Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
big tech regulation
As well as cyber risk, regulators are
worried about concentrating too much
information in the hands of Amazon,
GoogleandMicrosoft—whichdominate
cloud provision — without the same
levelofsupervisoryoversightasbanks.
The Bank of England is considering
whether to test banks’ resilience by analysing
what would happen if access to
the cloud were disrupted. The BoE is
also expected to publish more detailed
thinking on the subject as a prelude to
possibleregulation.
In the US, the Office of the Comptroller
of the Currency is reviewing banks’
relationships with third-party vendors,
includingcloudproviders.
Sunday, November 11, 2018
benign neglect
Consider the office cubicle. Some people pile their desks with everything
from old newspapers to unwashed
mugs; others are fastidiously tidy. (I
fluctuate.) I’m not saying that people
with messy desks are more productive,
although there’s some evidence that
they are; I’m just saying that if your colleague is a messy-desker then he or she
shouldbeallowedtogetonwithit.
Support for this position comes from
a study conducted by two psychologists,
Alex Haslam and Craig Knight. A few
years ago they set up simple office
spaces in which they asked experimental subjects to spend an hour doing
administrativetasks.
Messrs Haslam and Knight wanted to
understand what made people productive and happy, and they tested four
arrangements in a randomised trial.
One was minimalist: chair, desk, bare
walls. A second was softened with tasteful prints and some greenery. Workers
werehappierthere,andgotmoredone.
The kicker comes with the third and
fourth arrangements. In each case,
workers were invited to rearrange the
pictures and pot-plants as they wished
before settling down to work. But while
some were then left to their labours,
others were second-guessed by an
experimenterwhosteppedinandfound
apretexttorearrangeeverything.
This, unsurprisingly, drove people
mad. “I wanted to hit you,” one participant later admitted. Empowering people to lay out their own space led to happier,moreproductiveworkers.Stripped
of that freedom, everyone’s productivityfellandsomefeltquiteill
from old newspapers to unwashed
mugs; others are fastidiously tidy. (I
fluctuate.) I’m not saying that people
with messy desks are more productive,
although there’s some evidence that
they are; I’m just saying that if your colleague is a messy-desker then he or she
shouldbeallowedtogetonwithit.
Support for this position comes from
a study conducted by two psychologists,
Alex Haslam and Craig Knight. A few
years ago they set up simple office
spaces in which they asked experimental subjects to spend an hour doing
administrativetasks.
Messrs Haslam and Knight wanted to
understand what made people productive and happy, and they tested four
arrangements in a randomised trial.
One was minimalist: chair, desk, bare
walls. A second was softened with tasteful prints and some greenery. Workers
werehappierthere,andgotmoredone.
The kicker comes with the third and
fourth arrangements. In each case,
workers were invited to rearrange the
pictures and pot-plants as they wished
before settling down to work. But while
some were then left to their labours,
others were second-guessed by an
experimenterwhosteppedinandfound
apretexttorearrangeeverything.
This, unsurprisingly, drove people
mad. “I wanted to hit you,” one participant later admitted. Empowering people to lay out their own space led to happier,moreproductiveworkers.Stripped
of that freedom, everyone’s productivityfellandsomefeltquiteill
bruegel icarus science copy
Some scientific discoveries
are better not being madeJackie Wullschlager begins her review
of Heaven on Earth by TJ Clark with a
familiar quotation from WH Auden
and reference to Bruegel’s glorious
picture of the fall of Icarus (“Paradise
lost”, Life & Arts, October 27). She
clearly hasn’t yet made her way to the
stupendous, once-in-a-lifetime
exhibition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
in Vienna, at the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, because, if she had, like me
she would surely have been astonished
by the absence from the exhibition of
the said painting — and then dismayed
to discover that it is no longer
considered to be a Bruegel work.
Forensic art scholarship has
determined that the picture may be
based on an original by Bruegel, but
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” is
by a copyist and not his work. Some
scientific discoveries are better not
made: the absence of this picture —
indelibly seared in my mind, thanks to
Auden, and in the minds of many of my
generation, I’m sure, as a quintessential
product of the fevered genius of the
great Flemish master — is about the
only blemish in this otherwise faultless
and extraordinary show.Christopher EnglishHarare, Zimbabwe
are better not being madeJackie Wullschlager begins her review
of Heaven on Earth by TJ Clark with a
familiar quotation from WH Auden
and reference to Bruegel’s glorious
picture of the fall of Icarus (“Paradise
lost”, Life & Arts, October 27). She
clearly hasn’t yet made her way to the
stupendous, once-in-a-lifetime
exhibition of Pieter Bruegel the Elder
in Vienna, at the Kunsthistorisches
Museum, because, if she had, like me
she would surely have been astonished
by the absence from the exhibition of
the said painting — and then dismayed
to discover that it is no longer
considered to be a Bruegel work.
Forensic art scholarship has
determined that the picture may be
based on an original by Bruegel, but
“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus” is
by a copyist and not his work. Some
scientific discoveries are better not
made: the absence of this picture —
indelibly seared in my mind, thanks to
Auden, and in the minds of many of my
generation, I’m sure, as a quintessential
product of the fevered genius of the
great Flemish master — is about the
only blemish in this otherwise faultless
and extraordinary show.Christopher EnglishHarare, Zimbabwe
1914-18, german dominance in europe , end of status quo
tally,aboutwesternEuropebutabouta
struggleformasterybetweenGermany
and Russia. Each time German aggression sucked France and Britain into
war. Long before anyone had heard of
Adolf Hitler, the German chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
wrote in 1914 that his regime’s aim was
“toeliminateforalltimethatwhichhas
been termed the European balance of
power and to lay the foundations for
GermanpredominanceinEurope”.
The German problem received no
solution in the 1919 Versailles treaty.
The new order, inspired by Woodrow
Wilson, was crippled by the US president’sfailuretosecureSenateapproval
for the treaty and US membership of
the League of Nations. The US disengagedfromEuropeanaffairs,withbalefulconsequences.Thankfully,Franklin
DRooseveltandHarryTrumandidnot
make the same mistake in the 1940s.
Unlike Wilson, they knew the val
struggleformasterybetweenGermany
and Russia. Each time German aggression sucked France and Britain into
war. Long before anyone had heard of
Adolf Hitler, the German chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg
wrote in 1914 that his regime’s aim was
“toeliminateforalltimethatwhichhas
been termed the European balance of
power and to lay the foundations for
GermanpredominanceinEurope”.
The German problem received no
solution in the 1919 Versailles treaty.
The new order, inspired by Woodrow
Wilson, was crippled by the US president’sfailuretosecureSenateapproval
for the treaty and US membership of
the League of Nations. The US disengagedfromEuropeanaffairs,withbalefulconsequences.Thankfully,Franklin
DRooseveltandHarryTrumandidnot
make the same mistake in the 1940s.
Unlike Wilson, they knew the val
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