Today's Sexy Job: Statistician

Gizmos proliferate amid concerns on distracted driving

(NEWSER) - Imagine cruising down the highway at 65mph while checking tweets, buying movie tickets online, or booking reservations at a restaurant. This scenario is the not-too-distant future of driving, reports the Wall Street Journal , as auto manufacturers seek to design an innovative "connected car" full of Internet-accessible gadgetry. The push for a tech-infused car comes as a national push for rules banning phones in cars seems to be fizzling out and automakers look to entice the youth demographic. More»

Court threatens to come down on firms 'like China'

(NEWSER) - A strongly-worded directive from an Indian court, threatening to crack down on websites "like China," has pushed Google and Facebook to bar some content on Indian domains, Reuters reports. Some 19 other companies have also been asked to block material considered offensive to Hindus, Muslims, and Christians following a court case. The companies haven't yet given details of what was removed. More»

Lamar Smith seems unfazed by powerful opponents to piracy bill

(NEWSER) - Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the fiercely controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, doesn't sound like he's bothered much by the heated opposition from e-powerhouses such as Facebook, Google, Reddit, and Twitter. "It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don't want to protect American consumers and businesses," the Texas Republican tells Reuters . The SOPA bill, which would authorize the government to seek federal injunctions against foreign-based websites suspected of piracy, is still in committee hearings and could reach the House floor in a few weeks. More»

This essential question needs to be answered, but it's complex

(NEWSER) - We toss around the phrase all the time, but how do we define what makes a “good job” good? It’s a key question—and a complex one—as we look to the future of our economy, writes Michael Lind in Salon . Among the factors:

• Unions: We often call manufacturing jobs “good” ones, but that wasn’t the case until they were unionized. Service-sector jobs, meanwhile, are often seen as "bad" jobs, but they might see huge benefits from unionization.

Blogs report conflicting information on 'Google Circles'

(NEWSER) - Google will soon launch a social network, blogs are saying, and it may be called Google Circles. The tech blog The Next Web first reported the news Friday, noting that the product would launch at Google’s I/O conference in May; ReadWriteWeb followed with an assertion that the new service would be announced at South By Southwest. Google knocked down the latter claim, but refused to “comment on rumor and speculation” about the service itself, the Telegraph reports. More»