Month: October 2017

BBC – Capital – The art and science of being charismatic

Source: BBC – Capital – The art and science of being charismatic

Charismatic people have mastered a complex set of communication skills which give them considerable advantage in work and life.

For those wanting to be more charismatic, there is evidence that it is not such a magical, or imperceptible quality as it might first seem.

Most of it stems from the way we use words and how points are conveyed. … These are made up of nine core verbal tactics including metaphors, stories and anecdotes, contrasts, lists and rhetorical questions. Speakers should demonstrate moral conviction, share the sentiments of the audience they are targeting, set high expectations for themselves, and communicate confidence.
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Body language, gestures, facial expressions and tone of voice contribute to emotional signalling too and should match the message you want to convey. “What you need to convey [is] the appropriate emotion to what you’re saying. You need to look credible so people will trust you, ” says Antonakis.

There’s precedent for Amazon competing with so many companies. It doesn’t end well. — Quartz

Source: There’s precedent for Amazon competing with so many companies. It doesn’t end well. — Quartz

Amazon is falling into the same trap as GE. Or is it? … For business historians, Amazon is starting to look like the sprawling conglomerates of the past century. History has some bad news, says MIT’s Cusumano. “Eventually, Bezos is going to be, if he’s not already, a sample of the US or world economy,” he says. When that happens, Amazon’s equity growth rate will mirror that of the broader economy itself.
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General Electric (GE) fell into this trap after World War II. As GE brought hundreds of industries under its roof, the company’s stock began to track US booms and busts.

Amazon is betting it will be different.



Anti-competitive behavior is at the core of Amazon’s growth. Kahn states that many of the practices that make Amazon the behemoth it is today would have been considered illegal a few decades ago. The nature of predatory pricing, prohibited under earlier, more expansive views of antitrust law, is changing as commerce moves online, but the effect is the same. … The structural advantages Amazon wields over competitors gives its the ability to price products below cost and restrict access to customers. Over time, Amazon’s stranglehold on the market may degrade product quality, variety, and innovation, and enable exploitive pricing after competitors are eliminated.

The Unforgiving Math That Stops Epidemics | Quanta Magazine

Source: The Unforgiving Math That Stops Epidemics | Quanta Magazine

If you didn’t get a flu shot, you are endangering more than just your own health. Calculations of herd immunity against common diseases don’t make exceptions.

The necessary level of immunity in the population isn’t the same for every disease. … The number of people infected by each contagious individual is known as the “basic reproduction number” of a particular microbe (abbreviated R0), and it varies widely among germs. … Note that the R0 isn’t related to how severe an infection is, but to how efficiently it spreads.

Determining the R0 of a particular microbe is a matter of more than academic interest. If you know how many secondary cases to expect from each infected person, you can figure out the level of herd immunity needed in the population to keep the microbe from spreading. This is calculated by taking the reciprocal of R0 and subtracting it from 1. For measles, with an R0 of 12 to 18, you need somewhere between 92 percent (1 – 1/12) and 95 percent (1 – 1/18) of the population to have effective immunity to keep the virus from spreading. For flu, it’s much lower — only around 50 percent.

Will Congress Reform Criminal Intent? – The Atlantic

Source: Will Congress Reform Criminal Intent? – The Atlantic

Mens rea captures a simple principle: that a person’s intent when committing a crime should determine the punishment he or she faces for it.

“We shouldn’t have people going to prison for things they wouldn’t necessarily know were illegal and had no knowledge or way to find out that they were.”
— Mark Holden, Koch Industries’ general counsel and prominent conservative advocate for reform

“The fundamental anchor of our criminal law, the moral anchor of our criminal law, is that people shouldn’t be punished unless they know they’re doing something wrong.”
— Norman Reimer, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

some Democrats worry that by establishing a default intent standard, Congress would be making it harder for federal prosecutors to bring charges for regulatory offenses that currently lack an intent standard.

In Which My Identity Is Sought By Federal Grand Jury Subpoena | Popehat

Source: In Which My Identity Is Sought By Federal Grand Jury Subpoena | Popehat, by Ken White

It’s disturbing that the government would seek to strip Twitter users of anonymity just because a defendant sent them a smiley face unsolicited.

 

RE: DOJ Subpoenas Twitter About Popehat, Dissent Doe And Others Over A Smiley Emoji Tweet | Techdirt, by Mike Masnick