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DebateGraph.org: visualization and collaboration tools

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Debategraph is a software tool with applications for addressing, defining and attacking many types of problems in many ways. Here’s one of their interactive maps on epidemiology:

Who’s using it? Apparently the Prime Minister and the Foreign Office in the United Kingdom, the White House, and CNN, to name names we’d all recognize. Here’s a concept map explaining DebateGraph itself:

It’s free, web-based, and we’ve just begun exploring it. For instance, both visuals in this post are in “Bubble View,” of which there are three variations. But there are also “Tree,” “Box,” “Outline,” “Page” and “Document.” So expect to see more from our explorations (and perhaps experiments) on debategraph.

Cross-posted on Popular Logistics.

 

Reuters: “First spill trial witness: BP put cost cuts over safety”

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The oil slick in the gulf

Deepwater Horizon Oil Slick, May 10, 2010.

From Reuters reporting on the BP oil spill trial; First spill trial witness: BP put cost cuts over safety.

BP Plc fostered a culture that put cost-cutting over safety before the deadly 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a noted forensic engineer said in the first day of testimony in the federal civil trial centered on the disaster. “There is ample evidence of intense pressure within the system to save time and money,” said Bob Bea, co-founder of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management at the University of California, Berkeley. “With stress and pressure come sacrifices to safety.” Bea was the first witness for the plaintiffs, the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Gulf Coast states suing Macondo well owner BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd and well cement provider Halliburton Co. The plaintiffs plan to call Lamar McKay, chairman and president of BP America, to testify as a hostile witness once Bea wraps up. McKay is a member of the London-based oil company’s executive committee, alongside Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley.

Bear in mind that this was filed after the first day of a long trial. (We think we found access to transcripts at MDL 2179 Trial Docs and Plaintiffs Steering Committee, and provide better daily coverage). It’s likely that things will look worse for BP before they look better. Of course, there is the possibility that BP, in cross-examining witnesses, and putting on its own case, will be able to demonstrate that that its conduct was entirely proper and honorable.

And also bear in mind that oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of 60,000 barrels per day for 85 days; an approximate total of 5,100,000 barrels of crude oil.

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Jonathan Soroko, Esq, is an attorney and an investigative consultant. In addition to writing for Discovery Strategist blog,  he writes for Caton Ave and Popular Logistics, where this is posted.

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Popular Logistics Series on the Deepwater Horizon / Macondo Spill

  1. Fossil Fuels and a Walk on the Moon, May 3, 2010.
  2. Drill Baby Drill or Drill Baby Oops, May 7, 2010.
  3. The Magnitude of the Spill, May 15, 2010.
  4. One Month After The Spill BP Siphoning 3,000 Barrels Per Day, May 20, 2010.
  5. Deep Water Horizon – The Chernobyl of Deepwater Drilling?, June 2, 2010.
  6. The Deepwater Horizon: 40,000 Barrels Per Day or 70,000, June 13, 2010.
  7. The Deepwater Horizon After the Macondo Well Explosion, June 19, 2010.
  8. Deepwater Horizon – Bombs and Hurricanes, July 1, 2010,
  9. Like a Bad High School Math Problem, July 14, 2010,
  10. Crisis Management and the Gulf Oil Spill, July 16, 2010,
  11. The Deepwater Horizon: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, October 7, 2010.
 

ClipCube: note-taker, clipboard with memory

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ClipCube is a clip/clipboard manager (download link) as well as a note-taker, runs well in Windows, and can be   run from a flash (thumb) drive. In fact, I’m drafting this post in ClipCube, and I’m going to paste it into the WordPress New Post/Edit Post window. http://zodcode.com/clipcube/download It’s not an HTML editor – but, sitting at the ready in the task bar, it’s readily accessible, and doesn’t have any problems copying and pasting code snippets or a URL. Having a clipboard with memory can free up time – and reduce errors – in repetitive tasks. In the context of blogging, it could be shortcodes, URLs, or HTML snippets; for attorneys, case citations, privilege or confidentiality notices; for academic writing, bibliographic references for footnotes, and for anyone who uses or writes about code – enormously intolerant of the slightest typing error, ClipCube is likely to be a keeper. Just in drafting this review, I’ve found it invaluable and its interface entirely intuitive. Here’s one screenshot:

 

Routinely taped calls form basis of case against J.P. Morgan Unit

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This is much like the cases which leave us shaking our heads about the rationality of offenders – how can they not realize they’re leaving not breadcrumbs, but even clearer evidence, in sealed weatherproof evidence envelopes, as they traverse the forest – usually by means of email or the mere fact of the timing of calls in an insider trading case. Of course, it also raises questions as to whether these are merely the low-hanging fruit, and that others, more conscious of risk, may not show up any the radar of any regulatory agency. From With Tapes, Authorities Build Criminal Cases Over JPMorgan Loss:

Federal authorities are using taped phone conversations to build criminal cases related to the multibillion-dollar trading loss at JPMorgan Chase, focusing on calls in which employees openly discussed how to value the troubled bets in a favorable way.

Investigators are looking into the actions of four people who previously worked for the team based in London responsible for the $6 billion loss, according to officials briefed on the case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation could make some arrests in the next several months, said one person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry was ongoing.

The phone recordings, which were turned over to authorities by JPMorgan, have helped focus the investigation, the officials said. Authorities are poring over thousands of conversations, in English and French. They are also relying on notes that employees took during staff meetings, instant messages circulated among traders and e-mails sent within the group.

By Ben Protess and Azam Ahmad, writing on the DealBook Blog at The Times.

 

 

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Romney net worth report skewed low; used legal tax strategy to create “dynastic wealth”

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Jesse Drucker reports at Bloomberg New reports on Mitt Romney’s windfall profit on a stock deal, and how he transferred it to a trust for his children and grandchildren without paying any taxes at all. Further, the Romney campaign claims his net worth at $250 million, but without including the $100 million transferred to those trusts.

In January 1999, a trust set up by Mitt Romney for his children and grandchildren reaped a 1,000 percent return on the sale of shares in Internet advertising firm DoubleClick Inc.

If Romney had given the cash directly, he could have owed a gift tax at a rate as high as 55 percent. He avoided gift and estate taxes by using a type of generation-skipping trust known to tax planners by the nickname: “I Dig It.”

The sale of DoubleClick shares received before the company went public, detailed in previously unreported securities filings reviewed by Bloomberg News, sheds new light on Romney’s estate planning — the art of leaving assets for heirs while avoiding taxes. The Republican presidential candidate used a trust considered one of the most effective techniques for the wealthy to bypass estate and gift taxes. The Obama administration proposed cracking down on the tax benefits in February.

While Romney’s tax avoidance is both legal and common among high-net-worth individuals, it has become increasingly awkward for his candidacy since the disclosure of his remarks at a May fundraiser. He said that the nearly one-half of Americans who pay no income taxes are “dependent upon government” and “believe that they are victims.”

Trust’s Funds

Romney’s effective income tax rate in 2011 was about 14 percent. He has also enhanced his family’s wealth by moving assets worth $100 million into a trust while taking steps to avoid paying any gift taxes. The trust’s value isn’t counted in the $250 million that his campaign cites as Romney’s net worth.

The bulk of the trust’s income comes from Romney’s interests in Bain Capital funds, hedge funds and other investments, according to his 2011 tax return. The return doesn’t show how much Romney paid for these holdings, nor the value assigned to them when he gave them to the trust, so it’s unclear how much in total the trust has saved in gift and estate taxes.

“People like Mitt Romney make a lot of money, but they pay very little income tax,” said Victor Fleischer, a tax law professor at the University of Colorado who has written extensively about private equity and taxes. “Then by dodging the estate and gift tax, they are able to build dynastic wealth. These DoubleClick documents really show that tax planning in action.”

Read the rest of Jesse Drucker’s excellent work: Romney ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit

 

 

 

 

 

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Collaboration Tools: a list of lists

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Here are several posts listing collaboration software, some quite current, some slightly out of date. Don’t forget to look in the comments, which often fill in omissions of apps with loyal user communities:

Plus:

 

Michal Kedziora/Forensics-Research.com

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Michal Kedziora, of the Institute of Applied Informatics, Wroclaw University of Technology (Poland), is the creator of the blog Forensics-Research.com. Kedziora’s blog is not updated every day, or close to it, but taken as a whole it’s an outstanding resource  for digital forensics, electronic discovery, and related issues. Some posts which I’m sure I’ll be referring to more than once.

Kedziora’s Forensic Toolbox – an outstanding starting point

Mind Map for Hacking Web Applications methodology (CEH)

How to Detect System Time Manipulation

Kedziora’s done us all the favor of compiling resources in one place; for certain specific technical questions – and for general questions about tools, Forensic-Research.com is an outstanding resource.

 

 

“Death Takes A Policy” Alex Blumberg, This American Life, and Pro Publica

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The critical variable may be when the complaining

party is economically powerful. It would seem that at least occasionally complaints from insurance companies are sufficient. This investigation by This American Life and the investigative journalism consortium Pro Publica would seem to be such a case. Practitioners in New York and other states may be initially befuddled; Rhode Island appears not to require an “insurable interest” – that is, a relationship between insured and beneficiary – in issuing a policy, and that the relationship be sworn to in an an application for a policy.

In this case, among the insureds – paid satisfactory amounts in exchange for what is, in effect, a viatical settlement – and their surviving family members – the journalists were unable to find anyone unhappy about the situation. This seems to have put the government in the odd position of, it would seem, simultaneously making two antagonistic positions: that the insureds were the victims of identity theft – despite their not having suffered any monetary loss; and that the insurance companies were the victims, even though they, too, seem to have suffered not only no monetary loss, but profited on most if not all of the policies. Their profit margins may have been lower than their target margins, but on policies that, without this “scheme,” they wouldn’t have sold at all.

It’s important to note that there is no allegation of misrepresentations about health; in most, if not all of the cases, the insurers neither set up medical exams, nor requested any medical information.

From Death Takes a Policy, by Alex Blumberg, broadcast 24 August 2012 on This American Life:    An estate attorney in Rhode Island discovers the investor’s Holy Grail: a financial scheme that guarantees only reward and no risk. All upside with no downside. The only catch? You have to die in order to get the money. But there’s a loophole! Alex Blumberg from Planet Money and Jake Bernstein from ProPublica tell the story of how the attorney, Joseph Caramadre, figured out how to get someone else to die instead.

For a more detailed version of this story plus graphics, documents, video excerpts of the depositions, and a way for you to weigh in on whether it’s acceptable to profit from the death of strangers, visit ProPublica’s website.Death • Economics • Legal System

 

 

 

Mathew Butterick introduces “Equity,” font family for lawyers.

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Matthew Broderick, the creator of the website and the author of the book Typography for Lawyers, has introduced a new font called Equity.  We think – we’ll go further – we here predict that Equity is first going to become the font used by design-aware attorneys, will migrate sideways into other fields because it’s so damned good,  and will become the dominant font group used in legal practice.  It’s so much better than some other fonts in widespread use that it may confer a competitive advantage. Take a look:

 

 

Using the Declaration to show off this font was inspired. We think that people may come to say of Equity what many said of Cary Grant:  audiences never paid attention to what he was wearing, but they always knew he was well-dressed. Hats off to Matthew Butterick!

See also our earlier post, Matthew Butterick: Typography for Lawyers.  And see as well Mr. Broderik Mr. Butterick’s other site, MBType.com

 

Drones used to collect evidence in domestic criminal case

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On The Media, a show produced at WNYC public radio in New York, reports about a criminal case in North Dakots, in North Dakota in which local authorities called federal immigration and customs authorities to requested assistance. The federal agents appear to have twice assisted by providing un-armed surveillance drones. of particular interest to the criminal bar – and a disturbing aspect – is that defense counsel learned of this not in the discovery process, but through a reporter covering the story.

Domestic Drones in North Dakota by Brooke Gladstone at On The Media.

See also:

DiyDrones.com

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Wikipedia entry)