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Share the profits! Why US businesses must return to rewarding workers properly | Robert Reich | The Guardian
by Alberto Cammozzo Jan. 30, 2022

Jan. 30, 2022

<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/29/share-the-profits-us-…> According to this week’s release from the commerce department, the US economy has been growing at its fastest pace in almost 40 years. Corporate profits are their highest in 70 years. And the stock market, although gyrating wildly of late, is still scoring record gains. Where egos dare: Manchin and Sinema show how Senate spotlight corrupts Robert Reich Robert Reich Read more So why do most Americans remain gloomy about the economy? Mainly because their real (inflation-adjusted) wages continue to go nowhere. Steeply-rising profits, economic growth and stock market highs – coupled with near-stagnant wages – has been the story of the American economy for decades. Most economic gains have gone to the top. So why not share the profits? Profit-sharing was tried with great success in the early decades of the 20th century but is now all but forgotten. In 1916, Sears, Roebuck & Co, then one of America’s largest corporations with more than 30,000 employees, announced it would begin to share profits with its employees, giving workers shares of stock and thereby making them part-owners. The idea caught on. Other companies that joined the profit-sharing bandwagon included Procter & Gamble, Pillsbury, Kodak and US Steel. The Bureau of Labor Statistics suggested profit-sharing as a means of reducing “frequent and often violent disputes” between employers and workers. Profit-sharing gave workers an incentive to be more productive, since the success of the company meant higher profits would be shared. It also reduced the need for layoffs during recessions because payroll costs dropped as profits did. By the 1950s, Sears workers had accumulated enough stock that they owned a quarter of the company. And by 1968, the typical Sears salesperson could retire with a nest egg worth well over $1m, in today’s dollars. The downside was that when profits went down, workers’ paychecks would shrink. And if a company went bankrupt, workers would lose all their investments in it. The best profit-sharing plans took the form of cash bonuses that employees could invest however they wish, on top of predictable wages. But profit-sharing with regular employees all but disappeared in large US corporations. Ever since the early 1980s when corporate “raiders” (now private-equity managers) began demanding high returns, corporations stopped granting employees shares of stock, presumably because they didn’t want to dilute share prices. Sears phased out its profit-sharing plan in the 1970s. Yet, just as profit-sharing with regular employees disappeared, profit-sharing with top executives took off, as big Wall Street banks, hedge funds, private equity funds and high-tech companies began doling out huge wads of stock and stock options to their MVPs. The result? Share prices and chief executive pay (composed increasingly of shares of stock and options to buy stock) have gone into the stratosphere, while the wages of the typical worker have barely risen. Researchers have found that before the 1980s, almost all the increases in share prices on the US stock market could be accounted for by overall economic growth. But since then, a large portion of the increases have come out of what used to go into wages. Jeff Bezos, who now owns around 10% of Amazon’s shares, is worth $170.4bn. Other top Amazon executives hold hundreds of millions of dollars of shares. But most of Amazon’s employees, such as warehouse workers, haven’t shared in the bounty. Amazon used to give out stock to hundreds of thousands of its employees. But in 2018 it stopped the practice and instead raised its minimum hourly wage to $15. The wage raise got headlines and was good PR – Amazon is still touting it – but the decision to end stock awards was more significant. It hurt employees far more than the increased minimum helped them. Corporate sedition is more damaging to America than the Capitol attack Robert Reich Robert Reich Read more If Amazon’s 1.2 million employees together owned the same proportion of Amazon’s stock as Sears workers did in the 1950s – a quarter of the company – each Amazon worker would now own shares worth an average of more than $350,000. America’s trend toward higher profits, higher share prices, mounting executive pay but near stagnant wages is unsustainable, economically and politically. Profit-sharing is one answer. But how can it be encouraged? Reduce corporate taxes on companies that share profits with all their workers, and increase taxes on those that do not. Sharing profits with all workers is a logical and necessary step to making the system work for the many, not the few

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Cloud: pubblicato il "bando" UFFICIALE per il Polo Strategico Nazionale
by Damiano Verzulli Jan. 29, 2022

Jan. 29, 2022

"Procedura aperta per l’affidamento, mediante un contratto di partenariato pubblico-privato, della realizzazione e gestione del Polo Strategico Nazionale" => https://www.difesaservizi.it/pubblicazione-gara-per-il-Polo-Strategico-Nazi… 13 anni di durata, 723M€ di valore. Scadenza il 16/03/2022 Chissa' come andra' a finire.... Saluti, DV -- Damiano Verzulli e-mail:damiano@verzulli.it --- possible?ok:while(!possible){open_mindedness++} --- "...I realized that free software would not generate the kind of income that was needed. Maybe in USA or Europe, you may be able to get a well paying job as a free software developer, but not here [in Africa]..." -- Guido Sohne - 1973-2008 http://ole.kenic.or.ke/pipermail/skunkworks/2008-April/005989.html

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"Generative AI" paper and talk by Alexandre Gefen
by maurizio lana Jan. 28, 2022

Jan. 28, 2022

chi si iscrive all'evento riceve il link al paper di Gefen "AI: a Deep History" che si apre con questo abstract: Artificial Intelligence must be considered as a total cultural question and not only as a technological advance. This is a project of the CulturIA team funded by the French National Research Agency that I launched in January. In this presentation, I will show that it is particularly necessary to make the long history of AI, exploring both the complex advance of science and the myths and fictions of AI, which go back to the most remote antiquity. sono prospettive che sono circolate spesso qui in lista nel dibattito sui sistemi di IA la prospettiva francese potrebbe portare spunti nuovi ad una riflessone che vede dominante il contesto culturale anglofono/angloamericano. Maurizio ---------------------------------------------------------- "GENERATIVE AI" Tuesday, February 1, 2022, 3:30-5:00 (U.S. Pacific time) Transcriptions Center (South Hall 2509), or attend through Zoom Open to all EVENT DESCRIPTION At this hybrid in-person and virtual event (open to all) on "Generative AI," Alexandre Gefen will be present in person to discuss his pre-circulated paper on "AI: a Deep History," followed by responses by Professors Fabian Offert (Germanic & Slavic Studies, UC Santa Barbara) and Rita Raley (English, UC Santa Barbara). Alexandre Gefen – Director of Research at the French CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) Theory and History of Modern Art and Literature Unit UMR7172, THALIM, CNRS / Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3) – is a historian of ideas and literature. He is the author of numerous articles and essays on culture, contemporary literature and literary theory. Founder of Fabula.org, he was one of the pioneers of Digital Humanities in France. He discovered the uses of AI for research (word vectors, topic modeling) at the Stanford Literary Lab as part of the project "For an empirical history of literature", Transatlantic program for collaborative work in the field of digital humanities, which he co-sponsored with Franco Moretti (FMSH Paris-Fellon Foundation). Following on his directorship of a research program devoted to the fictions of Artificial Intelligence (ia-fictions.net) he is now the principal investigator of the ANR project "CulturIA, for a cultural history of AI". The event is organized by the Comparative Literature Program and the English Department's Transcriptions Center at UC Santa Barbara. It is open to all, and can be attended in person or through Zoom (see below). PRE-CIRCULATED PAPER "AI: a Deep History" – By Alexandre Gefen (pre-circulated by request or through event registration; see below) Abstract: Artificial Intelligence must be considered as a total cultural question and not only as a technological advance. This is a project of the CulturIA team funded by the French National Research Agency that I launched in January. In this presentation, I will show that it is particularly necessary to address the long history of AI, exploring both the complex advance of science and the myths and fictions of AI, which go back to the most remote antiquity. Respondents: Fabian Offert and Rita Raley (https://zentralwerkstatt.org/, http://raley.english.ucsb.edu/) EVENT LOCATION (& SIMULTANEOUS ZOOM MEETING) The Generative AI event will take place in the Transcriptions Center, South Hall 2509, on Tuesday Feb. 1, 2022, with Alexandre physically present. In awareness that on that date the UCSB campus will be transitioning back from remote activities to in-person instruction and other events, we also welcome participation by campus and worldwide participants through a simultaneous, real-time Zoom meeting (advance registration required). The audience may thus choose to attend in person or online. To receive a copy of Alexandre Gefen's pre-circulated paper, please take one of the following steps depending on whether you plan to be at the event in person or through Zoom: * For in-person participants: please send a request by email directly to ayliu(a)ucsb.edu <mailto:ayliu@ucsb.edu> (with a cc: to rrbaker(a)ucsb.edu <mailto:rrbaker@ucsb.edu>). * For Zoom participants: please register for the simultaneous, real-time Zoom meeting. Once approved by the event organizers (there may be a delay), you will receive an email with instructions for joining the Zoom and also a passcode (look for the passcode at the bottom of the email). The event organizers will also send you a copy of Alexandre Gefen's pre-circulated paper. Register for the Zoom meeting here: https://ucsb.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAof-yoqD8oG9XPgX271yIdofI2c3wlOXvL <https://ucsb.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAof-yoqD8oG9XPgX271yIdofI2c3wlOXvL> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |mural of Giulio Regeni in Mohammed Mahmoud Street, Cairo the source is https://alwafd.news/images/thumbs/752/new/027f918bb62bf148193d5920ca67ded7.… the meaning of the place https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-20395260| ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maurizio Lana Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici Università del Piemonte Orientale piazza Roma 36 - 13100 Vercelli tel. +39 347 7370925

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"The Worker as a Data Subject: Resources for Data Protection Day"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 28, 2022

Jan. 28, 2022

*The Worker as a Data Subject: Resources for Data Protection Day* Jeremias Adams-Prassl /Professor of Law// //Oxford University/ Since 2006, the Council of Europe has celebrated 28 January as Data Protection Day—known globally as Privacy Day. Data processing now impacts on many spheres of life. One of these is employment: increases in the scale and ease of data processing have led to a sharp increase in employers’ use of algorithmic management tools, which facilitate hitherto inconceivable worker surveillance and analysis and enable the automation of functions that were once carried out by HR. To help raise awareness of data protection at work, the team at iManage—Halefom Abraha, Aislinn Kelly-Lyth, and Prof Jeremias Adams-Prassl—have brought together ten resources examining this new phenomenon through a data protection lens. As the GDPR enters its fourth year of application, these papers provide a great starting point for stakeholders to understand and address data protection issues around AI systems in the workplace. We explore these and related challenges in the course of our weekly Algorithms at Work Discussion group (held in hybrid format)—if you are interested in joining, please get in touch. And, most importantly: Happy Data Protection Day! [...] continua qui: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2022/01/worker-data-subject…

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Qualcuno sta rubando la nostra attenzione
by Antonio Iacono Jan. 28, 2022

Jan. 28, 2022

Tradotto in italiano per Internazionale [1] l'articolo di Johann Hari apparso sul Guardian ad inizio mese [2]. Un tratto dell'articolo è stato letto stamattina nel corso della rubrica "Pagina 3" di Radio Tre [3] A. [1] https://www.internazionale.it/magazine/johann-hari/2022/01/27/qualcuno-sta-… [2] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jan/02/attention-span-focus-screen… [3] https://www.raiplaysound.it/audio/2022/01/Pagina-3-del-28012022-9b4ade83-6c…

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Harmonising Artificial Intelligence OXIL authors explore the role of standards in the EU AI regulation
by don Luca Peyron Jan. 28, 2022

Jan. 28, 2022

Mi pare non sia passato in lista, buona lettura dl https://oxcaigg.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/124/2021/12/Harmonisi… _________________________ don Luca Peyron Direttore Ufficio per la Pastorale Universitaria Arcidiocesi di Torino www.universitari.to.it via XX settembre 83, Torino tel. 011 5156239

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A bug lurking for 12 years gives attackers root on most major Linux distros
by Giacomo Tesio Jan. 27, 2022

Jan. 27, 2022

Since 2009, pkexec has contained a memory-corruption vulnerability that people with limited control of a vulnerable machine can exploit to escalate privileges all the way to root. Exploiting the flaw is trivial and, by some accounts, 100 percent reliable. Attackers who already have a toehold on a vulnerable machine can abuse the vulnerability to ensure a malicious payload or command runs with the highest system rights available. PwnKit, as researchers are calling the vulnerability, is also exploitable even if the Polkit daemon itself isn’t running. PwnKit was discovered by researchers from security firm Qualys in November and was disclosed on Tuesday after being patched in most Linux distributions. PwnKit is tracked as CVE-2021-4034. [...] Major Linux distributors have released patches for the vulnerability, and security professionals are strongly urging administrators to prioritize installing the patch. Those who can’t patch immediately should use the chmod 0755 /usr/bin/pkexec command to remove the SUID-bit from pkexec, which prevents it from running as root when executed by a non-privileged user. Advisories from Debian, Ubuntu, and Red Hat are here, here, and here. Those who want to know if the vulnerability has been exploited on their systems can check for log entries that say either “The value for the SHELL variable was not found the /etc/shells file” or “The value for environment variable […] contains suspicious content.” Qualys, however, cautioned people that PwnKit is also exploitable without leaving any traces. Continua su https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/01/a-bug-lurking-for-12… Insomma non temete: dopo 12 anni dalla sua introduzione, questa vulnerabilità è stata corretta entro poche ore dalla propria diffusione pubblica. Giacomo

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Google's Topics API: Rebranding FLoC Without Addressing Key Privacy Issues
by Stefano Traverso Jan. 27, 2022

Jan. 27, 2022

Condivisibilissima critica di Brave alle Topics APIs annunciate da G per Chrome. ‘This isn’t a debate about whether “Topics API is better than FLoC,” or vice versa. […] Choosing the lesser of two evils is no choice at all.’ https://brave.com/web-standards-at-brave/7-googles-topics-api/ Ciao, Stefano -- [signature_79922475] Stefano Traverso, PhD Research Lead Ermes – Intelligent Web Protection www.ermes.company<https://www.ermes.company/> Mobile : +39 331 455 9794

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"Commission puts forward declaration on digital rights and principles for everyone in the EU"
by J.C. DE MARTIN Jan. 26, 2022

Jan. 26, 2022

Today, the Commission is proposing to the European Parliament and Council to sign up to a declaration <https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news-redirect/733938> of rights and principles that will guide the digital transformation in the EU. The draft declaration on digital rights and principles aims to give everyone a clear reference point about the kind of digital transformation Europe promotes and defends. It will also provide a guide for policy makers and companies when dealing with new technologies. The rights and freedoms enshrined in the EU's legal framework, and the European values expressed by the principles, should be respected online as they are offline. Once jointly endorsed, the Declaration will also define the approach to the digital transformation which the EU will promote throughout the world. Executive Vice-President for a Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe*Vestager*, said: /“We want safe technologies that work for people, and that respect our rights and values. Also when we are online. And we want everyone to be empowered to take an active part in our increasingly digitised societies. This declaration gives us a clear reference point to the rights and principles for the online world.”/ Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry*Breton*, said: “/We want Europeans to know: living, studying, working, doing business in Europe, you can count on top class connectivity, seamless access to public services, a safe and fair digital space. The declaration of digital rights and principles also establishes once and for all that what is illegal offline should also be illegal online. We also aim to promote these principles as a standard for the world./” [...] continua qui: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_452

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Appalti di innovazione in Italia: strumenti ed esperienze
by Giacomo Tesio Jan. 26, 2022

Jan. 26, 2022

Scusandomi per lo scarso preavviso, vi segnalo questo webminar che si terrà oggi alle 15.30. Sono certo che molti qui potrebbero contribuire al discorso. Appalti di innovazione: una priorità per l’Europa, su cui il nostro Paese non ha ancora espresso al massimo il proprio potenziale. Tra le criticità principali, una forte disomogeneità nella capacità delle diverse regioni di fare ricorso a soluzioni innovative. Eppure gli strumenti ci sono, basta sapere come utilizzarli al meglio. E un ruolo potrà giocarlo anche il PNRR. Con Guglielmo de Gennaro dell'Agenzia per l'Italia digitale (AgID) discuteremo di opportunità e potenzialità del settore, dialogando con Salvatore Tufano che condividerà l’esperienza della Società Regionale per la Sanità (Soresa) Campania, che nel 2018 con AgID e Regione Campania ha stipulato un protocollo di intesa con l'obiettivo di favorire il ricorso agli appalti d'innovazione e pre-commerciali in particolare nei settori dell’ICT e della sanità digitale. https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7916400766052/WN_z4avgTIWRmWkL2BAC… Giacomo

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