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The Worst Jobs in Science: The Sequel
flyingtoaster writes "For the second year in a row, Popular Science published their annual countdown of the worst jobs in science. This year's list includes Anal-Wart Researcher, Iraqi Archaeologist and Landfill Monitor. And you think your job's bad?" We also linked to last year's list.
Those sound like bad jobs to me ;-)
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
How appropriate =)
s html?tid=127&tid=187&tid=98
http://games.slashdot.org/games/04/11/21/1746257.
This article is quite old.
Karma: Good, or bust!
Odd, "EA Researcher" was nowhere to be found. Oh that's right, they don't have any. They're just an assembly line now.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Computer scientist is a scientist, no?
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Ewww!
#4 is Tampon Squeezer
On the other hand, Tampon Tester would rate as one of the best jobs ever.
*sigh*
Sorry if I grossed someone out.
Vote for a Man, Vote for Bush!
Not a liberatarian flipflop hippie.
At the landfill I monitor we have these Valves that releases this totally putrid smelling Steam. Even with all the funk, people flock to our landfill more than anyone elses!
ItWasFree.com - Take the mystery
to /. trolls ;) http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,209 67,713425,00.html
The bright side? "In 13 years I've only been pooped on twice, and that's not bad." :-|
I love my job.
Sure, you aren't killing puppies for science, but you do spend all day listening to people demanding that you fix their problems like it's your fault. You're usually rated by call time, so actually helping people looks bad on you review.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Don't forget Iragi Weapons Inspector?
The jobs not done until you find at least one.
How about "Managing Director of Truth" at the Fud Factory dept. at Microsoft?
Laugh (it's Funny) - or if you can't take a joke: www.fudfactory.com
Cheers,
Mick
Food taster for Fear Factor...
The cradle of civilization and agriculture. The first place humans built cities. The birthplace of writing. And--oh, yeah--currently the best place in the world to get yourself kidnapped or killed. For archaeologists, there's no plum like Iraq. Saddam actually let them do their job, and he even protected his country's heritage in museums. But now no archaeologist can work in Iraq until security improves. Meanwhile more than 8,500 treasures have been stolen, and those are just from museums, where artifacts are cataloged.
What truly troubles archaeologists is imagining what's being taken from their dig sites in the field. Archaeologist Francis Deblauwe, who is trying to keep tabs on the looting, knows of more than 30 important digs, including ancient Babylon, that have been despoiled, but he notes that his list is "very preliminary and grossly incomplete." When the researchers do get to go back in, they'll be able to determine which sites have been looted. But they'll never know what's been taken.
Sheesh! And I wonder how many such 'casualities' of war we ignore. Really sad.
War is not just people, it's a whole lot more. And as an amateur archaeologist, I really do feel bad. And these things are irreplaceable.
Vote for a Man, Vote for Bush!
Not a liberatarian flipflop hippie.
I'm not sure I understand why that is one of the worst jobs in science. Reading the article, it seems they were just being belittled and TV weather-forcasting called a "fast-food science."
I'd still do it for a paycheck.
The anal-incontinence researcher.
I was shocked to see "public school science teacher" on their list. They used a poor example, and yes, that would be a bad job. But there are many good science teachers, and most schools are better than the one they picked out. The article also implies that public-school science teachers are all poor teachers, which is not true. I was shocked to see that (I'm a high school student), and I'm sure many other slashdotters are too.
What about President Bush's Science Advisor? If that job did drive you to drink nothing would.
Anyone find it funny the most common job on there is Nursing? The nursing role has changed from working with patients to Medical Assistants. They hire 10-15 MA's to 1 Nurse in most clinics. And then to top it off, they dont pay the Nurses for the years in school, and hard work, and they get no respect for managing the MA's ontop of normal nurses duties.
What a shame.
In our Internet-based summons for readers to top (bottom?) last year's "Worst Jobs" list, nurses nominated themselves in droves: "Still a no-respect profession. Doctors treat you like slaves." "The pay is substandard for all the training." "Just look at the current shortage." Indeed, the government estimates that we're short 110,000 nurses, and that by 2008 we'll need half a million more.
Numerous studies echo the dissatisfaction of our nurse readers. Nurses are fleeing the profession because of stress, long hours, low pay and lack of advancement opportunities. The cost? A recent University of Pennsylvania study found that surgical patients at hospitals with the worst nurse-staffing levels (ergo the most overworked nurses) have a 31 percent greater chance of dying. If this trend doesn't improve, we might soon find "patient" topping our list.
Some of those were hard just to list.
sigs, as if you care.
How about just grad student? No matter what your research is, you're overworked, underpaid, and then thrust into a saturated job market, where you may never find a tenure track position. And if you do, you'll still be paid a far sight less than any random dick with an MBA.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
"Quark Whore"
I'm Erwin Schrodinger and I approve of this message, and I do not approve of this message!
I think you had it wrong - they aren't implying that public school science teachers are poor teachers! It says they have one of the worst jobs, which I believe is true. Not only do they have to teach a subject which requires intelligent thought to a disinterested student body, their profession is constantly under attack by religious radicals.
Hell, my own mother threatened to take me out if they taught me evolution. It didn't happen, but I shudder to think of other students who did have that happen to them.
Also, science is one of the most poorly funded departments across the nation. Hell, team sports such as Football and Soocer, even electives such as music get more funding in some areas.
So yes, they've got one of the worst jobs in science: teaching it to the next generation.
Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
... a USDA meat-packing plant inspector?
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
This issue was published quite a while ago. Why is it just now appearing here?
Not true:
By William Speed Weed | November 2004
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
Hilarious!
Dubbya's speechwriter?
Sleep, she is for the weak..
The link mentioned in the previous slashdot article no longer works. Compliments of the WayBackMachine
I have no
In all seriousness, the first posting of last year's list does have some great comments.
It rated only 2 positions below help desk tech, all my science teachers in shool seems to like their jobs.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
How the heck is that a horrible job? If you're stressed by talking on the phone all day and playing minesweeper you've got big problems. It seems these people compare themselves to the callers and greatly overestimate their own computer skills. Since the people who call aren't the computer gurus that they are (they never took the 10 day training course, after all), these cubicle monkeys inflate their egos more and more and do nothing but complain. Send all their jobs to India? Why don't we send THEM to India?
Bush won. You can change your sig now, unless you're going to be testing tampons in that bush.
Your Sig was the worst part.
Help fight continental drift.
Even if you don't get bit, the staff dusts you *just to be sure*.
Talk about temp help....
Yeah, due to your sig I see you really give a shit about the casualties of war.
If I got paid what I get now as an IT worker, I would rather drag a blanket through the woods singing songs.
If that's even a job, it'll certainly be at the top.
Yes, you just published the answer in the previous article (and before). Obviously the worst job in science was that scholar that spent a year at EA. Of course.
sgis ddo ekil t'nod i
Picture the puke scene from Team America: World Police and you've got a good idea of HALF of what I just went through.
You, sir, should be kicked off slashdot, post-haste.
-paul
Pistol caliber is like religion: everyone has their favourite, and theirs is the only right choice.
I can't think of anything more hideous.
In fact everytime I think about it everything turns white and I hear a continuous tone.
I think its some kind of defense mechanism, or survival skill.
This is ANYTHING but insightful. He misread the story, as several posters have pointed out.
Don't her patients have any sphincter control?
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
here's the poll results... Main site - poll is halfway down on the right.
Energy: time to change the picture.
. . . the female Dracunculus medinensis migrates from the gut to a point just under the skin of, say, a leg, where she then commences growth to a length of as great as three feet, and where, ultimately, she lays her eggs. When the thousands of babies make their joyous arrival, they blister the skin and pop through, leaving Mom behind. The traditional way to get rid of her is to wrap her head around a stick and twist very slowly--one turn of the stick per day--for weeks or months, depending on how long she is. (This treatment is so old that it inspired the ancient snake-and-pole aesculapius symbol of medicine.)
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
I mean, holy shit, this is the magazine my grandpa collected...that ain't right!
You do realize that over half of Americans reject the standard theories (important word: theories, not laws) for the origin of life and the universe that are presented in secular science education, don't you? And that slightly over 40% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal Word of God and that the book of Genesis is the true story of our origins?
If it comforts you to use invective like "religious radicals", then so be it. Just realize that you are maligning and impugning over half of the population of America. We are not some small fringe movement. We've opened our eyes and taken a look at the real evidence and know that science is definitely not on the right page either factually or spiritually.
Unemployment! But if you still consider your job to be worse than that...
...theres no need to fear, Reverend Sharpton is here! ;-)
Cheers,
Adolfo
I once got a job picking through garbage to separate the amount of paper that is thrown away that could have been recycled. It was such a joy when you come upon the used tampon, diaper or condom. Rotting food was wonderful too.
I spent one summer screening race horses for drugs... by chemically testing their urine.
Yes, I had the joy of sitting in a lab and handling horse piss for eight hours a day. Let me tell you, the range of colour, texture, and viscosity of the stuff is truly mind-boggling.
The one saving grace? I wasn't the guy that had to collect it from the source.
I heard if you fall in you have to get a ton of shots.
Some links of interest:r bour/cleanup.jsp The Harbour Cleanup Project website.l and_and_Labrador A post on /. wouldn't be complete with a a wikipedia reference.
http://www.ozfm.com/skycam.htm for a live webcame of the downtown core.
http://www.stjohns.ca/cityservices/environment/ha
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John's,_Newfound
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Man, that seafood diet would be nauseating for this job.
I found this neat company that made a system that controlled the thickness of sheet metal was it was being manufacturered. Kinda interesting, I thought... I could apply DSP algorithms and statistics to the problem. Low pass filter, etc...
The factory tour went something like this:
----
The core technology of the company was a non-contact system that used radiation to penetrate the steel and measure its thickness. Are you cool with radiation and wearing the exposure badge? Sure, not planning on any kids for a while...
Now, this steel is pretty hot, so you've got to be careful not to touch it, ok? Sure.
It's also relatively thin and the edges aren't the smoothest -- so, it's sharp. But it's steel, so it's still heavy. You wouldn't want to get any fingers you're particularily attached to near it. Uh, ok.
And, it's moving out the mill at a fairly fast speed. Radioactive, Semi-molten, sharp and fast. Still ok? uh, yeah, sure.
Finally, for some ungodly reason, it is dripping with acid. We don't know why; that's just part of the manufacturing. That's partly why we go with a non-contact measurement.
Lastly, even though your resume is excellent, we're going to put you on the support team for at least a year. It's low pay, but there's lots of overtime and travel benefits. You'll go to all sorts of exotic mill towns.
----
And that, my friends, is why I took the rocket-scientist job instead.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,209 67,713468,00.html
"Each of us has about a 10 percent lifetime risk of contracting anal warts..."
Perhaps the phraseology is just misleading.
It is probably more like: "people that engage in unprotected sex have a 30% chance of contracting this STD, those that don't have a 0.01% chance of contracting it".
It is certainly not an equal 10% chance for everyone.
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
... you have nothing to lose but your benefits. Just because a large no of people are idiots doesnt detract from the fact that they are idiots. The whole religious right has been created by the Republican partt. I mean if you look at it from a purely economic point of view Republican policies only benefit 1% of the population and if everyone voted as per their self interest(as it is supposed to work in an ideal democracy) no way can the Republicans can win election. So they cant win on economic issues so they have to come up with something that is so important for the poor that they will vote to starve themselves. Voila! Enter Creationism,anti gay rights and all the other irrelevant issues to detract people from whats really important. I mean the US is the only country in the world I have heard of where taxes go down as you earn more(its true you do not pay medicare and social security on any income above 100000!!!) I mean I am a poor student right now and if I was a citizen I would definitely vote Democrat. Not to say once I graduate and I am earning more than 100000 I will vote Republican!!!
**Life is too short to be serious**
i got a phd in particle physics - as a grad student, i got paid to satisfy my own curiosity. (and for me, as a bonus, got to live at CERN for a few years.) how many people can say that about their job? if you didn't enjoy what you are learning, you can always quit - in fact, you should quit. it's an avenue you chose to pursue - so complaining about it sounds pretty weak.
...16-bit blockheads...
... sometimes 4.
The users I have to deal with are usually running at about 8 bits
*sigh*
Background, please: Who is Jack Horkheimer and what, exactly, is a "fluffer?"
What about a science advisor to the Bush Administrator? That's got to be the worst job in science unless you also hold a degree in fair-weather theology.
Slashdot has been a great way for me to relax and get my mind away from my work. Recently, though, there's been some problems. You see, some fellow Slashdotters are posting here links that are related to my job. So I'll ask you kindly:
PLEASE STOP POSTING GOATSE.CX LINKS, OR I QUIT MY JOB AS AN ANAL-WART RESEARCHER!
An obscure group from California provides us around the Charles River with a perenial theme song. Anyways up until a couple of years ago people were indeed advised to have a tetnus shot if they happened to fall in. But the river has been cleaned up quite a bit and has recently been declared clean enough (from bacteria) to swim in. Considering the old maze of poorly documented drainage pipes into the Charles from different municipalities, this is quite an accomplishment. So I imagine there's hope for St John's, too!
thanks.
If you want to post some funny bunk science, why not Big Daddy?
Here's the report. You can be proud that your anti-evolutionist views are shared by 80% of people with a high school education or less.
Well, in my humble personal world, one of the worst jobs in IT is still working with the sales department to turn their "lie-to-the-customer-a-bit" into something approaching reality.
And guess what; it's an uphill battle. The more lies you make into working software, the more undoable things are expected from your department. But fail once and you're out of a job.
Look, this thing is totally safe! Built it myself, you know. You just press that button like this and then turn that lev
Yeah, I know.. I was just venting, it's been a long weekend. I love what I do, sometimes I just do too much of it. For the record, I do recommend grad school in the sciences to all those young ones out there. It is very rewarding, and I wouldn't choose to do anything else.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Scary as all that sounds, I've actually been on the train ride. It's very pleasant, the rail cars are antiques, and the tour guide's history of Oak Ridge during WWII was interesting. (Checks rad badge again. No problems.)
It's a shame to see the old girl go down, really. She's done a lot in her time in "Happy Valley". K-25 was at one time the world's largest building. (For a sense of scale, have a look at the two-story townhouses at the bottom of the pic. If you look carefully, you'll see that the two buildings in the center are actually just one building.)
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Yup. I've seen some real knockouts who look great without makeup.
Then there's some women who look like zombies without makeup... yugh. I guess makeup helps those types of women.
According to my better half, fluff is the "polite form" of fart. So I guess that makes a fluffer a farter? Mmmmm... Applying the same logic, I guess flatter means wet-one?
Free Firefox news reader.
"This post brought to you by Big Rosie O's Clamshack! All you can eat with no hands.... they also have crabs!"
Libertas in infinitum
I think your better half is trying to conceal her past.
Fluffer
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I'd have to disagree with the Television Meteorologist listing.
In New England, most local television news weather forecasts are overseen and reported on air by actual meteorologists, unlike other parts of the country that have untrained "weathermen" (like southern california). In smaller TV markets, or weather is much more stable, or even on radio, you might as well read off government supplied weather forecasts.
They are well paid for TV. (however if you are not on TV, meteorologists get shafted in terms of pay, unless they work as consultants -- usually environmental consultants dealing with air quality issues.)
Also, those guys are instant celebrities around these parts.
Snow predictions are one of the harder predictions to make. These guys basically have to choose between various computer model predictions, and sometime they are far off.
However, my recommendation is don't trust a forecast longer than 24 hours in advance.
the site seems to be down... so, anyone saw in what position programming at EA GAMES was?
The way the article defines crank, they might as well have said "the worst job in science is doing science". There's potential for acrimony even in what would seem to be the most obscure, boring and straightforward areas. In a better world, most everyone would be objective about research and results, and reserved in judgement. We would not cling to preconceived notions, and not knowingly squelch unfinished research we don't "like", argue unfairly and fallaciously, apply 3rd degree methods, and use other stupid and dirty tricks in support. We can back down if we can admit we were wrong, and can convince ourselves that wrong != stupid. But too often, when something is researched, we suddenly discover that we have opinions about it, and that our opinions come with baggage. Even on research where we have no stake in the matter and have not troubled to inform themselves even a tiny bit, we've got an opinion. Congressional science advisors and school science teachers are treated much the same as "cranks", except that instead of the opposition being mostly heartfelt and even occasionally fair and rational, the opposition is usually a lot of smoke meant to distract and keep a hidden agenda hidden. But that's the breaks in science. When experimental results are not in agreement with popular thinking, shouldn't go with poll results over scientific results. I trust that improvements will continue and someday, that better world will arrive.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
I mean this IS George Bush's Amurrica and Creationism is being taught now INSTEAD of science.....All I'm sayin.
No cure in sight for nurses' strike The four-month-old walkout at Lourdes Medical Center is at an impasse. Both sides say they remain determined. By Frank Kummer Inquirer Staff Writer It is no surprise to their union that nurses who walked off the job at Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County more than four months ago are still picketing this Labor Day. Shortly before the union's two-year contract expired at the end of February, its leaders showed the nurses video of a similar hospital strike that lasted two years. They wanted the nurses to know they would need resolve. The labor action remains bitter, with no negotiations scheduled since talks broke down early last month. The Willingboro hospital has hired permanent replacement workers, and as many as half the striking nurses are working other jobs to help support themselves or their families. As the strike drags on, union representatives say that maintaining big pickets has become harder, but that nurses are determined nonetheless. "We have been staffing the lines during rush hour," Pierre Joanis, a negotiator for JNESO, said Friday afternoon when no nurses were picketing. "The pickets have dried up some because so many have found other jobs." One sign at a hospital entrance on Sunset Road read: "Friends don't let friends work at Lourdes." About 80 of the 280 nurses who walked off the job April 19 have crossed the lines to work, Joanis said. About a dozen of those have resigned or been fired, he said. About half the nurses honoring the picket line have found supplementary or full-time work elsewhere, Joanis said. Other health-care facilities have been recruiting them because of a nationwide nursing shortage. A central issue in the dispute is a management push for contract language that would allow it to change nurses' schedules as it saw fit for flexibility. Nurses say that would be a giant step backward and alter their lifestyle and finances because some of the changes would mean three 12-hour shifts instead of five eight-hour shifts - a loss of four hours a week and full-time status. Indeed, nurses began fomenting resentment almost a year ago under the last contract when the hospital began making shift changes and laying off workers. Few talks were held after the nurses walked out. Negotiations stopped Aug. 10 when both sides agreed they had reached an impasse. The hospital said it had given its last offer. Scott Share, a hospital spokesman, said Friday afternoon that no new talks were scheduled. Both sides are awaiting rulings on several issues under arbitration. In the middle of last month, an arbitrator sided with the nurses on shift changes, but the ruling is unlikely to have an effect on the walkout. The union has filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board, contending that management had no right to hire permanent replacements. So far, union officials said, the hospital has hired about 12 replacements. Management said it had to act because the high pay rates for temporary replacements were a financial strain. It also maintained that the National Labor Relations Act permits the move. So both sides said they were dug in for the long haul. "We will be there for the fight and engage them every step of the way," Joanis said.
...a person who supports Liberachi for President, I believe.
I forget what 8 was for.
... and these kids are failing in a *good* school. She tells stories of how the mentally deficient children are assigned ALL of the tutors to help educate them to standardized levels.
You know who misses out on this? The normal, non gifted non slow children. They 'pass' enough on their own, so they don't qualify for tutors. The gifted ones excell on their own, and don't need the tutors.
Instead all of the monies are spent on bringing up 'special ed' for mainstreaming purposes.
Just grand.
Homeschooling starts to sound more and more like a viable choice.
(yes I have degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering because I love science)
When I first scanned this, I saw "Anal Wart Researcher" as "Wal Mart Researcher". Freudian slip I guess.
What you say about 80 hour weeks is interesting. My mom's been a physician's assistant for years, and just recently got out of emergency medicine and into something a lot slower paced. When she was working in the ER, 30 hours a week was considered to be "full time" for the purpose of benefits, etc. due to the fact that the job was so stressful.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
...they were nucular
'tis but a scratch.