Ah, election season. There’s nothing like a good battle between the Democrats and the Republicans (and Ralph Nader and Ron Paul) to whet the appetite of a political junkie. But if you’re looking for something less temporal—the kind of work that will let you feed your addiction year-round—you don’t have to become a legislator. Consider one of these (mostly) nonpolitical jobs where you may find a way to keep the spirit of the election alive every day.
Librarian: Not just any librarian—a special librarian. Special librarians work for companies, government agencies, nonprofits, universities, or museums, rather than for the general public. There are plenty of opportunities for people to focus on specialties. Janice Lachance, chief executive of the Special Libraries Association, says “it’s absolutely a perfect fit” for people who are politically inclined, as leaders at nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, or government agencies rely on well-sourced, “top level information.” Librarians can follow specific passions for policy or politics into jobs at places like AARP, which employs 13 association members. Most have a master’s in library or information science, but the jobs pay: A 2008 association survey found the average salary of its members was $71,812.

France became the first country to open its files on UFO’s Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades.
The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists.

The database will supposedly be available from CNES’s Web site, but good luck getting into it this week. Traffic is very heavy and the servers are crashing. Those tubes are plugged!