The demands of Carreon's initial letter--extortion, in my opinion--ought to be immediately identified as an abuse of power and information asymmetry (again, in my opinion). In a functional legal system, the state bar would review his actions, possibly leading to a revocation of his license.

As a resident of Arizona, I asked that this be looked into at http://www.azbar.org/contactus/contactusform.

I believe such action would go far toward preventing this kind of behavior in the future.

To the detriment of all of us

Yes. STEM jobs resemble those that can be commodit-ized to the untrained eye.

Actually, that may be true for some of them.

Please go tell this to all your manager friends and then punch them in the face for not believing you.

Those company accounts definitely work against us. In the "make a product for 1 dollar and sell it for 5" business model, we're paid out of the $1 and "they" out of the $4.

For an informative glimpse into the future of STEM in the US, look to the MD profession in the UK. Public policy removed financial incentives from the doctors and students wised up quickly. Today there are very few native-born physicians in the UK; they all come with modest financial expectations from countries with a lower standard of living.

Physicians can't perform their jobs from abroad. Scientists and engineers, however...

+1 Cathartic

Geez, go work for a small company. I have about 1 hr of meetings per week and work with my hands (not just typing keys) daily.

The problem with STEM jobs is that they involve actually doing things rather than directing them to be done: the lowest rung on the ladder. Nevermind that the skills required to perform these tasks are far more specialized and difficult to attain than those required by their managers. US students may have sensed that STEM careers are for suckers and are best outsourced; you need only compare the financial state of two equally intelligent 50-year-olds--a scientist and a businessman--to see why.

Most STEM careers are not worth the effort in the US. The ones that are combine technical skills with entrepreneurship or pure luck.

Either (1) workers take unpleasant jobs in sweatshops because it is the best employment option they have or (2) Asian sweatshop workers are persons of weak intellect who have many more attractive job offers but choose to work in sweatshops instead.

-Wheelan et al "Naked Economics"

When someone cross-references a 200GB torrent of amateur porn photos with the facebook database

should read Bogost's book argues that simulation is a form of persuasion, e.g. read it (is less than) hear it (is less than) virtually see someone do it (is less than) virtually do it yourself (is less than) do it yourself. the axiom is that doing something is the best way to persuade your opinion of it.

Bogost's book argues that simulation is a form of persuasion, e.g. read it hear it virtually see someone do it virtually do it yourself do it yourself. the axiom is that doing something is the best way to persuade your opinion of it.

What do you think of AAA studios exploring more moral grey areas (e.g. hostage shooting airport level in COD:MW2) as a form of procedural rhetoric? Do you think players' natural tendencies of (in this case) non-violence toward innocents is solidified or shaken by simulating such acts?

I don't buy it.

Women are accepted to have biological tendencies for wider hips, more estrogen, more fat storage in the front-upper-torso region, smaller than males, etc.

Women are mostly accepted to have biological tendencies for more compassion, more communication, etc.

It is controversial to say women have biological tendencies to be less aggressive, less ambitious toward leadership roles, and less attracted to hard science in favor of humanities.

The difference between these three categories is hardly in their level of correlation (p approaches 1 for all of them), but in how PC they are. If it is cultural, as the authors suggest, they have stumbled upon the most effective population control mechanism in history!

(note: paper was slashdotted; i'm going by the summary and having waded through too many of these types of studies before)