EDUCATION Freshmen report record stress

College freshmen report record level of  stress.

ECONOMY Texas kids seriously affected by state economic policy

According to officials at Austin-based Texans Care for Children, a multi-issue, nonpartisan policy organization, Texas children are falling behind the rest of the country in nearly every aspect of child well-being.

SCIENCE Dispute over Global Warming continues

Cold Jumps Arctic ‘Fence,’ Stoking Winter’s Fury

COMPUTING Assange and WikiLeaks

Dealing With Assange and the Secrets He Spilled

EDUCATION College makes few changes in intellectual power

Does College Make You Smarter? Appears not much (if any,)

POLITICS Analysis gives Obama reelection edge

With bumps along the way, Obama still has healthy lead 

LAW ENFORCEMENT Debate over domestic use of drones

What's that in the sky? It's a bird, No its a plane, It's Super Snoop!

NEUROSCIENCE - Brain Rehabilitation

Giffords faces long road to help her brain rebuild itself after Tucson shooting

WRITING Hersh provokes anger in attack on military fundamentalism

New Yorker's Hersh sparks anger, puzzlement with remarks on military 'crusaders

PSYCHOLOGY Empathy declining in young.

What? Me care? Empathy is seen to be decreasing in current generation

NEUROSCIENCE - Managing emotion with Chess-Boxing

Could chess-boxing defuse aggression in Arizona and beyond

NEUROSCIENCE Military Information Overload

In New Military, Data Overload Can Be Deadly

CRIME Child Molestrs

As child porn activity grows, efforts to trap offenders do too

IGNORANCE A Dialog With Conspiracy Nuts

Alice, Meet the Stupids Family

Shortly after the anniversary of he 9/11 attack, a writer had submitted an article calling for the nation to come together in the same spirit as had motivated us immediately following the actual attack, in 2001.

Apparently totally unable to focus on that content, a number of individuals reverted once again to try to prove that attack was a U,S. Government conspiracy. This is the dialog  between myself and a number of the advocates of this theory, taken directly from the comments appearing at that time. The term “Author,” is, at all times, referring to my comments or responses.

EMPLOYMENT - Job Growth

Where the Jobs Are - 2011

MEDIA Beck and Assassination Attempts

Brock: Beck "Has Been Responsible For Three Thwarted Assassination Attempts

STATISTICS All events have their own probabilistic causes

Daily Kos: Stochastic Terrorism: Triggering the shooters.

PSYCHOLOGY First Comes Fear - NYTimes.com

First Comes Fear - NYTimes.com

RESEARCH Introduction to Bayes Theorem

ESP Report Sets Off Debate on Data Analysis - NYTimes.com

NEUROSCIENCE - Oxytocin Research

The Dark Side of Oxytocin, the Hormone of Love - Ethnocentrism - NYTimes.com

OP ED -DOUTHAT United in Horror

United in Horror - NYTimes.com

OPED - KRUGMAN Climate of Hate

Climate of Hate - NYTimes.com

POLITICS AZ Shootings bring temporary congressional unity

Arizona shootings have immediate impact on the political conversation in Washington

POLITICS - Obama Administration

Misery With Plenty of Company - NYTimes.com

CRIME - Shooting: Rep Gifford Critical 6 Dead, 12 Wounded

Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson: Did it stem from state of political discourse?

Pardon me for a totally different take on this whole situation, Tragic? Of course. But trying to pin the cause on Tea Party, Palin, Beck, et al, is absurd. There will always be crazies. People talking to voices, or seeing Hitler marching down the street. 

All of us rightfully worry about the surveillance under which we live, justified by the flimsiest of government justifications. Founders, in their constructing the Constitution, did not in their wildest dreams, have any idea of how the Fourth Amendment could possibly fail to protect the privacy of citizens.  Stifling the hate purveyors who dominate much of the media is no guarantee of protection against the crazies.  As a nation, we must somehow find the balance between the technological protections available to us, versus are right to be free from the prying eyes of government.

This will always be a constantly shifting and ever changing fine edge balanced between remaining unseen and unknown, against the protection which professionally managed technology can provide. if for example, YouTube had a built-in capability to identify word or audio combinations suggested in that the submittal was by someone who was potentially dangerous, we might have been warned in advance that this assailant was someone who should be carefully monitored.  Yet, all of us are concerned, and rightfully so, that the NSA has the technological capability, and engages in precisely the same activity, deployed against American citizens.

Does any of this answer the question of privacy?  No.  That said, it is that question which should be asked.

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.”

OPED Revising history through writing

WHEN the new House of Representatives convened on Thursday, the Republican leadership kept its promise to start the session by reading the text of the Constitution aloud. This break from Congressional tradition had a polemical purpose: Representative Robert Goodlatte, the Virginia Republican who came up with the idea, remarked that “lots of my constituents have said that Congress has gone beyond its powers granted in the Constitution.”

CRIME Nebraska School Shooting

The new year is barely a week old, but the nation has already recorded its first deadly school shooting. 

On Wednesday, a 17-year-old student opened fire at Millard South High School in Omaha, sending students rushing to the kitchen to seek safety. The vice principal, Vicki Kaspar, was killed and the principal, Curtis Case, was seriously injured. The gunman, Robert Butler Jr., was later found dead in a car not far from the school, an apparent suicide.

POLITICS - Gibbs Leaves

Robert Gibbs: How the press secretary changed, and who will follow him

ECONOMY - UNEMPLOYMENT

The Job Market -- A lost Decade

MILITARY: Biggest custs since 9/11

Pentagon Seeks Biggest Military Cuts Since Before 9/11 - NYTimes.com

NEUROSCIENCE - Tears decrease sexual arousal in men

Tears may send a sexual message in addition to an emotional one, study finds

POLITICS Dems at all time low

Democratic Party ID Drops in 2010, Tying 22-Year Low - NewsTrust.net

ECONOMY - Deccember Retail Sales Fail

Retail turnaround denied MarketWatch First Take - MarketWatch

ECONOMY - Unemployment

U.S. jobless claims rise 18,000 to 409,000 Economic Report - MarketWatch

Harold Meyerson - Corporate America, paving a downward economic slide

Harold Meyerson - Corporate America, paving a downward economic slide

IRS's 'hard-core' collection tactics needlessly harm taxpayers, report says

IRS's 'hard-core' collection tactics needlessly harm taxpayers, report says

Anonymity and the Dark Side of the Internet

"[Recently written] is a new set of essays on the dark side of the Internet titled 'The Offensive Internet.'The question that drives the volume is 'what can be done about irresponsible information' spread by the Internet, a medium that allows slander to 'be done with a few keystrokes, with complete anonymity, and . . . with no fear that the Internet provider on whose website the slur is found will somehow be held responsible for incorrect . . . or defamatory statements'? In the course of the volume the Internet is characterized as a cesspool, a porn store, a form of pinkeye, a raunchy fraternity, a graffiti–filled bathroom wall, a haven for sociopaths, and the breeder of online mobs who are no better than 'masked Klan members' in their determination to 'interfere with victims’ basic rights.'”

The Upward Mobility Gap

College-educated Americans live in a different country than high school dropouts. The best way to mend the divide is by providing access to a decent education.

Minimum wage to go up in 7 states

But little effect is seen on unemployment or the general economy.

America the Ignorant

One filth believe Obama is a Muslim, as reported by Newsweek  

16 of he Dumbest Things Americans Believe

Americans are often misinformed, occasionally downright dumb, and easily misled by juicy-sounding rumors. But while the right wing is taking full advantage of this reality, the Left worries that calling out lies is "rude."

Conservative or Liberal? Workspace Reveals All

Your office or bedroom holds telltale signs of whether you are a conservative or a liberal, finds a new study. While political conservatives tend to keep a tidy, organized office, political liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces.

THE TRUTH WEARS OFF

Is there something wrong with the scientific method?

An across the boards decline in the significance of well accepted research is examined and explained

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_lehrer#ixzz19W1q1YEF

The Jobs Crisis

The recession has been over for more than a year now, but so many people are out of work that it doesn’t feel like much of a recovery. In November, the economy added just thirty-nine thousand jobs. The failure to translate G.D.P. growth into job growth has given us an unemployment rate that remains near ten per cent (twice what it was in 2007), and has swelled the ranks of the long-term unemployed

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2011/01/03/110103ta_talk_surowiecki#ixzz19VsFbz65

In Pursuit of a Mind Map, Slice by Slice

brain neurosciene A new and tremendously expensive research project is underway designed to eventually provide neuroscientists with an understanding of how the brain is wired.

The Data and the Reality

Maybe they’ve stumbled onto something in their windowless rooms. Maybe the economy really is gathering steam. But in the rough and tumble of the real world, where families have to feed themselves and pay their bills, there are an awful lot of Americans being left behind.

Cheaters Find an Adversary in Technology

Company uses "Data Forensics to identify cheating students and teachers

In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow

Jon Stewart New Edward R. Murrow?  
Demonstrated by role in passage of 9/11 1st Responder Bill

Smart Pen -- Interesting idea

Here it is, a really interesting extension of the much older digital pen. This one requires no special paper, and records voices. It can also be sent as email to others. 


While working at Earthlink, somewhere around 2002, I had an early version of this kind of pen, but it required special paper, which was relatively expensive, and had no audio playback. I recall losing it , which was  monetarily expensive loss, but no loss in terms of usefulness.

Obama's insular White House worries his allies

The president famously relies on a tight circle of advisors. But with Republicans running the House next year, many say Obama will need some new faces to convey a new message.

Obama's Hawaii vacation mixes golf with such topics as arms pact and reelection

"Recharging the presidential batteries"
KAILUA, HAWAII - Almost immediately after he walked off Air Force One early Thursday morning, a relaxed-looking President Obamahad a green lei around his neck and a smile on his face

Computers That Trade on the News

Wall Street Traders Using Text Analysis Tools


The number-crunchers on Wall Street are starting to crunch something else: the news.
Math-loving traders are using powerful computers to speed-read news reports, editorials, company Web sites, blog posts and evenTwitter messages — and then letting the machines decide what it all means for the markets

Two U.S. presidents implicated by ex-CIA black-ops assassin

Two U.S. presidents are implicated in the well documented chronicles and confessions of ex-CIA black-ops assassin, Gene "Chip" Tatum, whose tortured body was found in 2007 on a beach in Panama.B

Barack Obama's Lost Principles

When President Obama ran for the presidency, his rhetoric was distinctly progressive. He is a very good orator and a superior debater and so we can be forgiven for taking the rhetoric seriously.

Julian getting ready to do it again?

Prospect of WikiLeaks Dump Poses Problems for Regulators

“Tens of thousands of its internal documents will be exposed on Wikileaks.org with no polite requests for executives’ response or other forewarnings.”

A Hacker's perspective on WikiLeks

The Hazards of Nerd Supremacy: The Case of WikiLeaks

Big government not the cause of economic problems

Robert Reich tells us what we already knew.


he tax deal negotiated between the president and Republicans is the latest version of trickle-down economics. It also confirms the Republican story of what happened to the economy and how to fix it: The bad economy is big government's fault, and the solution is to shrink government.

Life and Death Decisions Weigh on Junior Officers

QURGHAN TAPA, Afghanistan — The hill wasn’t much to behold, just a treeless mound of dirt barely 80 feet high. But for Talibanfighters, it was a favorite spot for launching rockets into Imam Sahib city. Ideal, American commanders figured, for the insurgents to disrupt the coming parliamentary elections

Obama has strong first-half finish

President Obama ends his first two years with image-altering successes; the next two may prove more frustrating.

Obama/Big Brother

‘Big Brother is watching you’. Yet another move toward a totalitariangovernment has secretly occurred that bears ominous signals for personal freedom. Barack Obama is demanding access to the Internet records of average citizens, in secret, and without court review.

America's New Mercenaries

As American commanders meet this week for the Afghanistan review, Obama is hiring military contractors at a rate that would make Bush blush.

Politics in Iraq Casts Doubt on a U.S. Presence After 2011 - NYTimes.com

Politics in Iraq Casts Doubt on a U.S. Presence After 2011 - NYTimes.com

BAGHDAD — The protracted political turmoil that saw the resurgence of a fiercely anti-American political bloc here is casting new doubt on establishing any enduring American military role in Iraq after the last of nearly 50,000 troops are scheduled to withdraw in the next 12 months, military and administration officials say.

'Don't ask, don't tell' bill clears Senate procedural vote

The Senate voted Saturday to proceed to debate on a bill ending the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, putting the campaign to end the ban on gay men and lesbians one vote away from completion.

Senators voted 63 to 33 go proceed to debate on the bill. Fifty-seven members of the Senate Democratic caucus and six Republicans -- Sens.Scott Brown (Mass.), Susan Collins (Maine), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Olympia Snowe (Maine) and George Voinovich(Ohio) -- voted yes. Four senators -- Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Judd Gregg(R-N.H.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) -- did not vote.

Carpentry among industries that aren't rebounding after recession

IN LAS VEGAS -- Every day in this desert city, the carpenters climb into their pickups and vans, resumes stacked on the passenger seats, driving first to the union hall, then in circles from one chain-linked construction site to another, asking for work.

For a year or more, it has been the same.

Nothing.

If they keep pursuing work as carpenters, in fact, many of them may never find a job.

Amazing Word Frequency Viewer

Compare Frequency Occurrences of any word or phrase from the Middle Ages until today!

"Scholars interested in topics such as philosophy, religion, politics, art and language have employed qualitative approaches such as literary and critical analysis with great success. As more of the world’s literature becomes available online, it’s increasingly possible to apply quantitative methods to complement that research. So today Will Brockman and I are happy to announce a new visualization tool called the Google Books Ngram Viewer, available on Google Labs. We’re also making the datasets backing the Ngram Viewer, produced by Matthew Gray and intern Yuan K. Shen, freely downloadable so that scholars will be able to create replicable experiments in the style of traditional scientific discovery.

US spy agencies paint grim picture of Afghan war

US spy agencies paint grim picture of Afghan war

Two reports produced by US intelligence agencies sharply contradict the American military's claims of success in the nine-year-old war in Afghanistan.

The National Intelligence Estimates on Afghanistan and Pakistan were recently presented in secret to members of the Senate and House intelligence committees. They represent the consensus view of Washington's 16 separate intelligence agencies, led by the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the State Department and the various arms of military intelligence.

6 Ways to Boost Brain Power:

6 Ways to Boost Brain Power:

Scientific American Reports

Scientists Gain Insights into How to Erase Pathological Fear

Scientists Gain Insights into How to Erase Pathological Fear

An OpEd "In Defense of Secrecy"

After using as an example a newspaper revelation of a satellite phone used by Osama bin Laden, the author takes the position that among the limitations on First Amendment rights, should be a requirement that classified information cannot be freely revealed.

Quoted from this article, is the rationale used by the author to support his contention that free speech limitation is justified:

The most common argument is that protecting information, and prosecuting offenders, is a violation of free speech. That is simply not true. The Supreme Court has never upheld First Amendment absolutism. There are legal and reasonable restrictions on what people are allowed to say, print, or broadcast. It is illegal to incite a mob to violence. It is illegal to libel others. It is illegal to make false claims in advertising about a product. It is illegal to utter profanity on broadcast television or radio. And it is, in fact, illegal to reveal information that would cause immediate harm to U.S. national security. This was uncontroversial during World War II, when sailors and their families were routinely trained that "loose lips sink ships."

More Americans Say They're Cybercrime Victims

Americans are nearly as likely to be victimized by an Internet-based crime as they are of other forms of nonviolent theft. At least that's the perceptions expressed by Americans when asked about crimes committed against themselves and their families.

Block Those Economic Metaphors - NYTimes.com

Block Those Economic Metaphors - NYTimes.com

A Wiki hornets' nest

A Wiki hornets' nest:

Eugene Robinson, from the Washington Post raises some serious conflicts arising from the recent shutdown of services by Amazon, PayPal, Visa, Master Card, and others.

There have been Denial of Service attacks on all these companies. Who should be supported as the cyber-war escalates?

Der Spiegel, among the most thoughtful of the German publications offers this contribution to the discussion.

Next, is a look at the Julian Assagne, the man in the middle of all of this.

Richard Holbrooke dies: Veteran U.S. diplomat brokered Dayton peace accords

Richard Holbrooke dies: Veteran U.S. diplomat brokered Dayton peace accords

Why Gawker's Security Breach Is So Bad | The Atlantic Wire

Why Gawker's Security Breach Is So Bad | The Atlantic Wire

Facebook Wrestles With Free Speech and Civility

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive of Facebook, likes to say that his Web site brings people together, helping to make the world a better place. But Facebook isn’t a utopia, and when it comes up short, Dave Willner tries to clean up.

Keeping Secrets WikiSafe

WASHINGTON — Can the government still keep a secret? In an age of WikiLeaks, flash drives and instant Web postings, leaks have begun to seem unstoppable.

That may be just a first impression. Sobered government officials are scrambling to stop the hemorrhage of documents, even as antisecrecy radicals are discovering that some secrets may be worth protecting after all.

New breed launched cyber counterattack in support of WikiLeaks

Rafix was set to attack. The target was Visa.com. The weapon: a battery of personal computers ready to jam the site with millions of simultaneous log-in requests.

"FIRE at WILL, gentlemen!" Rafix wrote in an online message. "Enjoy the epic battle of glory!"

What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students

How useful are the views of public school students about their teachers?

Quite useful, according to preliminary results released on Friday from a $45 million research project that is intended to find new ways of distinguishing good teachers from bad.

Web Attackers Find a Cause in WikiLeaks

Starting years ago as mischievous kids, they have grown to a political hacking organization

VA Tech Made Fatal Errors in Shooting

Va Tech critics frustrated by report response.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Critics of how Virginia Tech handled the 2007 campus massacre said Friday they are frustrated but not surprised that the university still refuses to acknowledge mistakes, despite a federal report that concludes officials broke the law by failing to promptly warn students a gunman was on the loose.

Obama's Tax Deal

Charles Krauthammer views Obama as having made a great deal.

Sorkin on Palin's Moose Kill

Aaron Sorkin takes off on the grisly kill of a Moose on Palin's awful Alaska reality show.

The Cost of Inflation

Beck tells audience to ruin Thanksgiving dinner with misinformation about inflation

While advising his Fox News viewers to talk about inflation at their Thanksgiving dinners, Glenn Beck falsely claimed that the government removed food and energy prices from its measure of inflation to hide rising prices, that a survey showed economists are "worried" about inflation, and that Social Security recipients are not receiving a cost-of-living adjustment because the government "changed the calculation."

!st Amendment gets a bit strained

Twitter tirades test limits of freedom of speech

Joking threats expressed as tweets between friends has led them to trouble with law enforcement.

One More Barrier to Education

The Technology Monster

With all that doesn't work in the schools, now comes not a Game Changer, but a Brain Changer -- and unfortunately, not for the good

Decline and Fall of the American Empire?

American Psychosis by Chris Hedges

While I do not agree with the author in his analysis of how the culture of America is driving it to collapse, I think there is a fundamental problem in that, there will continue to be a mismatch between available jobs, the skills required to perform them, and the availability of a workforce was skills matching those required.

Our public education system has declined to the point where it is functionally useless. There is no quick and simple fix for the barriers which make it impossible for 18-year-olds to be sufficiently intellectually competent to qualify for additional training. Moreover, given the financial straits in which universities and colleges find themselves, they are little prepared to receive the many who might seek postsecondary education, and even less prepared to prepare those students who do attend to enter the workforce with the skills it requires.

Even were it the case that a skilled workforce existed, at this point there simply are not jobs regardless of the level of training possessed by individual workers. Employers have either found ways to replace workers with automation or other technology, or they simply do not have enough revenue for them to be willing to hire additional workers. The costs of health care, retirement, and other benefits have become simply so prohibitive that employers are unable to determine with certainty the productivity of additional workers.

It is without this very revenue to workers that prevents what used to be the largest contribution in tax revenue, that which came from consumer activity, from once again increasing. That lack of consumer activity is the very factor which stands in the way of producing the revenue that local governments, state governments, and the federal government all require to get the country out of the economic hole in which it finds itself.

Cyber-theft continues to grow

Cyberthieves still rely on human foot soldiers

Reviews passenger backlash toward invasive "Pat Down Screening"

Congress -- too stupid to care!

Party Gridlock in Washington Feeds Fear of a Debt Crisis

Reading this article, it appears as though our Congress either no longer cares about those it governs, and/or is incompetent and unwilling to solve the problems which face us. Be afraid – Be very afraid!

“The unwillingness of the two parties to compromise to control a national debt that is rising to dangerous heights.”

“After decades of warnings that budgetary profligacy, escalating health care costs and an aging population would lead to a day of fiscal reckoning, economists and the nation’s foreign creditors say that moment is approaching faster than expected, hastened by a deep recession that cost trillions of dollars in lost tax revenues and higher spending for safety-net programs.

“Yet rarely has the political system seemed more polarized and less able to solve big problems that involve trust, tough choices and little short-term gain. The main urgency for both parties seems to be about pinning blame on the other, before November’s elections, for deficits now averaging $1 trillion a year, the largest since World War II relative to the size of the economy.

‘… hardly alone in sounding an alarm about the long-term budgetary outlook, which hasMedicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs growing at unsustainable rates and an inefficient tax system that cannot keep up.

“And to use the politics of fear and division and hate on each other — we are at a point right now where it doesn’t make a damn whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican if you’ve forgotten you’re an American.”

Injustice, Hysteria and Corruption of the Law

‘Sexting’ Hysteria Falsely Brands Educator as Child Pornographer

After more than thirty years as a respected educator, the victim is branded a sex offender following an innocent effort to simply do his job. Apparently done only to enhance the "Law and Order' reputation of the town prosecutor.

CS Class Cheating at Stanford

The Temptation to Cheat in Computer Science Classes at Stanford

In January, on the first day of the Computer Science 106A: Program Methodology course at Stanford University, Eric Roberts, the professor, began with his customary admonition: Cheat, and you will be caught. And, he added: Cheat, and your classmates will suffer. More weight will be given to the final exam when calculating the final grade.

Application for Work from Home

This is a current resume and application to interested employers for any possible position which I can fill by working from my home office.

They're at it once again!

The Politics of Fear

(New York Times – February 10, 2010)

An election is coming, so the Republicans are trying to scare Americans by making it appear as if the Democrats don’t care about catching or punishing terrorists

Think you can avoid being a victim of the marketers? Look at what they are doing, now!

The 5 Creepiest Advertising Techniques of the (Near) Future

George Washington's Blog: The Real Reason that the U.S. Tortures People

George Washington's Blog: The Real Reason that the U.S. Tortures People

War in the Workplace -- Table of Contents & ForwardLabor law,

War in The Workplace – Combating the Predatory Employer

Forward

Now retired, the I have, over the course of a career been an educator a university administrator, a business owner, and an employee of organizations in the private sector. Before being laid off in a mass Reduction in Force (RIF), I was employed as a Senior Data Analyst. Yet, there was something very odd as I attempted to perform the tasks  specified in the job description provided at hire.

 

An analyst, after all, is expected to provide answers to complex questions. Achieving this goal demands not only technical skills, but the ability to assist clients in framing useful questions from which data can provide reliable and valid answers. Unfortunately, a series of ignorant (unknowing, lacking knowledge) managers found the job description so threatening,  I was barred from conducting these powerful and useful analyses, unless specifically requested by a client. Since they didn’t know what to ask, such requests were almost never made. Instead I was reduced to acquiring data from one source, formatting the findings in Excel – all totally routine robotic, clerical work.

Aside from the boredom, and constant confrontations with my managers, some will, perhaps, recognize that changing the tasks set out in my Job Description, requiring the skills of a qualified professional worker, to what was essentially, the work of a clerical worker, entitled me to overtime pay. A full year before being laid off, I brought this matter (in writing) to the attention of management going all the way to the top of my reporting chain. Any response? Absolute, total, zero. For them, disregarding that they did not wish to hear, was the strategy of choice.

Then came a mass RIF. I, along with some 3,00 other workers, nationwide, was laid off. Even then, there was a hook. In order to receive severance benefits, I was required to sign a Waiver and Release. In essence, this document eliminated my rights to take legal action in or form, against the employer,. This was pure bluff, since, in California, as is the case in many states, an employee cannot give up his rights to sue for back wages due.

It took me a little over two years to get full payment of the overtime wages that were due. This book is designed to assist you in determining your  rights, and even more importantly, providing you with strategies to negotiate the very long, often frustrating path, to receiving the wages you are owed.

Table of Contents

I - What will you learn from reading this book?   

Are you an employee paid on a fixed salary, working many hours of overtime, for which you are never paid? Are you consistently deprived of short rest periods, or even a lunch, uninterrupted by demands that you respond to text messages, or even return to your workplace without completing lunch?

As the economic horizon darkens, thousands of workers in California have either been laid off, received notice of an impending reduction of their employer’s workforce, or wonder every  day, if they soon will become victims of the spreading end to the work they have done for many years.

Having won a large judgment against a former employer, the author of this booklet will tell you how you can determine whether you are entitled to back overtime wages, and if you are, give you a step by step process to collect these wages from your current or past employer.

II. How do employers rip you off?

III.  How do I know if I am a non-exempt employee?

     A. Executive Exemption

     B. Administrative Exemption

     C. The Computer Exemption

 

IV.  So, how do I collect?

V.  Is all this work worth it?

      A. Lunch and Rest Breaks

      B. A Recovery Scenario

      C. Overtime Pay

      D. The Independent Contractor Scam

      E. Determining Qualification for Independent Contractor

           Status

VI. On your own, or with others?

      A. Do it Yourself

      B. Retain Legal Counsel

      C. The Class Action Lawsuit

VII. Obtaining the Wage Award

     A. Filling out the Wage Claim

     B. When to File

VIII. The Informal Conference

     A. Finding an Attorney

     B. Preparing for the Formal Hearing

     C. Selecting witnesses

     D. The Exhibits

     E. The Hearing Brief

     F. Putting it all together

IX. At Long Last – It’s Hearing Day!

     A. The Hearing Room

     B. What to expect

     C. The written finding

X. Two other Possible Issues

     A. Extending the Statute of Limitations to four years

     B. The Waiting Time Penalty

XI. Other Claims

     A. Discrimination

     B. Harassment

     C. Physical and mental disabilities

     D. Safety in the workplace

     E. Layoffs and wrongful termination

Appendix A - Waiver and Release (Redacted)

Appendix B - Plaintiff’s Hearing Brief (Redacted)

Appendix C – Witness Interrupted Lunch Declaration

Appendix D – Points and Authorities

If you would like to purchase send $15.00 to my PayPal address at inf@tptek.com. A download link will be sent to you upon receipt.

A War of Two Worlds – Part 1

Measuring the effectiveness of Op-Ed Articles

In this, Part I of a three part article, the author presents a new method to evaluate the potential effectiveness of Op Ed or other expository writings. Part 2 considers the barriers faced by activists as they attempt to influence citizen motivation to participate in the political process. Part 3 looks at the targets of policy change, the Politicians, and the potential for changing their behavior.

Using Cross Tabulation

In this article, I introduce the essential statistics necessary for viewers of cross tabulation tables to obtain the power that these tables offer.

New Fndings about the location of Sarcasm

There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

Katherine P. Rankin, a Neuropsychologist, Studies Sarcasm - NYTimes.com