The Daily Populous

Friday June 4th, 2021 evening edition

image for One in twenty workers are in ‘useless’ jobs – far fewer than previously thought

Graeber initially put forward the concept of ‘bullshit jobs’ – jobs that even those who do them view as worthless – in his 2013 essay The Democracy Project.

He further expanded this theory in his 2018 book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory, looking at possible reasons for the existence of such jobs.

But his theory is not based on any reliable empirical data, even though he puts forward several propositions, all of which are testable.”.

According to Graeber, somewhere between 20% and 50% of the workforce – possibly as many as 60% - are employed in BS jobs.

Yet the EWCS found that just 4.8% of EU workers said they did not feel they were doing useful work.

Graeber also claimed that the number of BS jobs has been ‘increasing rapidly in recent years’, despite presenting no empirical evidence.

Soffia, M, Wood, AJ and Burchell, B. Alienation Is Not ‘Bullshit’: An Empirical Critique of Graeber’s Theory of BS Jobs. »

Baby boomers are more sensitive than millennials, according to the largest-ever study on narcissism

Authored by insidermag.net

Generally speaking, as individuals in the study got older, they became less sensitive and the researchers found hypersensitivity sharply declined after a person turned 40.

But when the researchers looked at generation-specific trends, they noticed that overall, older generations were more sensitive than younger generations.

According to Chopik, this could be due to generation-specific events that shaped study participants’ outlooks on life. »

TikTok just gave itself permission to collect biometric data on US users, including ‘faceprints and voiceprints’ – TechCrunch

Authored by techcrunch.com

The more concerning part of the new section references a plan to collect biometric data.

We may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information as defined under US laws, such as faceprints and voiceprints, from your User Content.

In the grand scheme of things, TikTok still has plenty of data on its users, their content and their devices, even without biometric data. »

Shrek Has Been Inducted Into the National Film Registry

Authored by vulture.com

Every year, the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry chooses 25 films of historical, cultural, or aesthetic significance to be marked for preservation.

Yes, it only took 800 movies to get to it, but the National Film Registry has finally deemed the 2001 fart-com Shrek worthy of saving for posterity.

Below is the full list of 2020’s new entries into the National Film Registry:. »

U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either

Authored by nytimes.com

Russia has been investing heavily in hypersonics, believing the technology offers it the ability to evade American missile-defense technology.

If the phenomena were Chinese or Russian aircraft, officials said, that would suggest the two powers’ hypersonic research had far outpaced American military development.

In late 2014, a Super Hornet pilot had a near collision with one of the objects, and an official mishap report was filed. »