Internships and the Law

A couple of weeks ago, a professor kept urging me to go find myself an unpaid internship so that I could get more real-world experience. Despite the fact that my work schedule and my finances allow me to do very few things that include extra work and no pay, I got to thinking about the possibility. Today I was pointed to this article, which talks about the very common, but apparently illegal practice of offering unpaid internships. Who knew?

"In order to qualify as an unpaid internship, the requirement is simple: no
work can be performed that is of any benefit at all to the company. That
is, you can not deliver mail, sort files, file papers, organize a person’s
calendar, conduct market research, write reports, watch television shows and
report on them, read scripts, schedule interviews, or any other job that assists
the employer in any way in running their business."

True, the article is from 2007, but I don't know that much has changed in this regard since then. I also wonder what the rules are regarding "volunteers" - and who decides the differences between the two types of work?

And they said the internets weren't addictive...

Today I stumbled upon Google's wonder wheel feature. I like it. Because the internet isn't already cracked out enough for me, now I can see the links between my searches and the rest of the universe.

This is a screenshot from a search I initially did for a desktop scanner. To get to the wonder wheel page, I looked under the options tag beside my original google search. Not only can you watch your search moving along towards some unforeseen end, there are cool dynamic graphics that catch your eye as the screen changes. Figures that google would find another shiny thing to get my attention.

Proceed With Caution

From boingboing, a link to Michael Niggel's visual map of the possible outcomes of the choose-your-own-adventure book Journey Under the Sea.

For more details and a larger image, the original posting is http://flowingdata.com/2009/08/11/choose-your-own-adventure-most-likely-youll-die/

Oh yeah. Most likely you'll die.