Today was a dry one in Career Blog World. But Zack found a great post by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight that explains why you should be excited about the latest unemployment report (8.9 percent) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Confused? I was, too. But it turns out there is good news:

A lot of people are excited today not because the unemployment rate is low (it's very high -- 8.9 percent), nor because the economy is adding jobs (it lost another 539,000 last month, according to statistics just released by the BLS), but merely because it's losing jobs less quickly. That is, the second derivative of the employment rate -- the change in the rate of change -- has improved.

I haven't thought about second derivatives since my Calc 2 class freshman year. In fact, I made it a point to forget I ever knew second derivatives. But Silver's news was encouraging enough to make me face my past (with a little help from Wikipedia).

The article goes on to analyze the "employment situation" from our past five recessions to see if the decrease in the rate of job losses is indeed reason to anticipate an approaching end to the recession. Silver determines that the statistics can't really tell us much yet-- history shows that the recession could as likely head downhill as uphill. Still, I'm a firm believer in the power of positive thinking. So let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

In honor of Friday, here are a few cool links to start your weekend...

Chris Brogan Reviews: A book by Pam Slim called Escape from Cubicle Nation. The book's mission is to help readers go from "corporate prisoners" to "thriving entrepreneurs." Brogan gives it a great review and says it's "full to the gills" with useful information for the dreaming entrepreneur.

The CareerDiva Advises: That you go get your passport today. If you haven't been abroad, The CareerDiva points out how expanding your horizons is a great thing for your career. She uses research from the international business school INSEAD that suggests living abroad boosts your creativity and problem-solving skills.

Thrilling Heroics Hunts Down: Ten "travel ninjas" that are worth following on Twitter. It's a good list- I'm now following several of these travel masters. They not only have great travel tips, many of them also have found ways to either turn traveling into a career or have built location independent careers.

"Math Disaster" courtesy of the mad LOLscientist via Flickr Creative Commons