ken Lays and Bernie Madoffs of the world who will cheat people. But what about the ordinary engineers, managers, and employees who designed cars to cheat automotive pollution controls or set up bank accounts without customers’ permission? We tell ourselves that we would never do those things. And, in truth, most of us won’t cook the books, steal from customers, or take that bribe.

But, according to a study by one of us (Christopher) of C-suite executives from India, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., and the U.K., many of us face an endless stream of ethical dilemmas at work. In-depth interviews with these leaders provide some insight and solutions that can help us when we do face these quandaries."

Let's Make 2017 The Year Of Ethics And Morality; Forbes, 12/28/16

Deepali Srivastava, Forbes; Let's Make 2017 The Year Of Ethics And Morality:

"The chronic decline of our political structures and civil society institutions became painfully obvious this year. The election of Donald Trump in the United States and the rise of the far right in Europe are inspiring much soul searching in the West. The problem is just as acute in Asia where the middle class’ growing prosperity is deeply intertwined with worsening inequality, environmental degradation and social unrest.

Yet, I detected another trend in 2016 that fills me with hope for the New Year: the very public embrace by eminent scientists, economists, novelists and even some businesspeople of the role of ethics in society.

Influential people have started espousing the moral philosophy of doing the right thing and are building bridges between spirituality and rationality."

The ethics of digitally resurrecting actors; New Atlas, 12/27/16

Rich Haridy, New Atlas; The ethics of digitally resurrecting actors:

"In the wake of Peter Cushing's digital resurrection in Star Wars: Rogue One, debate is once again raging around the ethics of re-purposing the images of long dead actors. In a previous article we examined the journey into the uncanny valley Hollywood has taken over the past 15 years as computer generated images have become more photo-realistic. But how are we to deal with the murky legal and ethical waters surrounding this discomforting territory?"

As We Leave More Digital Tracks, Amazon Echo Factors In Murder Investigation; NPR, 12/28/16

Alina Selyukh, NPR; 

As We Leave More Digital Tracks, Amazon Echo Factors In Murder Investigation:

"Amazon's personal assistant device called Echo was one of the most popular gifts this Christmas. But this week, the device grabbed headlines for another reason: Police in Arkansas are trying to use its data in a murder investigation.

What we know from court documents is that in November 2015, a man in Arkansas had some friends over at his house to watch a football game and in the morning, one of the friends was found dead in a hot tub in the backyard. Police later charged the man who lived in the house, James Bates, with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

As the police were investigating the crime, they found a number of digital devices in the suspect's house, including an Amazon Echo device that was in the kitchen. They have since seized the device and have apparently gotten some information from it, but what they want to check is what — if anything — the device may have recorded around the time of the murder."

Does Empathy Guide or Hinder Moral Action?; New York Times, 12/29/16

Room for Debate, New York Times; 

Does Empathy Guide or Hinder Moral Action? :

"After a year of surprising election results and referendums, and violence in protests, terrorism and war, the term “empathy” has been cited by many as a key component to helping groups of people that have little in common, or disagree, come together. But does empathy actually increase the ability of opposing parties to understand each other better, or otherwise inform correct moral action?"

Global Press Freedom Has Taken An ‘Unbelievable’ Hit This Year; Huffington Post, 12/29/16

Jesselyn Cook, Huffington Post; 

Global Press Freedom Has Taken An ‘Unbelievable’ Hit This Year:

"The freedom of information advocacy group, also known as Reporters Sans Frontières, ranks 180 countries’ levels of press freedom to produce an overall world evaluation. Between 2013 and the start of this year, the global score plummeted by 13.6 percent. Factors evaluated by the group ― all of which worsened during this period ― include media independence, transparency and censorship, among others. The final grade for 2016 has yet to be calculated and released, but the overall picture is grim...

A large group of press freedom organizations recently penned an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump, whom the Committee to Protect Journalists has already declared a “threat to press freedom.” The incoming leader of the free world has continuously berated and vilified the “disgusting” media, and denied press credentials to news organizations that covered his campaign in ways that displeased him."

Getting a Drone as a Gift? Check Your Insurance; New York Times, 12/14/16

Ann Carrns, New York Times; 

Getting a Drone as a Gift? Check Your Insurance:

[Kip Currier: Amazon is getting buzz this week with widely-reported coverage of the ever-experimenting online retailer's 2016 patent for floating warehouse blimps--or in Amazon's own words "airborne fulfillment centers (AFCs)". AFCs would, in theory, serve as "motherships" for worker bee drones to transport purchased goods directly to Amazon customers.

Joanne Lipman, chief content officer for Gannett, predicts that though some crystal ball gazers declared 2016 as the year drones would take off and be the new "it" thing, 2017 will be "The Year of the Drone, Really".

Earlier this month I did a very informative American Bar Association (ABA) Continuing Legal Education (CLE) webinar, "U.S. Drone Law: Current Status, Future Direction", through the ABA Intellectual Property Law section. A panel of practitioners with drone expertise highlighted key cases (e.g. the so-called "Drone Slayer" case), current legal issues, and liability concerns for emerging drone technologies. (Aside: in addition to legal issues, drones implicate a whole slew of information ethics issues; most notably, privacy.)

The article excerpted below sheds useful light on insurance issues regarding drone ownership and usage, something most of us probably have not considered, but absolutely should know more about. Especially considering how many people gifted and received drones as holiday gifts this year! (See Drone sales soaring this Christmas, capping a record year for the industry)]

"MANY people will receive drones as gifts this holiday season. But before heading to the nearest field to fly the devices, recipients may want to check their insurance coverage.

“I’m sure there will be a lot of drones given as Christmas gifts, and we’ll start to see more drone-related claims,” said Chris Hackett, the senior director for personal lines at the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, an industry group."

Campus Identity Politics Is Dooming Liberal Causes, a Professor Charges; Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/15/16

Evan R. Goldstein, Chronicle of Higher Education; Campus Identity Politics Is Dooming Liberal Causes, a Professor Charges:

"Rage over racial, gender, and sexual identity has no sense of proportion and creates a damaging spectacle, says Mark Lilla, a professor of humanities at Columbia University."

A professor wants to teach ‘The Problems of Whiteness.’ A lawmaker calls the class ‘garbage.’; Washington Post, 12/28/16

Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Washington Post; A professor wants to teach ‘The Problems of Whiteness.’ A lawmaker calls the class ‘garbage.’ :

"“I support academic freedom and free speech,” [David Murphy, Wisconsin state assemblyman] said. “Free speech also means the public has the right to be critical of their public university. The university’s handling of controversies like this appears to the public as a lack of balance in intellectual openness and diversity of political thought on campus.”

Gov. Scott Walker (R) told the Wisconsin State Journal that he didn’t agree with Murphy’s call to withhold funding from the university if it doesn’t drop the class...

In a statement, the university defended the course and stressed that it was elective, not required, and that it was “not designed to offend individuals or single out an ethnic group.”

“We believe this course, which is one of thousands offered at our university, will benefit students who are interested in developing a deeper understanding of race issues,” the university’s statement said. “The course is a challenge and response to racism of all kinds.”"

Russians No Longer Dispute Olympic Doping Operation; New York Times, 12/27/16

Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York Times; Russians No Longer Dispute Olympic Doping Operation:

"Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history: a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes, tainting not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement.

Over several days of interviews here with The New York Times, Russian officials said they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents.

“It was an institutional conspiracy,” Anna Antseliovich, the acting director general of Russia’s national antidoping agency, said of years’ worth of cheating schemes, while emphasizing that the government’s top officials were not involved."

"I Want THAT Kid For Christmas"; Pearls Before Swine, GoComics, 12/25/16

Stephan Pastis, Pearls Before Swine, GoComics; "I Want THAT Kid For Christmas"

Fostering Civility in a Time of Disrespect; New York Times, 12/23/16

Jonathan A. Knee, New York Times; Fostering Civility in a Time of Disrespect:

"Just in time for the season of giving, Christine Porath, a Georgetown University management professor, brings us “Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace” (Grand Central), a slender, but compelling, guide to treating others respectfully and protecting oneself from those who don’t.

As the subtitle suggests, most of the book’s examples relate to behaviors observed and strategies pursued in the corporate jungle. The focus is on the serious business risk posed by failing to foster a culture of civility. While the nation waits breathlessly for the dawn of the Trump era, however, it is impossible to read this practical volume without wondering about its implications for the functioning of our federal institutions and the comity among nations."

Have Yourself a Merry Little 2017; New York Times, 12/24/16

Bruce Handy, New York Times; Have Yourself a Merry Little 2017:

"The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has used the original lyrics before, including on the 2015 album “Big Band Holidays,” so it’s not as if someone fished them out of the trunk 72 years later to make a tart postelection point. I’m also well aware that our current challenges pale in comparison to fighting a world war with civilization in the balance. Let’s say we are somewhere on a continuum between that and facing a move from St. Louis to New York. Still, I have to confess the “it may be your last” line captured my near-apocalyptic mood — and maybe yours as well.

But the lyric that moved me to tears is the line that follows “If the fates allow” (and remained in Martin’s final lyrics):

Until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.

How prosaic, even homely as pre-rock era songwriting goes, and yet how perfect. Muddling through, somehow, may not sound particularly inspirational, but perseverance is often the best option at hand, when just moving forward, one inch or foot or yard at a time, can be a kind of heroism. At least that’s how it struck me listening to Ms. Russell, her deeply felt performance offering a subdued and cleareyed but still genuine optimism...

In “Meet Me in St. Louis,” “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is the catalyst for a happy ending: Tootie’s backyard rampage prompts her father to change his mind about the move, and we cut to a dazzling climax at the 1904 World’s Fair, electric lights and handsome beaus suggesting a fine future for all. Happy endings seem a little more remote in 2016 — miles away, as they say, or at least as distant as the next election. In the meantime, we muddle through. It’s a start."

How to Teach High-School Students to Spot Fake News; Slate, 12/21/16

Chris Berdik, Slate; How to Teach High-School Students to Spot Fake News:

"The exercise was part of “Civic Online Reasoning,” a series of news-literacy lessons being developed by Stanford University researchers and piloted by teachers at a few dozen schools. The Stanford initiative launched in 2015, joining a handful of recent efforts to help students contend with misinformation and fake news online—a problem as old as dial-up modems but now supercharged by social media and partisan news bubbles. The backers of these efforts warn that despite young people’s reputation as “digital natives,” they are woefully unprepared to sort online fact from fiction, and the danger isn’t just to scholarship but to citizenship...

Kahne plans to study news-literacy efforts to discover what specific strategies get young people to value facts, whether they bolster their existing beliefs or contradict them. For now, one popular suggestion by news-literacy educators is to tap teenagers’ instinctive aversion to people telling them what to think.

“One of the messages we’ve tried to stress more and more lately with the rise of fake news is this: Do you want to be fooled?” said Jonathan Anzalone, assistant director of the Center for News Literacy. “Wouldn’t you rather make up your own mind?”"

Reading Fake News, Pakistani Minister Directs Nuclear Threat at Israel; New York Times, 12/24/16

Russell Goldman, New York Times; Reading Fake News, Pakistani Minister Directs Nuclear Threat at Israel:

"A fake news article led to gunfire at a Washington pizzeria three weeks ago. Now it seems that another fake news story has prompted the defense minister of Pakistan to threaten to go nuclear.

The defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, wrote a saber-rattling Twitter post directed at Israel on Friday after a false report — which the minister apparently believed — that Israel had threatened Pakistan with nuclear weapons. Both countries have nuclear arsenals.

“Israeli def min threatens nuclear retaliation presuming pak role in Syria against Daesh,” the minister wrote on his official Twitter account, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. “Israel forgets Pakistan is a Nuclear state too.”...

That story, with the typo-laden headline “Israeli Defense Minister: If Pakistan send ground troops to Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack,” appeared on the website on Dec. 20, alongside articles with headlines like “Clinton is staging a military coup against Trump.”

The fake story about Israel even misidentified the country’s defense minister, attributing quotations to a former minister, Moshe Yaalon. Israel’s current minister of defense is Avigdor Lieberman."

Trump Conflicts Could Violate The Constitution On Day 1, Lawyers Say; NPR, 12/23/16

Steve Inskeep, NPR; Trump Conflicts Could Violate The Constitution On Day 1, Lawyers Say:

"Donald Trump will enter the White House with more potential conflicts of interest than any recent president. Steve Inskeep talks to recent White House ethics lawyers Richard Painter and Norman Eisen."

Radio's Diane Rehm, A Mainstay Of Civil Discourse, Signs Off; NPR, 12/23/16

David Folkenflik, NPR; Radio's Diane Rehm, A Mainstay Of Civil Discourse, Signs Off:

"Among her most frequent nonpolitical guests were the actor and singer Julie Andrews, the author Isabel Allende, and the poet Maya Angelou, who stopped a conversation about her book with this: "I like you so much, Diane Rehm, and ... so does your audience. And I have a feeling all the time that you and I are best friends."

The interview took place in 2013 and was their final conversation.

"You are the kind of best friend everybody would like to have," Angelou added. "You're honest, you're direct, and you're not brutal.""

Anne Applebaum: I understand the power of fake news, Russian-style; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12/24/16

Anne Applebaum, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Anne Applebaum: I understand the power of fake news, Russian-style:

"...[T]his brings us to a deeper question, one that takes us beyond this ugly campaign and the possible Russian role in it: Why are Americans so vulnerable to fake news, even when generated by a hostile foreign power? Why do they consume it and pass it on?

The fault is partly that of the Republican Party, which told people for years to hate and fear “Washington” and has now created a constituency that actually prefers information generated by the Kremlin or white supremacists. The problem also lay with Hillary Clinton, who was hardly a trusted figure to begin with.

But it is also true that we are living through a global media revolution, that people are hearing and digesting political information in brand-new ways and that nobody yet understands the consequences. Fake stories are easier to create, fake websites can be designed to host them, and social media rapidly disseminate disinformation that people trust because they get it from friends."

Talking About Ethics Across Cultures; Harvard Business Review, 12/23/16

Mary C. Gentile, Harvard Business Review; Talking About Ethics Across Cultures:

"The program in Delhi started as many of these programs do: A group of cordial but skeptical participants sat with arms crossed and gentle smirks, leaning back in their chairs. When I finally was able to coax one of them to express what they were thinking, he said: “Madam, we are very happy to have you here and we are happy to listen to what you have to say about ethics and values in the workplace. But this is India, and we are entrepreneurs — we can’t even get a driver’s license without paying a bribe.”

He was raising an issue I had struggled with when developing the program, which is called Giving Voice to Values. My aim was to take a new approach to values-driven leadership development, one that was a stark departure from the way companies and educators had been teaching business ethics. For years, training in this area was based on the assumption that the way to build an ethical workplace was to educate employees on laws, ethical norms, and company values so that they could decide what the “right” thing to do was in any particular situation. I became increasingly convinced, however, that many folks already knew what was right — and many of them even wanted to do it — but they felt pressured to do otherwise by the competitive environment, by their colleagues and managers, by their customers, and often, as the participant in my Delhi program pointed out, by the cultural context in which they were operating.

I’ve learned by sharing the Giving Voice to Values approach with audiences around the world — in India, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, China, the Philippines, the U.A.E., Cairo, Moscow, Costa Rica, Argentina, Uruguay, Australia, and all over Europe — that there are key ways to building ethical workplaces across cultures."

Why time management is ruining our lives; Guardian, 12/22/16

Oliver Burkeman, Guardian; Why time management is ruining our lives:

"Personal productivity presents itself as an antidote to busyness when it might better be understood as yet another form of busyness. And as such, it serves the same psychological role that busyness has always served: to keep us sufficiently distracted that we don’t have to ask ourselves potentially terrifying questions about how we are spending our days. “How we labour at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our life because it is even more necessary not to have leisure to stop and think,” wrote Friedrich Nietzsche, in what reads like a foreshadowing of our present circumstances. “Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.”

You can seek to impose order on your inbox all you like – but eventually you’ll need to confront the fact that the deluge of messages, and the urge you feel to get them all dealt with, aren’t really about technology. They’re manifestations of larger, more personal dilemmas. Which paths will you pursue, and which will you abandon? Which relationships will you prioritise, during your shockingly limited lifespan, and who will you resign yourself to disappointing? What matters?"

Oracle executive publicly resigns after CEO joins Trump's transition team; Guardian, 12/21/16

Olivia Solon, Guardian; Oracle executive publicly resigns after CEO joins Trump's transition team:

"George Polisner, 57, who had worked at Oracle on and off since 1993, posted his resignation letter to LinkedIn, outlining concerns over Trump’s choice of cabinet, tax and environmental policies as well as the stoking of fear and hatred towards minorities...

Once he made his mind up to resign, he told his manager before sending the letter to Catz and simultaneously publishing to LinkedIn. “I decided it was too important to die as a private letter.”

Polisner said that it’s important for technology companies to have dialogue with the Trump administration, as happened at last week’s roundtable attended by execs from companies including Apple, Google, Facebook, IBM and Oracle...

However, Polisner remains concerned about how the president-elect could use technology as a tool to concentrate wealth and power and oppress vulnerable parts of society.

“In my mind the table has already been set and they are not going to listen to a tech person who says ‘this may not work out so well’ because they’ve already calculated the impact to the balance sheet.”"

USPTO Fights Fraudulent Trademark Solicitations; Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Mary Boney Denison, Director's Forum: A Blog from USPTO's Leadership, 12/21/16

Guest blog by Commissioner for Trademarks Mary Boney Denison, Director's Forum: A Blog from USPTO's Leadership; USPTO Fights Fraudulent Trademark Solicitations:

"The USPTO has worked hard to fight solicitations from companies fraudulently promising to protect trademarks, and we have taken a number of steps to help raise awareness of these schemes in an attempt to limit the number of victims defrauded. Our agency works closely with federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and the United States Postal Inspection Service to combat the problem...

A registered trademark is a valuable asset, and where there’s money, unfortunately, there are bound to be criminal elements lurking. The USPTO continues to provide its ongoing full support to U.S. law enforcement officials working on this issue."

"Signed Us Up"; Bizarro, 12/22/16

Dan Piraro, Bizarro; "Signed Us Up"

Should Couples Get Prenups for Their Ideas?; New York Times, 12/21/16

Room for Debate, New York Times; Should Couples Get Prenups for Their Ideas? :

"The number of 18- to 35-year-olds seeking prenups is on the rise nationwide, but many millennials are more interested in protecting intellectual property — such as films, songs, software and even apps that haven’t been built yet — than cash.

What does this shift mean for marriage and divorce?"

The Thorny Ethics of the Oscars; New Yorker, 12/21/16

Michael Schulman, New Yorker; The Thorny Ethics of the Oscars:

"It seems impossible, and misguided, to demand an ethical CAT scan for everyone who’s nominated for an Oscar. Not long ago, I had lunch with an Academy member who had been busily attending screenings. When I asked whether the Affleck story would color his vote, he said anxiously, “I just don’t know.” Each Artist vs. Art case is complicated—less a one-to-one ratio than a quadratic equation—but, at some point, Academy members will be faced with a list of five names and a choice to make. What if it’s between Affleck and Denzel Washington for Best Actor, and you think Washington’s a great guy but Affleck gave the better performance? Forget the rabbi: each Oscar voter is now his or her own Solomon the Wise."

‘Ethics in the Real World,’ Peter Singer’s Provocative Essays; Book Review by Dwight Garner, New York Times, 12/19/16

Book Review by Dwight Garner, New York Times; ‘Ethics in the Real World,’ Peter Singer’s Provocative Essays:

[Update 12/21/16: I was able to locate and buy this afternoon a copy of Ethics in the Real World (2016), a collection of 82 essays by Peter Singer, at a Barnes & Noble at Settler's Ridge in suburban Pittsburgh. The 4-page essay "Rights for Robots?" was written by Peter Singer (with Agata Sagan). Though this essay was written in 2009, the ethical issues it raises about robots seem even more timely and relevant today.]

[Kip Currier: Just read the New York Times review (excerpted below) of Princeton University philosopher Peter Singer's new book “Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter" and was intrigued by some of the chapter titles, like "Rights for Robots?" Unfortunately, the Barnes & Noble near me is holding their only print copy for another customer. But I'll pick up a copy elsewhere this week and look forward to checking it out.]

In his new book, “Ethics in the Real World: 82 Brief Essays on Things That Matter,” Mr. Singer picks up the topics of animal rights and poverty amelioration and runs quite far with them. But he’s written better and more fully about these issues elsewhere; they are not the primary reason to come to this book.

“Ethics in the Real World” comprises short pieces, most of them previously published. This book is interesting because it offers a chance to witness this influential thinker grapple with more offbeat questions.

Among the essay titles here: “Should Adult Sibling Incest Be a Crime?”; “Is It O.K. to Cheat at Football?”; “Tiger Mothers or Elephant Mothers?”; “Rights for Robots?”; and “Kidneys for Sale?” This book is the equivalent of a moral news conference, or a particularly good Terry Gross interview."