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It's funny. Laugh. Science

The Worst Jobs in Science 353

Posted by CowboyNeal 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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The Worst Jobs in Science More

The Worst Jobs in Science

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  • Prison-rape researcher (Score:4, Insightful)

    by corebreech ( 469871 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:29PM (#7426120) Journal
    I wish that some of the accounts offered by victims of prison-rape--particularly those that caused the students so much anxiety--were made public.

    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.
    • I think the general public knows about prison rape but just does not care. Not too many people feel sorry for prisoners. I for one do not get upset to hear that some child molester is now taking it in the behind himself. I can't wait for the moral relativists (especially ACs) to reply to this post.
      • Statistically most prison rape victims are not violent criminals. They are generally there for "petty" crimes - like drug possession. Often these non-violent criminal are targeted for abuse because they have "more to lose". If they try to retaliate through violence, their short sentences could be converted to longer ones, while the violent criminals often have less to lose because they already have longer sentences. So the less violent criminals often choose to endure the rapes, but sadly they usually suffe

      • Re:Prison-rape researcher (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @09:11PM (#7426318) Journal
        You sir, are the relativist. Rape is wrong. Period.
      • Here's my reply: that child molesting biker (43) just might be raping your 20 year old cousing who got convicted for pick-pocketing.

        That's the problem with the point of view that "oh, if they're in prison, they deserve to be raped".

      • See, that's what I don't get about you "criminals deserve what they get" types. For every inmate who gets bum-raped there is another inmate doing the raping! Presumably loving it, and getting away with it scott free. How does this fit in with your grand crime and punishment scheme?
    • Check again. Barney is a symbol for psychological torture. The short history behind that is that music from the "Barney and Friends" television show was being used, along with Metallica, as a form of torture of "War on Terror" prisoners at Guantanamo. The article makes the case that people studying prison rape as experiencing psychological torture. Who gives a fuck what the prison-rapee thinks about it. In my opinion, he is in among his peers for acting like them.

  • don't you love catching a dupe? (Score:5, Informative)

    by linuxbaby ( 124641 ) * on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:30PM (#7426128)
    I'm surprised the previous post of this story [slashdot.org] didn't make an impression on CoyboyNeal!

  • How about.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by apoplectic ( 711437 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:32PM (#7426139)
    I think the worst job has to be the poor webmaster that has to keep track of reposts of articles on his site. Not only boring, but apparently quite a challenge....
    • I think the worst job has to be the poor webmaster that has to keep track of reposts of articles on his site. Not only boring, but apparently quite a challenge....

      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...
    • It is still not worse than the Slashdot dupe post checker. You might have only 20 stories a day. Imagine all the dupe posts that are listed for each story!

  • They apparently forgot "Slashdot Reposter" (Score:3, Funny)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:32PM (#7426143) Homepage
    heh.

    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.

  • I swear, there have been more dupes [slashdot.org] in the past few months. At least this one is 2 months old.
    • I swear, there have been more posts about dupes in the past few months. Oh wait. There have been more dupes, and a dupe always results in at least 10-15 posts about dupes. And the obligatory post by me pointing out the posts about dupes.
  • Is slashdot dupe story checker on the list?

  • Med Students (Score:4, Funny)

    by Davak ( 526912 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:33PM (#7426150) Homepage
    pre-med student who ate, drank, and breathed the blood, urine and vomit of yellow-fever victims

    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)

      by larry bagina ( 561269 )
      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.

      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)

      by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @09:08PM (#7426304) Journal
      I've been testing an anti-glaucoma medication for 5 years, all out of pocket. Damn, I need a grant.
    • Anyway, I got wood and $50 bucks out of it. :)

      How many bucks worth $50 did you get?
  • ... well now I've got just a little bit more...

    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)

    by ksdd ( 634242 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:38PM (#7426177)
    ...I have to wholeheartedly agree with their icon choice for "psychological torture." There are some things you can learn to block out - Barney is not one of them.
  • At first glance I did have the 'ewww!' reaction to quite a few of these. But think about it, a lot of these seem better than dealing with the frustrating bureaucracy most of us have to go through. I'd much rather count fish, or even clean a rotting carcass than have to deal with most of the stuff highlighted in office space. Of course if you have to deal with that 'and' the worst job scenarios...well, that would suck.

  • Worst jobs in science... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Stile 65 ( 722451 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:40PM (#7426186) Homepage Journal
    Yeah, those are some of the worst jobs in science. I'm sure there are just as many bad jobs in other fields, too.

    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)

    by dannycarroll ( 180967 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:41PM (#7426193)
    I live in amsterdam and I reckon this guy should have got a mention...

    Of course it's not a scientific job, but it still rates a mention.

  • frontend to /. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by lysander ( 31017 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:42PM (#7426199)
    and I shall make a new frontend to slashdot. one that is screened by people who actually read slashdot content -- or at least the front page summary -- and hides dupes. a url matcher could also help. perhaps it could also generate a "dupe report card" for the article posters.

    (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)

    by DCowern ( 182668 ) * on Saturday November 08, 2003 @08:45PM (#7426214) Homepage

    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. :-)

  • Testing radiation suits.

    Testing bio-suits.

    Testing beekeeper suits.

    Testing smoked glass for eclipse-viewing safety.

    Testing new flavors of Coke/Pepsi.
  • I have a good friend that has a masters degree in Science. He has worked for various drug companies, and some airlines (confirming that the in-flight meals are risk free). He reluctantly discovered that he could take a 3 month MCSE course and make twice what he could make actualy doing something important. Hence, he is working in IT, but is quite talented, and would like to return to Science as a career. Even his job wasn't "the worst job in science" as described in the article, but he does somethin
  • I think one of the worst jobs in science might be the people who have to code data for large scale human rights projects such as the on going work at the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconcilliation commission. Imagine that it's just like the prison rape researcher job, only not only are you constantly reading about rape, you also are faces with murder, child rape, mutilations, amputations, child soldiers, dissapearance, theft and torture (very very creative torture).

    People who work on these projects enter a sta
  • at least they HAVE jobs.

  • Pixel-width based tables makes lines only 4 words long at higher resolution & readable font sizes

  • masturbator job interview (Score:4, Funny)

    by geeklawyer ( 85727 ) on Saturday November 08, 2003 @10:13PM (#7426579) Homepage Journal
    Applicant: "So tell me about the job."
    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)

    by cvd6262 ( 180823 ) on Sunday November 09, 2003 @12:16AM (#7426977)
    I was at Sea World once and I was walking by the Killer Whale pool. There were some trainers feeding and apparently taking blood samples of Shamu and co.

    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.
    • ... really wonder how much training they have to go through before the males respond.

      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.)
  • Dupes, Dupes, Dupes, Dupes
    Everybody loves dupes
    etc...

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