Hasta La Gadget!

Politics is the hot ticket in journalism these days. Young reporters long to cover Capitol Hill, when once they longed for the exotic life of the foreign correspondent. “Timbuktu or bust” has become “Washington or fail.” Journalism’s stars today are those who can reel off the precincts of Iowa or the hobbies of senators, not the wonders of rural Sri Lanka.

Yet the passion for politics that has seized the Washington press corps and those who want to join it across the country has not been reflected in the public – not, at any rate, by the abysmally low national turnout of 36.3% on Nov. 4, arguably one of the most important midterm elections in a long time.

It was the lowest voter turnout in 72 years: a seeming monument to voter apathy. Certainly not the sign of a seething, unhappy electorate which believes the bums should be thrown out because the country is on the wrong track. That may be so, but you wouldn’t know it from the voter turnout.

The voter turnout wasn’t large enough for anyone to claim that the country has veered to the right, or that the victors have a mandate. Yet we know President Obama is held in low esteem, although not as low as the risible contempt in which Congress is held.

If the voters didn’t come out in large enough numbers to give us a clear reading, how do we know that Obama is on the ropes and that Congress is despised? We know it, without doubt, from the innumerable opinion polls which are now part of the journalistic toolbox.

There is no doubt about the public mood. So why didn’t the public vote when there was so much journalistic enthusiasm for the election; when an amazing amount of television time, especially on cable, was given to politics; and when radio goes at politics 24-7?

The paradox may be journalism and its commitment to opinion polls, largely funded by the media. If you know who is going to win the match, why buy a ticket?

The passion in journalism for politics has made politics a victim, robbed it of surprise and tension. I voted without passion because I had a very complete picture of the outcome before I did my civic duty. It was like reading an otherwise gripping who-done-it, when I already knew it was the butler.

The metadata people, like Nate Silver, aren’t helping either.

When newspapers are cutting their staffs and budgets are tight, why is political coverage and polling out of Washington thriving? First, it is cheaper to create news than find it. With polls, you scoop the election result. Second, there is a large pot of money for “political issues” advertising that has given rises to a raft of new outlets, forcing old-line media to double down.

Washington politics is no longer a franchise of The Washington Post and The New York Times. It has its own trade press, led by the upstart and well-funded Politico, a big news predator in a school of hungry fish. There is The Hill, Roll Call, National Journal, RealClearPolitics and more than a dozen others, like The Cook Political Report and Talking Points Memo.

It is these new entrants, with their access to instant electronic delivery, that have led the change and fueled the frenzy. They are in danger of becoming the game instead of covering it. They have become more interested in what the polls say than what the politicians say.

On Capitol Hill, members of Congress are in bunker mode. They are afraid to say anything or look a bit tired, distressed or unkempt because these ill-considered words and unflattering images will be flashed across the Internet – there to be retrieved at any time, for all time.

There is a joke around Washington that if a member of Congress breaks wind, Politico will have the story. In this new world, every trifle is recorded and archived. Is this the way to foster statecraft in a dangerous and unforgiving world? Let’s poll that question, shall we?

After Detroit began shutting off water service this year to thousands of customers behind on their bills, critics wondered why the city was letting its neediest residents go without an essential service. On Monday’s episode of the “The Daily Show,” correspondent Jessica Williams traveled to Detroit to find out.

In an interview with Williams, Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley said people think they’re entitled to free water.

“It’s the perfect scheme,” Williams shot back. “Step one, be poor. Step two, don’t pay your water bill. Step three, have your water shut off. Step four — what is step four?”

Williams also took a ride in a golf cart to see why some commercial customers had been allowed to rack up hundreds of thousands of dollars in in late payments and keep their water on.

“Once again, poor people were just blaming the victim: innocent, 18-hole golf courses who desperately need their water for critical fountaining,” Williams said.

The city began a ramped-up plan to shut off water to delinquent residents this spring, steadily cutting off service at the rate of several thousand a month. About 30,000 customers had their water turned off over the last 10 months, according to an October report. Of those 30,000, over half have had their water service restored at some point, after paying their bills or working out payment plans.

Two United Nations experts have called for a federal investigation of the shut-off effort. The water department told The Associated Press this week that shut-offs will continue through winter.

Watch Williams’ look at the Detroit water crisis — and her attempt to find a free place for a few thousand people to shower — in the clip above.

The top workplace question I get asked about from young women is, “How do I negotiate the salary for a new job?”

Sorry, that’s not quite right. What they usually ask me, all too apologetically, is “Is it okay to ask for more money?”

In other words, will their would-be boss be put off by their demands? Will it sour the relationship before it has a chance to develop? Could the offer even be withdrawn? These women are more concerned about what their future employer will think of them than their own self-interest.

These questions make me crazy, but unfortunately, the research that’s been done in recent years shows how screwed up salary negotiations are for women.

A study reported in the Harvard Business Review that found just 7 percent of newly graduated female MBAs from Carnegie Mellon had attempted to negotiate their job offer, compared to 57 percent of their male counterparts. The authors of the book Women Don’t Ask found that the failure of women to negotiate can cost a woman more than half a million dollars over the course of her career.

So yes, by all means, you need to negotiate. And you need to pay attention to the latest research from social scientists, which in some cases, refutes the conventional wisdom. The advice below will also help men, but it’s more important for women to follow it because they are so much less likely to negotiate in the first place.

1. ALWAYS negotiate. Just decide right now that you will always negotiate for what you’re worth, end of story. Many women feel they shouldn’t have to ask for what they want– their fantasy is: I should get what I’m worth without having to fight for it. Just stop looking at negotiation as a bad thing — it’s your chance to use all those great business skills to help yourself.

Hiring managers expect you to negotiate and some will think less of you if you don’t. The chances of you being seen as overly aggressive are much less than you imagine. I have hired more than a hundred people and in all that time, there was only one person who was so obnoxious during negotiations that I nearly withdrew the offer.

On the other hand, I have had many men and women accept my first offer when I fully intended to give them at least five or even ten percent more. I would always feel kind of bad, but I never came back and said, “Here’s another $10,000 that we were planning to give you.” I just saved the money for the next person who wasn’t afraid to ask for it.

2. Negotiate at the right time. Companies always try to “pre-negotiate.” They ask you for your current salary on the application, the recruiter asks you about salary range on the first phone call, and sometimes the hiring manager will bring it up in the interview. These days, online applications make it hard to make your current salary a secret, but don’t fall in the trap of negotiating before you’re given an offer.

Throughout the entire job application process, the company is looking for ways to exclude you from the position, right until you get the offer. Then there’s a psychological shift. A hiring manager typically doesn’t think, “I’m sure any of these three candidates will do.” She decides you’re the one she really loves and she’ll be disappointed if she has to go to her second choice. This puts you in the power position. You want to avoid talking about money before this happens. If it comes up, simply say, “I’m really excited about this opportunity and I’m sure we can work out compensation later if you decide to extend me an offer.”

3. Take a power pose before you negotiate (or during if you’re on the phone.) Social psychologist Amy Cuddy’s research on body language demonstrates how “power posing” can affect your testosterone and cortisol levels. Posing for a couple of minutes in a position of confidence just before the negotiation can help you be more successful.

Business Insider shows examples of two important poses you can use. Before your interview, try “The Performer.” Throw your hands in the air and widen your stance, as if you’re a singer soaking in the applause after a performance. Think Lady Gaga. If it’s a face-to-face or video conference negotiation, you can also try a slight squint during your conversation. Pull up your lower eye lid slightly. Go for ’90s Renee Zellwinger. It will eliminate a “deer in headlights” type of wide gaze that suggests vulnerability.

4. Throw out the biggest number you can reasonably argue for. The conventional thinking used to be to let your interviewer come up with a salary number first. The idea was to avoid coming in too low. But anchoring is the new mantra, as described in Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. The first number you give will anchor the thoughts of your interviewer. So you want to set the bar as high as possible. You don’t even have to say, “I want $150K.” or whatever you think it’s a fair salary based on your research. You can instead say, “My research shows that $150 thousand would be a fair salary for this position.”

Your employer’s strategy might have been to throw out $100K with the willingness to go up to $120, but by anchoring the conversation at $150, you have a much better chance of getting, say, $140. The Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation advises that it’s fine to throw out an extreme first offer, as long as it’s flexible.

Postscript

You can also use this advice when negotiating for an annual raise or even a retirement/severance package. (One woman I know recently doubled the size of her package simply by asking for a better deal.), But you’ll never have as much power as when a company makes you an offer to bring you on board. Don’t be afraid to use it!

Imgur user Thomas Richner had a few cardboard boxes lying around in his basement. Instead of simply throwing them away, the teacher and animator decided to bring back one of his hobbies as a kid: making scale models of the Millenium Falcon. Young Thomas would be so proud of you man.

Thomas’ scale model is 5ft. long and is made almost entirely of the aforementioned boxes, save for a bit of balsa wood along the ship’s hull. Aside from the numerous panels and details on the ship, it also has retractable landing gear and a detachable radar dish. After a total of 140 hours of work, Thomas took the finished model to his school’s green screen set for a photoshoot. Check out Thomas’ album for more:

She looks like much and she’s got it where it counts. I hope you come upon a landfill’s worth of cardboard boxes Thomas.

[via Make:]

In a odd and surprising move, WhatsApp has just offered end-to-end encryption for all Android users. Relying on the Open Whisper System, and using open source code, WhatsApp just gave 500 million users totally encrypted messaging. The encrypted messages are accessed via the user’s device, using a key that only the account owner can access on the device. That means … Continue reading