I can’t believe that this is my first post–in the PIT no less–and I agree with the OP that this woman is NOT EVER going to have her own lab–one teensy little thought, however…I work in tissue culture. I do not wear gloves because it gives a false sense of security that you are not contaminating cultures. People (especially techs) think that if they wear gloves they are sterile–and touch EVERYTHING still considering themselves sterile. With enough etOH (sprayed on hands, hood, etc.) your own hands are just as sterile as gloves. This being said I only work with a replication ineffective adenovirus… nothing like what you deal with.
Either way she will seal her own doom either career-wise or otherwise.
Um…yeah…she sounds like a potential Darwin award winner.
CRorex, I understood that you weren’t coming down on Canadians; my point was that I think this woman is crazy, and probably a pathological liar as well. I don’t think you can dismiss your committee here for one unpleasant comment, or I wouldn’t be hearing all the whining from people working on their doctorates, getting jerked around by their thesis committees. No harm, no foul?
You know, except for the techno phrases that I SO didn’t understand, that was beautiful.
“What the Christ raping fuck.” Goddamn. That, Clorox, is fucking priceless.
You mean…no one noticed THIS line:
“Why not just fuck jesus up the ass with a cross!”
Poor Jesus…he’d get some massive splinters…
Jesus. Turns the culture hood off? Even I know better than that, and I’m a lowly undergrad.
I also don’t use gloves in tissue culture(usually), but I work with plated cancer cells (no danger to me).
It’s almost encouraging to hear that a dimwit like that can get a doctorate. I should have no problem. 
Heh heh heh. Pathological. Heh heh heh. Oh. Never mind.
Awww, {{{{CRorex}}}}, hon, I’m so sorry you’ve been exposed to such nonsense as this. Still, I give you an A+ for an outstanding rant that has scared the bejesus out of me. Really, quite artistic you know with such well-turned phrases as: “What the Christ raping fuck?” and “Why not just fuck jesus up the ass with a cross!” I tell you I’m just jealous. Why can’t I think up phrases like that! [pout]
Anyway, after reading your rant, I am left wondering how on earth did this woman get her Ph.D.? Before you get your degree, don’t you have to work in the lab and do experiments and such like? How did this woman get around that requirement? According to her protocol, she must’ve had data that was all over the place and that certainly exceeded the margin for error. And my bullshit meter went off when you were describing her getting an attitude with her dissertation committee. Hmphff. I think there’s more to that story than what she let on. I am thoroughly frightened now that I know that folks like this psychobitch you describe are out there, and they have credentials that might could get them access to dangerous pathogens. We don’t have to worry about Saddam Hussein making bioweapons over in Iraq. I think we’d best direct our attention to the incompetent folk peopling our labs right here in America. [shudder]
Gah
Ya know, ever since I hit college I was hearing about how we don’t mouth pipette and how dangerous it is. This was 6 years ago. Guess what I learned last week? What mouth pipetting really was!
OMG you old-timers in science had BALLS.
Either that or all of the ether fumes had something to do with it
And to the rest of you.
I haven’t even told the scary stories about my workplace enviroment yet 
Hey, I’m feeling old now… I was mouth-pipetting only… well, OK, so it was maybe 12 years ago now, sheesh. I only ever messed up once, and it just contained formaldahyde and some harmless animal tissue. I’m just fine, though. Really. (cough)
eeeeeeeeewwwwwww
See, I can’t even picture a world without pipette men and micropippetters… I’ve been using both since I was in HS chem
Oh…my…God.
I am so relieved this waste of an education got her level 3 & 4 access taken away. That makes the whole world a safer place (no, REALLY, I don’t need to wear a mask when I’m working with smallpox/Lassa/Ebola/TB/whatever :smack:). What makes me curious is how the hell she got it in the first place.
Great rant, too
People like this are what taser guns were invented for.
And if you have any feelings for the rest of us CRorex, please PLEASE make sure this walking sack of concentrated dumbassness doesn’t get near anything nasty she can pass on! Just as a favor, you understand…
Bravo.
Esprix
Yeesh … it’s like Office Space meets The Stand.
*starts digging bunker
One of the stupidest people I’ve ever met was an astronomy undergrad (finished her junior year) in a prestigious summer research position. I’m not talking about stupid for an incoming senior getting a degree in astronomy . . . I’m talking about *one of the stupidest people I have ever met. Dense. Just plain dense. As in, impenetrable to facts.
Shallow, inconsiderate and annoying, to boot.
I have no idea what she was doing there. I guess some people just look good on paper.
Of course, being fired from two post docs would tend to take the shine off one’s c.v., wouldn’t it?
Given the choice of wearing a mask or not wearing a mask in that sort of situation, I’d wear the mask, not that I’m ever remotely likely to be in any sort of lab.
So this random dog know’s better.
And,
Please do, even if I do end up fearing for the world your posting style always raises a smile. Excellent rant.
SD
Sweet merciful crap!
I make medications all day for drug studies, and I’m not allowed to manufacture anything without using a hood and gloves. (The gloves keep me from having reactions to one of the medications we use. I get skin rashes from it.) I use riboflavin (sticky yellow powder) and cornstarch (white powder) to pack medication, and people are concerned for my health and safety. Before I got the hood, I walked out of work every day looking like Tony Montana with jaundice.
Somehow, I think this chick is going to end up in a bad way, and not just from losing her job. CRorex, damn fine rant. Look at the bright side. You don’t have to work directly with her, and eventually she will be out of there.
Now that’s a movie I’d pay money to see!
Actually, I have known people at Canadian universities that dumped their comittee and gotten a new one. One was in the social sciences where he didn’t like the direction his work was going. In another case in the physical sciences all the grad students of a faculty member jumped ship because he kind of went crazy. If you change supervisors you pretty much have to change your entire comittee to one that is more familiar with your new area of research.
I don’t know how it works in the US, but here you get into the Department’s grad program first and then you find a supervisor. If you can’t find a supervisor you have to withdraw. You could change supervisors while still staying in the department if somebody else will accept you. However, if you do this, it will look awfully bad (and as CRorex points out, your reputation is very important) unless you have a good reason.