OT Engineers / Scientists, How many are out there Options

[914nerd]

Well, how many of you are there lurking out here on the world?
If you are one, what field, what do you actually do, and how do you like what you do?

This is prompted by a conversation that I had earlier today questioning the future of technical fields in this country.
What do you people think about the fact that science (arguably one of the most important aspects of modern life) is being shunned and, in many ways, is beginning to fall apart?

[zymurgist]

B.S., Computer Science. I've been in software engineering for 20 years now, and playing with computers and cars for longer than that... in fact, since before computers and cars got hitched.

Why is science not getting the respect it should in this country? My opinions, which are worth what you paid for them...

1. Science is not "cool." When a LeBron James can get an NBA contract to play basketball out of high school, what does this say to kids? Why should they study in school when the really "cool" jobs involve playing sports? This attitude is aided and abetted by state and local governments who spend tax dollars on sports arenas and stadiums while their schools wither on the vine. You want to see some really nice stadiums, come to Baltimore. You want to see horrible schools that the city has been fighting a state takeover, come to Baltimore.

2. Media appeals to the lowest common denominator. There's a reason that right-wing talk shows are dominated by guys like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity rather than by George Will and Robert Novak. The first two guys tell people more or less what they want to hear, and the latter two more or less make reasoned arguments to make their case. It could be a radio versus print thing, as radio requires almost no intellectual involvement (that's why it's popular to listen to while driving a car) while reading an op-ed column requires a vocabulary and some reading comprehension skills. (NB: I don't listen to talk radio of any variety, unless you consider local news radio to be "talk radio.")

3. Although I have not delved deeply into the book, I have read the introduction to Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason" and I agree with some of his points, one of which is that somehow, pseudo-science has been accorded a respectability that it has not earned, considering that said pseudo-science is not subjected to the same rigorous tests that real science is; yet pseudo-science is pushed by people who dress it up as fact and use it to push their partisan agendas. Creationism is a prime example of this... how people can advocate it being taught in science classes, I really can't comprehend.

(Please don't jump all over my case and call me a biased lefty... first, it's not true, and second, if you don't know me personally, you probably won't guess my political leanings. I'm just calling it the way I see it.)