The Hyderabad Woman Behind the Rice Bucket Challenge

The Hyderabad Woman Behind the Rice Bucket Challenge

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The 20 Highest-Paying Jobs That Don’t Require A College Degree

It turns out you don't need a college degree to pull in a pretty penny.

Yes, workers with only a high school diploma do face an unemployment rate nearly twice that of college educated workers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and they make almost half of what those with a bachelor's degree earn, on average. But a new report fromCareerBuilder finds that despite this disparity, workers without a college education do have plenty of options for lucrative careers.

Related :  8 Jobs That Can Make You Happy AND Rich

CareerBuilder says there are currently 115 occupations in the U.S. that only require a high school diploma and pay $20 an hour or more, on average.

"High school is the highest level of education completed by 25% of workers ages 25 and older," says Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America. "This list demonstrates that, while pursuing higher education is a proven way to increase your earning potential, there are other options for those who are unable or choose not to attend college."

With help from Economic Modeling Specialists Intl. (EMSI), an economic software firm that specializes in employment and labor market data , CareerBuilder put together a list of the  20 best-paying occupations for workers with a high school degree.

Sky Gould/Business Insider

CareerBuilder  and EMSI  used BLS data to compile the ranking, and analyzed factors such as anticipated growth and requirements for on-the-job training for each occupation, in addition to median hourly pay. 

They found that 70% of the 115 highest-paying jobs for college grads typically require moderate to long-term on-the-job training or apprenticeships, while 30% generally require short-term or no on-the-job training.

In several of these jobs, workers may need to attend vocational school or other non-college-level training programs to achieve licensure or certification. Additionally, entry-level requirements will vary by state, locality, and employer.

CareerBuilder also notes that high-paying occupations for high school graduates aren't all necessarily entry-level positions. For instance, first-line supervisors, regardless of discipline, typically require one to five years of prior work experience.

"While the pursuit of higher education is the best bet for gainful employment, it is a myth that only good jobs go to college graduates and that workers with high school degrees are destined to low-wage careers," says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder, in a press release.

"It's important to note, however, that most high-paying jobs available to high school grads involve skillsets that require extensive post-secondary training or several years' worth of prior experience," she continues, "and are often in fields that have seen declining employment in recent years."   

You could soon charge your phone by singing to it

As things stand now, there are two ways to charge your phone: wired and wireless. What if there was a third way that involved the use of your voice? That’s what researchers at Nokia and at the Queen Mary University of London are currently working on, as reported by Science Alert.

The researchers are currently working on a smartphone prototype that can be recharged by using sound waves. This is accomplished by “nanogenerators” that were designed to react to sound and electricity. With the nanogenerators, researchers discovered that when the smartphone was exposed to sounds like human voices, traffic, and music, it generated five volts of electricity. This is enough to charge a phone.

The nanogenerators are based on a four-year-old concept originally proposed by Korean scientists that involved a process known the piezoelectric effect. It details how nanowires from zinc oxide would be able to produce an electrical current, so long as they experienced mechanical stress, such as bending, stretching, and squashing.

It’s a concept that has a member of the team, engineer Joe Briscoe, very excited. “Being able to keep mobile devices working for longer, or do away with batteries completely by tapping into the stray energy that is all around us is an exciting concept,” said Briscoe in a press release. “We hope that we have brought this technology closer to viability.”

Windows 9 Threshold public preview could be released as soon as next month

The clock is ticking on Windows 8, and Microsoft is working hard to usher in the next era of Windows-based computers. A new report says that a Windows 9 public preview could arrive sometime in late September, or early October. The public preview, once it arrives, will reportedly be available to use by anyone. Plus it doesn’t seem like Microsoft will put any restrictions on how many people will be able to download it, as Apple did with the OS X Yosemite public beta.

It’s unclear exactly what changes Windows 9 will bring, and whether all of them will be available to use once the public preview becomes available. However, leaks and rumors indicate that Windows 9 will include a revamped version of the Start menu, the ability to run Metro apps in Windowed mode while in the classic desktop UI, and will get rid of the Charms menu that debuted in Windows 8 back in 2012.

Microsoft has spent the last two years cleaning up the mess caused by the release of Windows 8, a widely panned operating system that’s endured slow sales and a general downturn of the PC market. In response, the company is struggling to replace Windows 8 with the new OS likely to be named (unsurprisingly) Windows 9. One reason is Windows 8′s adoption numbers, which have been paltry ever since the OS was introduced. Things didn’t change much either once Microsoft released Windows 8.1 in the fall of 2013.

Combined, Windows 8 and 8.1 occupy 12.48 percent of the desktop OS pie as of July. That’s not much, considering that Windows XP occupies roughly double that, despite the fact that it’s well over 10 years old. Then, there’s Windows 7, whose share spiked in July to 51.22 percent. That’s up from 50.55 percent in June; an increase of 0.67 percent.

Microsoft will have to do something radical with Windows 9 in order to knock Windows 7 and, to a lesser extent, Windows XP off their perches.

Thankfully, it looks like we won’t have to wait too long to get an idea for what Redmond has in mind for their next desktop OS.