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The Worst Jobs in Science
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Nov 08, 2003 07:29 PM
from the grass-not-always-greener dept.
from the grass-not-always-greener dept.
unassimilatible writes "Popular Science is running a story on the most noxious jobs in science, including, fart-sniffer, barnyard masturbator, and prison-rape researcher, and my personal favorite, the pre-med student who ate, drank, and breathed the blood, urine and vomit of yellow-fever victims. So before you complain about your tech job, check out the list. Things could always be worse."
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Entertainment: Dirtiest Jobs in Science 120 comments
ExE122 writes "CNN and CareerBuilder have posted a listing of the top 10 dirtiest jobs in science. 'Whether they are sifting through reeking mud banks to find cures for contamination, or sorting stool samples to get to the bottom of our bathroom dilemmas, these are some of the science jobs that sacrifice their time, energy and comfort for the greater global good.' Sounds like a job opportunity for Mike Rowe!" From the article: "Hot-zone Superintendent - What they do: Perform maintenance work for bio-safety labs that study lethal airborne pathogens, for which there is no known cure. Their work enables scientists to study the nature of disease-causing organisms, such as anthrax."
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IT: Microsoft Security Makes "Worst Jobs" List 177 comments
Stony Stevenson asks, rhetorically, "What do whale-feces researchers, hazmat divers, and employees of Microsoft's Security Response Center have in common? They all made Popular Science magazine's 2007 list of the absolute worst jobs in science." Quoting: "The MSRC ranked near the middle as the sixth-worst job in this year's list.. 'We did rate the Microsoft security researcher as less-bad than the people who prepare the carcasses for dissection in biology laboratories,' Moyer said. Moyer didn't have to think long when asked whether he'd rather have the number 10-ranked whale research job. 'Whale feces or working at Microsoft? I would probably be the whale feces researcher,' he said. 'Salt air and whale flatulence; what could go wrong?'" Here's the Popular Mechanics list all on one page.
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Prison-rape researcher (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe then we'd see less people here (and elsewhere) resorting to sick and degrading humor whenever the subject comes up.
And check out the pictogram they chose to accompany the prison-rape researcher entry in this story. It's a picture of Barney. I know they're using it as a way of depicting which of the jobs are associated with psychological torture, but, c'mon! Barney? Prison-rape? That's just soooo wrong.
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, rape does happen. (even 1 rape is one too many) But it isn't as commonplace as people on the outside seem to think.
LK
Guys, relax. Here's the dope on "3 Strikes" (Score:3, Informative)
People seem to be going ape-shit with this 3-strikes thing and whether it is real or not. I'm not going to take sides here but I am going to post a google link to an LA Times article [216.239.57.104] about "3 Strikes". I hope this information will help the others in this thread debate a little more rationally.
GMD
Re:Guys, relax. Here's the dope on "3 Strikes" (Score:3, Informative)
His offenses were stacked and escalated as described in the LA Times article.
One attempted robbery at 17, 25 years ago.
One knifing during a drug deal gone bad (a couple ounces of pot he was "buying" when the "dealer" pulled a knife on him. The "dealer" ended up with the knife *in* him). About 20 years ago.
Two escapes from fire camps/low risk inmate
Re:3 strikes (Score:5, Insightful)
Jail should not serve as 'punishment.' Jails should be there to keep dangerous poeple (muderers, rapists, etc.) away from us. Other criminals (drugs, shoplifters, white collar, etc.) (most people in jail are drug related, btw) should have to repay society by picking up garbage, or washing police cars or something, AND have to take care of themselves, too. Having to work for the state every weekend for a year for no pay would be a good deterrent AND help our aching budgets.
Parent
Re:3 strikes (Score:3, Informative)
Traffic offenses, even DUI, are misdemeanors.
Re:3 strikes (Score:3, Insightful)
a) I don't live in california
b) I'm not defending californian criminals, I'm criticizing right wing extremists that believe that once you commit a crime, your rights as a human being should be taken away. But wait, who am I kidding, you guys have Guantanamo bay goin' on... ahhh. nevermind.
Re:3 strikes (Score:3, Informative)
Okay, here are one hundred and fifty [facts1.com] documented third-strike outcomes -- life sentences, for such offences as as "waslking away from fire camp", "filling out a false DMV application", "shoplifting of a baseball glove", etc.
As an aside, I think the three strikes law has a good idea at its root, but it is implemented way too bluntly. Instead of an oversimplified-to-the-point-of-injustice "third conviction gets you life in prison" rule (which is the ru
Re:3 strikes (Score:3, Informative)
Shoplifters may receive sentences up to life in prison under "three strikes and you are out" laws without violating constitutional safeguards against cruel and unusual punishment. [csmonitor.com]
Some cases got appealed
Mr. Andrade stole videos worth $153.54 from two K-marts and wound up with a sentence of 50 years in prison with no possibility of parole. [csmonitor.com]
The ruling may also unleash a wave of appeals from the estimated 350 to 3,500 other California prisoners who received comparable sentences
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't feel sorry for the murderers, rapists, and child molesters.
I know I'm gonna get flamed for this...
First of all, even when someone is convicted of one of these crimes we never know with 100% certainty that the guy really is guilty. There have been a few rape convictions that have been overturned in recent years based on DNA testing that proved the poor shmuck who spent the last 10 years in jail getting gangraped every day was innocent all along. Do you feel sorry for that particular 'rapist'?
As far as child molesters go, I think it's fairly well accepted at this point that many of these people were victims of child molestation themselves. The early abuse caused irreperable changes in their brain chemistry which made them more likely to commit deviant acts. Obviously, we need these freaks off the street since they can never be rehabilitated. But I'm not sure that sentencing them to a lifetime of being raped is really the right thing to do.
There is a reason we have the clause "unusual punishment" in our legal system. Our rehabilitation system thinks it's pretty clever by not performing the abuse themselves but turning a blind eye when prisoners do it to each other. But prison rape is something that no prisoner should have to endure, regardless of what crime they were convicted of.
GMD
Parent
Re:Hmm...I don't know... (Score:5, Insightful)
And why is that? Because our wonderfully accurate intelligence has pegged him as the mastermind behind 9/11? The same crack team of analysts who brought us the "Iraq is developing a huge WMD program" info? It's easy to bring up Osama because it triggers such a violent response in all of us, myself included. However, I submit to you that Osama and the 9/11 event is really just a larger version of what I was saying before: we'll never know 100% if he was responsible or not.
Anyhow, I'm not going to expend an awful lot of effort trying to defend that bastard. I'm just pointing out that making exceptions for special cases is pretty dangerous. Sure, there are some people who I'd like to see endure torture for the rest of their lives. But it's important to realize that such thoughts are not rational and while they might be amusing little fantasies for us to play in our heads, that's really where they should stay.
GMD
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Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Funny)
No no no.. The politically correct way of saying the same thing is, as follows:
Yes, I am a Republican.
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Insightful)
It was the republican party who pushed for stricter laws, they were the ones who decided to push the War on Drugs issue. Bush refers to 'Texas Justice' and talks about being harsh on criminals.
All I ever hear from that party is about how to go about locking more people up. Sorry, but if you are going to all jump in and mod someone as a troll for putting 2 + 2 together, then go ahead. You are wasting your mod points silencing me instead of investing into your own comment or
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, the institutionalized rape of innocent people is a "potential problem". So is the rape of people who are not innocent but committed a crime for which not even you could justify rape as punishment. Too bad the prison rapists don't ask everyone "are you innocent?" first.
But apparently you think rape is the correct punishment for the vast majority of people in prison. So having a bag of dope is worth repeated ass rape?
I dunno, I'm no doctor but I'm willing to bet that being violently raped a few times in prison would certainly help reverse some of that irreversible brain chemistry.
Easy to bet on something you know nothing about when it isn't your ass, isn't it? I'm willing to bet that you getting gang-raped day after day for a month would change your mind about whether this is something we should be allowing to happen in our prisons, but I'm not going advocate it.
If for nothing else I am certain that it would make some of these rapists think twice about what they're doing. Yes they have these urges but after being the victim of their own crime they very well might decide to try harder to resist the urges.
Why are ignorance and certainty found together so often? As the post you replied to already pointed out -- many already are victims. Being victims is why they become perpetrators, but genius tzanger wants to do this to more people. Like bombing a civilian populace to get rid of terrorists; how well do you really think this is going to work? But if you're so keen on it, why wait until prison? Why not rape them when they show up in the juvenile home after Daddy gets sent up the river so you can "fix" them before they commit any crime? Half the time they end up in prison from there anyway. You can call it "early prevention".
I tend to agree but as I get older and see more and more bullshit babying and coddling of the convicted and worrying more about them than their victims I tend to start thinking that these people deserve some of their own medicine.
Oh, right. "Hey, they get cable TV! The only way to balance out this amazing luxury is with repeated anal rape!"
But frankly, with people like you advocating sexual torture as a deterrent, I think the worrying about the convicted is justified.
While a murderer is certainly not a rapist is certainly not an arms trafficker, prison rape is brutal enough to sway people's consciences and not normally deadly.
Because brutalizing people always make them become nicer, happier people. But you're right! I can't see how being violated and then having the authorities do nothing about it and an apathetic populace say "you deserved it" would not change one's conscience. It's just not going to change in the way you think.
Yes, I am an asshole.
No you're not. "Asshole" is the guy who takes up three spots at Java Noodles at lunch with his Ford Excursion. You, my friend, are a sick fuck.
Parent
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Insightful)
You bet. But catching bad (or shall we say, horrible) parents is not as sexy as busting a paedophile ring (whatever it is). It doesn't help sell more copies of your newspaper, doesn't boost your ratings, doesn't look as cool on cop's resume. In short, real child abuse is booooring. Paedophiles and child porn users (or, rather, combating them), on the other hand, are considered glamourous by the society.
So if, in our imaginary scenario, I fuck my 5-year old daughter and you look at the
Vengeance (Score:3, Interesting)
Is it always advantageous, though? Does ass rape of prisoners really make them less likely to commit crimes in the future? Maybe, it makes them think I don't want to go back to prison again. Maybe it just makes them really fucking pissed off and crazy. A lot of research suggests that those who are victims of sexual abuse beco
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Funny)
Too bad they didn't use him, it would have made more sense for me at least.
Parent
Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:3, Insightful)
One starts off describing a shower scene, supposedly after some sporting event, where the "team" is washing off the grime, except it turns out that is a prison shower: "This is no big deal, except when the next guy is checking you out... Drink, drive,
don't you love catching a dupe? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:don't you love catching a dupe? (Score:2, Informative)
Easy to see why it happened (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:don't you love catching a dupe? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Time for a new /. slogan: (Score:3, Funny)
How about.... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How about.... (Score:2)
Testing sample #7327. Sniff, sniff. Ohhh yes. Hmmm. Sniff. Yes. I think I smelled this fart 3 months ago. Comparing with sample #3984; sample #3985; sample #3986 - match! OK, discard this...
Testing sample #7328...
They apparently forgot "Slashdot Reposter" (Score:3, Funny)
Once again, I will point out that the best thing about this article is the icons they use to denote the various levels of suckage.
Don't you even READ Slashdot anymore? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Don't you even READ Slashdot anymore? (Score:3, Funny)
The never listen to you (Score:2, Funny)
Med Students (Score:4, Funny)
Medical students used to be willing to submit to multiple medical studies to get a "leg up" in the research world. Today, medical students usually willingly submit purely for financial reasons... these drug companies are willing to pay a lot of medicine.
In medical school I tested a certain blood pressure medicine... and it gave me a certain "standing at attention" side effect. I always wondered if that drug was a pre-market version of viagra.
Anyway, I got wood and $50 bucks out of it.
Davak
Re:Med Students (Score:3, Interesting)
Reportedly, Viagra (Sildanefil) was originally intended to lower blood pressure. They conducted trials, but it didn't work. They discovered the side effects when patients refused to give back leftover pills and even requested more.
Re:Med Students (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Perspective (Score:2)
Doing my PhD, there was a room in Biophysics with a bed in it that students went into every day and did a herman-munster-type walk out of at the end of the day... It wasn't my project but I do recall seeing them wired up and strapped down one day when the door was left open... I thought that was dodgy enough!
Simon.
As a parent... (Score:4, Funny)
Are they really so bad? (Score:2)
Worst jobs in science... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a friend that breeds and shows dogs. She can't neuter them, because that would kill their future value. So when she takes a male dog to a dog show where it's exposed to unspayed female dogs in heat, she has to do the same duty as the barnyard masturbator to make sure the dog doesn't go hump anything. I was somewhat amused when she told me about this, but I'm glad I don't have to do it. (Docuporn title comes to mind: "Uncensored - Backstage at the Dog Show!")
I can imagine some years ago one of the worst jobs in tech (although people didn't necessarily know it) was running cabling through old asbestos-laden buildings. Not healthy at all.
What about the peep show booth cleaner... (Score:4, Funny)
Of course it's not a scientific job, but it still rates a mention.
frontend to /. (Score:3, Insightful)
(I'd need some serious bandwidth, though.)
geez, come slashdot. perhaps you could give your "article preview subscribers" a big DUPE button to click to save yourself from embarrassment time and time again.
Missing Poll Option (Score:4, Funny)
So before you complain about your tech job, check out the list. Things could always be worse.
I am the pre-med student who ate, drank, and breathed the blood, urine and vomit of yellow-fever victims, you insensitive clod!
Oh... wait... wrong section. :-)
Jobs I'd hate to have (Score:2)
Testing bio-suits.
Testing beekeeper suits.
Testing smoked glass for eclipse-viewing safety.
Testing new flavors of Coke/Pepsi.
masturbator job interview (Score:4, Funny)
Lab HR: "you jerk off animals all day"
Applicant: "oh God!"
Applicant: "erm, what's the money?"
Lab HR: "$10,000 a year"
Applicant: "Ok, I'll do it...
but you'll have to give me time to raise the $10,000"
Seaworld Orca Servicer (Score:4, Interesting)
When we saw the show they had played a video on the jumbotron about the program at Sea World and how they've bread more orca than anybody else. They mentioned that every calf was artificially inseminated.
Of course, this begs the obvious question... Where does the, er, sperm com from?
As I was just about the ask one of the trainers, she made a signal to a whale that I gues meant "hey, baby" because the huge male floated on his side and, well, showed his manhood.
The trainer pulled out a padded, 6-inch PVC pipe with handles and proceeded to service the beast. When she was done, she gave the animal a big handful of fish as a "reward". I really wonder how much training they have to go through before the males respond.
Re:Seaworld Orca Servicer (Score:3, Funny)
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I realize you didn't think about your sig when you added that last sentence. But now don't you wish you hadn't?
(It's a joke, laugh.)
Re:Things have changed (Score:4, Funny)
But countless spammers seem to have discovered that you can make money telling people about sites featuring masturbating barn yard animals (more's the pity).
Parent
Re:Minor ranting (Score:3, Funny)
She would probably be pretty excited to see me.
Davak