consumerist, Flickr

Does your job make the world a better or worse place? That’s what 30,000 workers were asked last year — and their answers have given researchers a lot to talk about.

Salary comparison site PayScale conducted the survey in which people were asked the question and told to choose from the answer options of “very much so,” “yes,” “a little,” “no” and “My job may make the world a worse place.”

While only one percent picked the last answer, the New York Times was curious about what types of jobs those people had, so PayScale investigated further. Here are the top 10 occupations that had the highest shares of workers saying they thought their jobs made the world a worse place:

• Fast-Food Worker: 42.3 percent
• Bartender: 5.8 percent
• Senior Attorney: 4.9 percent
• Fashion Designer: 4.1 percent
• Associate – Investment Banking: 3.8 percent
• Legal Assistant: 3.6 percent
• Account Executive, Advertising: 3.4 percent
• Claims Adjuster / Examiner / Investigator: 3.3 percent
• Personal Banker: 3.2 percent
• Petroleum Engineer: 3.1 percent

Although a lot of people would take issue with bartenders thinking they don’t make the world a better place, analysts noted two of the 10 spots were banking professions — possibly a reflection of the economic downturn that happened largely at the hands of Wall Street executives.

Sorted by industry, here are the top 10 fields in which employees said their jobs make the world a worse place (the number one slot isn’t a terrible surprise):

• Tobacco Manufacturing: 15.9 percent
• Gambling Industries: 5 percent
• Gasoline Stations: 4.4 percent
• Limited-Service Eating Places (e.g., Fast-Food Restaurants): 2.8 percent
• Beer, Wine and Distilled Alcoholic Beverage Merchant Wholesalers: 2.1 percent
• Petroleum and Petroleum Products Merchant Wholesalers: 1.9 percent
• Legal Services: 1.8 percent
• Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing: 1.7 percent
• Jewelry, Luggage and Leather Goods Stores: 1.7 percent
• Advertising and Related Services: 1.6 percent

[The New York Times]

Mike Coppola, Getty Images

You can fill more than a few lunch pails with Bruce Springsteen songs about the thoughts and struggles of the workingman. Make some room next to the thermos for ‘Jack of All Trades,’ a moving new ballad from his upcoming album that’s now being streamed on the Internet.

Built around a simple piano figure and a minimal drumbeat, ‘Jack of All Trades’ finds Springsteen singing in a mournful voice throughout, capping the verses — which reference household chores, financial inequality and other subjects — with the weary refrain “I’m a jack of all trades/we’ll be all right.”

The nearly six-minute song features an electric guitar solo from Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello. Springsteen fans will remember that Morello joined Springsteen and the E Street Band for a version of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s anniversary celebration at New York’s Madison Square Garden in October 2009.

‘Jack of All Trades’ is the latest in the one-new-song-per-weekday online rollout of Springsteen’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ album leading up to its March 6 release. There are seven songs to go, with the last one scheduled to be streamed March 2.

Listen to ‘Jack of All Trades’ by Bruce Springsteen

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

Obama has just finished thanking all the musicians who attended the concert, which included Jeff Beck, B.B. King and Mick Jagger, when legendary blues man Buddy Guy goaded him into singing the blues classic. “I heard you singing Al Green,” Guy said. “You’ve started something. You’ve got to keep it up now.”

At first, Obama tried to refuse. But then, Jagger passed the microphone and the POTUS launched into a surprisingly tuneful rendition. What do you think? Could Obama have a second career as a blues singer?

Watch Obama perform ‘Let’s Stay Together’ below.

Source: TheFW.com

You Tube

Low budget TV commercials are the best. They look like they were produced in about 10 minutes with a budget of about $15. They almost look like they’re intentionally bad, as a parody of themselves. At least the advertisers don’t take themselves too seriously, or do they? All I know is, that after seeing this commercial, I want to eat at China Star!

Rex Whop Productions via You Tube

You tube

The Bagpipe. It’s popular in Scotland and a few other countries, but musically speaking, it’s about as cool as the accordion.  Check out this guy from Australia by the name of  Cam McAzie, who likes to think of himself as a punk bagpiper, a.k.a.  The Bad Piper. He was a finalist on Australia’s Got Talent. I think the real test here is exactly how long can you stand to listen to it?

You Tube

If YOU could clone someone or something, who would it be?

Here’s my take…

I’ll order at least Three or Four of these.

American Mustache Institute

When someone grows a mustache, all of society benefits, since the visually pleasing facial hair is now on display for all to see. Yet the costs of maintaining a proper lip sweater falls only on the mustachioed individual.

The fine folks at the American Mustache Institute want to change this. So they recently proposed the “Stimulus To Allow Critical Hair Expenses,” or the STACHE ACT, which awards a $250 tax credit to every mustached American. They are also calling for a Million Mustache March in support of the act that will take place in Washington DC on April 1st. (Yup, always a bit suspicious.)

The AMI, who partnered with H&R Block on the proposal, even  drew up a white paper on why the STACHE act is necessary. Here is its summery:

In summary, the grooming habits of Mustached Americans are a clear example of financial, social and environmental responsibility—the triple bottom line. It is appropriate that Congress allow a limited number of deductions to people of Mustached American heritage in recognition of the value that their lifestyle provides to the economy, to society, and to the environment.

Of course since we are talking mustaches, you’re probably wondering what John Oates thinks of all of this. And yes, Daryl Hall’s more hirsute half did weigh on The STACHE act, which he whole-heartily supports. Check Hall’s explanation below.

[via American Mustache Institute]

Source: TheFW.com

Jessica Burciaga is now heating up the internet with sexy stop-motion videos, and no one is complaining. Jessica describes herself as an “animal lover, cook and hopeless romantic” to which we reply “us too! Us too!”

The name of the video is ‘No Time to Stall’ so what are you waiting for?!? Watch it now! Check Jessica out as she models some of her favorite black lingerie the only way she knows how — slowly.

Source: GuySpeed.com

Thinkstock

A new Nielsen poll finds smartphones are becoming less of a luxury and more of a so-called necessity — at least for younger people.

Nielsen gathered data to learn more about the age, income and demographics of the typical US smartphone user. Specifically, the firm wanted to know if lower prices are making the devices more popular among those who earn less money.

Turns out more than half of people between 18 and 24 who make less than $15,000 per year are smartphone owners, compared to 43 percent of those aged 25 to 34 and just 31 percent of folks between 35 and 44 years old.

While researchers don’t know if the people surveyed, especially those in the younger group, have outside financial help (parents, spouses, etc.), it’s clear that even the respondents on limited budgets are making room for smartphone ownership.

But what researchers found most interesting is that although the younger set deems the devices a necessity, older people consider them more of a luxury — which is valuable information for developers, publishers and advertisers.

[TechCrunch]

Getty Images

Let’s face it, we all hate getting called to jury duty. We all have heard all the creative ways to get out of it. A 29-year-old Florida resident Jacob Jock took it a bit too far when he decided to send a Facebook friend request to the defendant hoping this would lead to a dismissal.

The good news for Jacob – he was dismissed from the jury. The bad news is he got three days in jail after being found to be in criminal contempt of court. In retrospect, it was probably a bad idea to post the following on Facebook after getting out of jury duty,

“Score … I got dismissed!! apparently they frown upon sending a friend request to the defendant … haha.”

While serving his three-day sentence, we pray that Jacob doesn’t get ‘Poked’ by any new friends he meets in the system.

Source: GuySpeed.com

You Tube

Henry & Aaron are a couple of Australian comedians who graduated from one of that country’s biggest institutes of higher education, Central Institute of Technology. Check out this slightly insane, and very funny video for the school, that also warns of the dangers of teleportation.

Via Adweek

More Henry & Aaron

You Tube

Remember when video dating was the next biggest thing? Before the internet, it seemed like a pretty useful tool for people who didn’t have time to cruise the bars, or didn’t meet a lot of new people. Now that pretty much everybody in the free world is connected in one way or another, it’s much easier to make a connection. I ran across this sweet little video montage on the interweb and felt it’s just too priceless not to share.

Thanks to jamessongmurphy

twitter @MeganLeeHeart

Megan Lee Heart loves to watch YouTube videos. She also likes to post responses to those videos wearing clothes which show off her very ample bust.

Have you ever watched a video on YouTube, and then been given a bunch of suggested videos in response to the video you just watched? Usually you wouldn’t waste your time with those videos, but if it’s a response video by the gorgeous Megan Lee Heart you may want to take a look.

Not only is Megan very easy on the eyes, but she is also funny. A double win! We love a girl who can make us laugh, and Megan does. Too bad all video bloggers don’t look as good as her. Follow Megan on Twitter and keep up with all things Megan Lee Heart.

YouTube

YouTube

Source: GuySpeed.com

Terry Goodlad/Marty McBride Photography/Photo By Dylan Hilliard/Trick Productions/Head Hunter Studios/Lucas Brilliott Photography/Karl Yamashita Photography

We just finished a big week with not five, not six, but seven hott babes. This means we have our work cut out for us when voting for the newest Babe of the Week.

Will fitness model Prudence Moe beat out the competition, or will she fall behind one of the others? Also vying for the top spot are fashion model Dannielle van der Walt, Outlaw Biker cover model Crystal Marie, MMA Ring Girl Laura Moro, model/bartender Jordan Robyn, Maxim ‘Hometown Hottie’ Brittany Santos, and model/actress Bre Tiesi.

Choose wisely, gents. Who’s hott enough to move on to compete for Babe of the Month?

Prudence Moe

Terry Goodlad

Dannielle van der Walt

Marty McBride Photography

Crystal Marie

Photo By Dylan Hillard

Laura Moro

Trick Productions

Jordan Robyn

Head Hunter Studios

Brittany Santos

Mark Bordelon Photography

Bre Tiesi

Karl Yamashita Photography

Here’s the deal: At the end of the week, each Babe of the Day will compete for your votes and the winner will become Babe of the Week. Each week’s winner will then face off to become Babe of the Month, and those winners will then duke it out for — you guessed it — the Babe of the Year title. Only those lucky ladies will be inducted into GuySpeed’s Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for the hottest of babes.

Source: GuySpeed.com

Playboy - Italy

You may have never heard of today’s Crush of the Day, Violante Placido, but that’s about to change.
The Italian actress-singer starred opposite George Clooney in the ‘The American’ in 2010. More recently, Violante Placido played Nadya – alongside Nicolas Cage’s Johnny Blaze – in the 2012 film ‘Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,’ which opened this past weekend.

We’re sure you’ll see more of this sexy Italian talent in future films. Until then, we can show you a lot of her in these pictures.

Shortfun.com

Esquire-UK

Source: GuySpeed.com

Jo Hale / Ian Gavan, Getty Images

Kiss and Queen (featuring Adam Lambert on vocals) will headline separate nights of the 2012 Sonisphere Festival in England this summer. This news seemingly ends weeks of speculation as to whether or not Lambert would be joining Queen in some capacity.

The three night festival kicks off Friday, July 6 at Knebworth Park with a bill topped by a “European exclusive” headlining performance by Kiss, who are preparing to release their 20th studio album ‘Monster’ sometime in 2012.

Queen and their new ‘American Idol’-bred buddy will highlight the festivities the next night (Saturday, July 7), with help from the Darkness and Ghost among others. Faith No More will head up the third and final night on Sunday (July 8). Color all us stateside rock fans extremely jealous!

If you have the means and the rock madness for such travel, tickets go on sale this Thursday (Feb. 23). You can get the full lineup and other information at the festival’s official website.

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

YouTube.com

Filmmaker Jacob Sutton made this short film of pro snowboarder William Hughes snowboarding down the slopes of Tignes in the Rhône-Alpes of France. In the dark. Wearing an L.E.D.-covered suit.

It’s sort of like a Shaun White-Silver Surfer mash-up and it may be the coolest thing you see this winter.

[Via La Boite Verte]

Source: GuySpeed.com

Kevin Winter, Getty Images

At Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, the Foo Fighters won five trophies — but it was the speech Dave Grohl gave after they picked up the prize for Best Rock Performance that lit up the interwebs. Now Grohl has written a lengthy clarification.

For those of you who missed it, here’s what he originally said when accepting the award:

To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

Rock fans cheered, but apparently the monologue wasn’t quite so well-received by everyone — some thought Grohl was being a snob and that he basically said any music other than rock was crap. So on Friday, he wrote a follow-up:

[My speech wasn't] the Gettysburg Address, but hey……I’m a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil’ ode to analog recording has. OK….maybe Kanye has me on this one, but….Imma let you finish….just wanted to clarify something…

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5…..I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician’s personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and…..human.

That’s exactly what I was referring to. The “human element”. That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became “bad” things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily “fixed”. The end result? In my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell…I’m not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really f—ing hard so that I don’t have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that’s what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I f—ing love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s bada–. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the “craft” is equally as important, I’m sure. I mean…..if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don’t give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

Stay frosty.

(That last line might have been an homage to Van Halen, by the way — ‘Stay Frosty’ is the name of one of the songs on the band’s new album, ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’)

Anyway, this should put any controversy to rest. Dave Grohl likes music — all kinds of music. But anyone who didn’t know that probably won’t care that he went out of his way to say so.

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

Fox

‘The Simpsons,’ that prime time television show we all love, has done the impossible by staying on the air for 22 years and 500 episodes. This exceptional milestone was reached on Sunday evening on Fox. But is it still as good at 500 episodes as it was at 100?

Their no-holds-barred, social commentary, cartoon show formula seems like a magic potion that could allow it to live on forever. It’s already difficult to remember a time when there wasn’t ‘The Simpsons.’ Congrats to them. But, after 22 years, is the spark fading?

At the very end of the 500th episode, a message from the producers popped up saying exactly what a lot of people were probably thinking:

Twitter

While at the time everyone thought this was a nice final joke, Web goers are now asking themselves if that was a good enough episode to bring in such a milestone.

If you missed the episode, the citizens of Springfield had finally gotten fed up with all of the Simpson family’s antics and decided to kick them out of the city. They were banished to a place called The Outlands, where instead of feeling sad and lonely, they ended up preferring this simpler way of living to the hustle and bustle of Springfield life.

When the Springfieldians felt bad for kicking them out and invited them to return, the Simpsons decided they would rather stick with this new life. Inspired by their love of the new lifestyle, the citizens of their former city started to join them, one-by-one, in their new homeland. Eventually, all moved and The Outlands was indistinguishable from Springfield.

Now it’s time to vote in our poll below.

Source: TheFW.com