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Home2014November

Month: November 2014

The Restless Project

Hey eggheads: Part-time work is the new normal, and that’s horrible

November 12, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

There’s “employed” as defined by government statistics. And then there’s “employed,” but not even working enough hours to pay the rent. Roughly five percent of U.S. workers are stuck in part-time jobs when they really want full-time work.   It’s a problem that’s not going away, even as the headline [Keep reading]

The Restless Project

Is prison a better investment than college? Are you student loans worth it?

November 11, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

I once wrote a story about a man who, crushed under student loan debt, said he wish he’d gone to prison rather than college. “(College) was the biggest mistake of my life,” Hernan Castillo told me. “At least I would have learned a trade or two and started being independent [Keep reading]

The Restless Project

The Restless Project: Is loneliness the new health epidemic?

November 10, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

You can probably rattle off the risk factors for heart attacks, stroke, cancer, and other causes of premature death with ease: smoking, poor diets, lack of exercise, and so on. Here’s one you probably haven’t considered: Loneliness. I’ve been discussing restlessness and American culture for a few months now in [Keep reading]

Gotchas / Consumer

Facebook to give users more control over their news feed

November 7, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

Facebook took a step today towards addressing perhaps the most common gripe its users have — control of the “news feed” that users see when they log in. Users choose which friends and pages are eligible to be in the news feed, but Facebook’s algorithm decides what actually appears there. [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Home Depot hack even worse: 53 million email addresses stolen, too

November 7, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

Watch your inbox for emails from Home Depot.  And treat them as potentially radioactive. Home Depot on Thursday disclosed that the massive hack it attack it discovered earlier this year is even bigger than previously thought.  Computer criminals who stole 50-million-plus credit card account numbers also managed to take 53 [Keep reading]

No Picture
The Restless Project

Universal minimum wage hike support is no surprise; Americans know they’re underpaid

November 7, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

Election day this year made clear that most Americans, even Red and Blue Americans, agree on one thing. No, it’s not that Obama is bad (or good). It’s not “change.” Or even mistrust of Washington. It’s this: American workers aren’t paid enough. Worker pay wasn’t on the ballot, exactly. But [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

One third of Americans use the same password everywhere, and don’t use antivirus protection

November 5, 2014 Bob Sullivan 0

  Americans say they are worried about getting hacked, but many of them don’t take even the most basic steps to protect themselves, according to a study released Wednesday by Bitdefender. The firm’s research says that one-third of U.S. consumers don’t use anti-virus software, and 30 percent use the same [Keep reading]

Personal

Sustainable journalism: A manifesto of sorts (what I’m up to)

November 3, 2014 Bob Sullivan 4

If I hear one more analyst say this is a golden age of journalism, my head will explode. That’s a terrible disservice to the thousands of former journalists who have been forced out of this noble profession in recent years. If you aren’t scared about the future of journalism, and [Keep reading]

Cybercrime / Privacy

Just how often *should* you change your passwords? Surprise…

November 3, 2014 Bob Sullivan 1

“How often should you change your password?” Sounds like it should be a pretty easy question, right?  After all, it gets right to the heart of most security issues that people face. Turns out, it’s a really hard question to answer. And that’s a problem, because as I spend more [Keep reading]

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About me

BOB SULLIVAN is a veteran journalist and the author of four books, including the 2008 New York Times Best-Seller, Gotcha Capitalism, and the 2010 New York Times Best Seller, Stop Getting Ripped Off! His latest, The Plateau Effect, was published in 2013, and as a paperback, called Getting Unstuck in 2014. He has won the Society of Professional Journalists prestigious Public Service award, a Peabody award, and The Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness award, and been given Consumer Action’s Consumer Excellence Award.

Bob Sullivan