Rotundus.com

That's the title of a recent article by Daniel Jelski, a chemistry professor. His three laws of employment:

1. People will get jobs doing things that computers can’t do.
2. A global market place will result in lower pay and fewer opportunities for many careers. (But also in cheaper and better products and a higher standard of living for American consumers.)
3. Professional people will more likely be freelancers and less likely to have a steady job.

Overall I'm inclined to agree with quite a few of his ideas, although #3 is the one that I'm currently most skeptical of (at least when it comes to computer science - a lot of that has already been outsourced). He does seem to be right that a lot of jobs with the same title as a few decades back are now significantly different in terms of day-to-day tasks - e.g. his example of electrical engineering. Similarly, and particularly for computer science, as he notes a lot of the future job market is likely to be global.

What does that mean for the future of science and engineering?

Laws #1 & 2 predict that there will likely be fewer STEM jobs in the future – they are both easily computerized and tradable. People will always be employed in STEM disciplines, many of them highly paid, but they’ll be paid for smarts rather than education.

... So if computerized, tradable skills won’t create much new employment, if any, what will? Clearly, it will be non-tradable skills that can’t be computerized. At their most valuable these jobs depend on human-human interaction - empathy.

Basically he sees a stronger need for the ability to deal with humans. That's something that the typical scientist doesn't quite seem to excel at - at least not to those outside his/her field.

Maybe having done a science honours program with an extended minor in the humanities wasn't such a bad thing. (Although I occasionally wish I'd taken more Math and Statistics given the direction my research has taken me).

Megaupload Equals Mega Fail for Cloud Computing

"This fiasco will become the biggest fail in the history of cloud computing to date. To me, and I've said this before, using a site in the cloud for backup is folly unless it just happens to be a third method of reinforcement." Of course backup tapes themselves could fail, so perhaps the solution might be to back up to several clouds to retain independence?

Wow. But Is the Number Real?

"How many jobs did the American economy add in January? The Labor Department estimated on Friday that the economy gained 243,000 jobs. The department also estimated that the economy lost 2,689,000 jobs in the month." - Yay seasonal adjustments! Looks a lot worse in this analysis if you account for the percent of the population not in the labour force.

The M.R.S. and the Ph.D.

A piece arguing that whereas women with more education were in the past less likely to marry that the opposite is now the case.

Samuel L. Jackson's 'racist' reason for voting Obama: 'Because he was black'

In his words, Obama's "message didn't mean sh*t to me." The article goes on to mention that "Obama won 43 percent of the white vote in 2008, including 54 percent of young whites ... On the other hand, 96 percent of blacks supported Obama."

What causes a person to have a particular sexual orientation?

The American Psychological Association's position: "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that an individual develops a heterosexual, bisexual, gay, or lesbian orientation. Although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors. Many think that nature and nurture both play complex roles; most people experience little or no sense of choice about their sexual orientation."

It Boils Down To This: Cheap Wine Works Fine

At least if you're cooking with it: "It wasn't that the finished dishes were identical -- in fact, they did have surprisingly distinct flavors -- but the wonderful wines and the awful ones produced equally tasty food, especially if the wine was cooked for more than a few minutes."

What Jesus Might Say Is Debated in Survey of Christian Politics

The study's author: "Liberals are conceding that they're deviating from Jesus on their views on moral issues and conservatives are conceding that they are deviating from Jesus on fellowship issues."

Study: More Women Opting Out of Corporate Rat Race

"So what’s been known for a long time to be true – that women, far more than men, tend to choose free time and flexibility over money and advancement – continues to be true. Moreover, it holds not only for women generally but as well for women who are both well-educated and fully inculcated with the “work first” ethos taught by feminists for decades. That is, the appeal of family takes precedence even for those women we might have thought would be the most resistant to it." Also noted are the studies findings that "while 62% of women with children say they would take more free time over more money, a larger number of single women — 68% — say they would."

So You Think You Can Be a Morning Person?

"Sleep experts say that with a little discipline (well, actually, a lot of discipline), most people can reset their circadian clocks. But it’s not as simple as forcing yourself to go to bed earlier (you can’t make a wide-awake brain sleep). It requires inducing a sort of jet lag without leaving your time zone. And sticking it out until your body clock resets itself. And then not resetting it again." ... and good luck with that.

Wrong superhero: