Political observer David Mark and POLITICO reporter Hada Gold join Larry to round up the latest in election politics. Also, Amazon’s workplace practices have come under scrutiny after a fierce New York Times piece detailing what it expects from employees. Then, strategy. Precision. Obsession. For SCRABBLE enthusiasts, playing can evoke these words, and not just to score points.
Elex roundup: Iowa. Biden. And more Trump
Several candidates were at the Iowa state fair this weekend. Trump's still leading in the latest poll, but there's some movement beneath him. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton's dealing with questions about her State Department emails and Joe Biden was reportedly on the phone getting feedback on a possible run.
Political observer David Mark and POLITICO reporter Hada Gold join Larry to round up the latest in election politics.
FOX NEWS POLL (Interviews Conducted August 11-13, 2015)
Guests:
David Mark, co-author of “Dog Whistles, Walk-Backs, and Washington Handshakes (ForeEdge, 2014), and co-author of a weekly political language column for the Christian Science Monitor
Hadas Gold, political reporter at POLITICO
NYT: Working at Amazon is not fun and games
Amazon’s workplace practices have come under scrutiny after a fierce New York Times piece detailing how the company differs from its competitors in what it expects from employees.
Data and metrics are used at every stage of the process in order to evaluate employees and their performance. Brutal honesty on ideas is traded among colleagues and secret feedback is sent to co-workers’ bosses. “Purposeful Darwinism” leaves a minority of workers out of a job at the end of each year. Returns from leave are met with performance evaluations.
These are just a sampling of the workplaces practices that have simultaneously led to the most creative and efficient of solutions, as well as one of the most stressful and crushing of workplaces. Turnover is high, with only 15 percent of its employees having worked there more than five years.
In crafting a high-risk, high-reward environment, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos expects undying fealty to the needs of the consumer as well as total immersion into the ethos of the corporation. The ideal worker is not merely an “Amazonian” but an “Amabot.”
What does Amazon gain from this model of employment? What does it lose? And by its own definition, does it deliver?
Guests:
Brad Stone, author of “The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon” (Little, Brown and Company, 2013). He is also a senior writer for Bloomberg Businessweek in San Francisco
John Boudreau, Ph.D., Professor and Research Director at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and Center for Effective Organizations; co-author of “Beyond HR: The New Science of Human Capital”
Strictly controlled ‘guinea pigs’ in low-fat vs. low-carb diet study
After confining 19 adults with obesity to a metabolic ward for 2 two-week periods, scientists at the National Institutes of Health found that when the test subjects cut dietary fat intake they lost more weight than those who cut carbohydrates.
“Compared to the reduced-fat diet, the reduced-carb diet was particularly effective at lowering insulin secretion and increasing fat burning, resulting in significant body fat loss,” said Kevin Hall, Ph.D., senior investigator with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and lead study author.
“But interestingly, study participants lost even more body fat during the fat-restricted diet, as it resulted in a greater imbalance between the fat eaten and fat burned. These findings counter the theory that body fat loss necessarily requires decreasing insulin, thereby increasing the release of stored fat from fat tissue and increasing the amount of fat burned by the body.”
Health scientists have conducted a plethora of studies pitting low-fat diets against low-carb diets, but results can be flawed due to the 'guinea pigs' straying from the assigned diets or mis-reporting in food diaries, so a highly controlled trial such as this is notable.
What are the implications of these findings?
Guest:
Kevin Hall, Ph.D., Senior investigator with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health and lead study author
AP: Tom Steyer’s Prop 39 to create green jobs in CA has failed
An enterprise piece by the AP today claims that the Clean Energy Jobs Act, which voters approved handily back in 2012, has only produced one-tenth of the jobs it promised to create.
On top of that news, the state hasn’t been keeping track of how much work has been done or how much energy has been saved. The ballot measure backed by billionaire investor Tom Steyer raised taxes on corporations and claimed it would generate clean energy jobs by funding energy-efficiency projects in schools.
Supports of the prop claim it’s far too early to attempt to measure its success. They point out that it went into effect while the state was still climbing out of a recession and that the funds have only been flowing to schools for 13 months and many schools are still in the planning stages of bigger projects that will create more jobs and more energy savings.
PROPOSITION 39: OFFICIAL TITLE AND SUMMARY
Guests:
, staff writer for the Associated Press in their State Capitol Bureau; she wrote the piece California measure fails to create jobs
Lawsuits against SoCal cities claim ban on donation bins violate 1st Amendment
You’ve seen them around: those giant colorful metal donation bins seeking clothing and shoes across the region.
Their sudden proliferation had led many cities to outright ban these bins. But according to the Los Angeles Times, a recent lawsuit won by the nonprofit Planet Aid against a ban put in place by a city in Michigan on free speech grounds might pave the way of their reappearance on the streets of Los Angeles and Orange counties.
The Massachusetts-based Planet Aid owns about 20,000 donation bins in the country, about 1,500 in Southern California.
Planet Aid has also filed similar suits against the cities of Alhambra, Corona, and Stanton.
Guest:
Larry Rosenthal, professor of law at the Chapman School of Law
National Labor Board denies college players right to unionize
CHICAGO (AP) - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Monday threw out a historic ruling that gave Northwestern University football players the go-ahead to form the nation's first college athletes' union, saying the prospect of union and nonunion teams could throw off the competitive balance in college football.
The decision dismissed a March 2014 decision by a regional NLRB director in Chicago who said that the football players are effectively school employees and entitled to organize. Monday's decision did not directly address the question of whether the players are employees. And it remains to be seen whether the players can still take this to federal court.
DECISION ON REVIEW AND ORDER (August 17, 2015)
Northwestern University Decision Fact Sheet
Guest:
Warren Zola, adjunct professor of Sports Law at Boston College; he also writes for the Sports Law Blog
Word nerd: insider sheds light on the cult of SCRABBLE
Strategy. Precision. Obsession. For SCRABBLE enthusiasts, playing can evoke these words, and not just to score points. Since its birth in the 1930s, the tiny tiles have helped shaped the way we view language, and even raised questions about ethnic slurs and “dirty words.”
In his memoir, “Word Nerd," former executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association, John D. Williams Jr., writes about what it was like to experience the game’s role in Hollywood, the digital age, and stories from what he describes as the “Geek Underground.” He was also the national spokesman for SCRABBLE and mediated between the brand and countless devoted players.
What are your thoughts on the SCRABBLE obsession? What cultural impact do you think SCRABBLE has had on language?
Guest:
John D. Williams Jr., author of “Word Nerd: Dispatches from the Games, Grammar, and Geek Underground” (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2015) and former executive director of the National SCRABBLE Association