Where there's a need, there's a career to fill it. If not, there will be soon.

Take Linda Katz, founder of Prairie Tumbleweed Farm, based in Garden City, Kan. Thirteen years ago, she wanted to teach herself how to design a Web site, according to an article on http://potw.news.yahoo.com.

So she created a Web site for an imaginary farm that harvested and sold tumbleweed, those thistly-looking shrubs that roll across dusty landscapes. They went for $15, $20 and $25 depending on the size. And then people in the U.S. and across the world began writing her wanting to buy them. NASA rocket scientists who were designing their Mars Tumbleweed rover even got in touch. And a new career was spawned.

Prairie Tumbleweed Farm is a real business today, set on 80 acres of prairie land where that scruffy symbol of the American West is grown, harvested and shipped to customers who want it for decoration and landscaping and movie and television sets.

Another need that has come about in recent years is to understand weather patterns. This has led to an unlikely partnership between climatologists and the fashion industry. Thanks to the fickle, unpredictable weather we're experiencing, retailers need to understand weather trends to know what products to buy and when to put them on the sales floor, according to The New York Times. So some companies in the $200 billion American apparel industry have added weather forecasters to their companies to "predict weather for its designers to better time the shipments of seasonal garments to retailers," said the article.

The store chain Target established a "climate team" to provide advice on what kind of apparel to sell throughout the year. They call themselves climate merchants.

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