In which Popular Science magazine gets ready to get dirty.

quote:

"Our annual bottom-10 list, in which we salute the men and women who do what no salary can adequately reward"

Actually, most of these tasks are not for dweeby labcoat techs. Many of them look to be vile, disgusting, and dangerous. In other words, right up Mike's alley:

10. Whale Feces Researcher
Call me Ishmael

9. Forensic Entomologist
The fancy name for the guy who counts maggots in dead things

8. Olympic Drug Tester
Recommended if you just love watching people take a tinkle

7. Gravity Research Subject
Fun for the whole Dirty Jobs crew!

6. Microwesoft Security Grunt
Not very Dirty, and prolly not compelling teevee either, unless Mike can figger out some way of referencing p00, s3m3n, and quoting Rene Descartes and the collected works of Rudyard Kipling. But who am I kidding? This epi would be the sux0r.

5. Coursework Carcass Preparer
This one has a lot of potential, kinda like "Salmon Survey Technician" with 100% more poisonous fumes for Mike not to wear a mask in.

4. Garbologist
Yay! Mike could stay home for a few days and go back to the SF dump or landfill to dig for buried treasure.

3. Elephant Vasectomist
On a Very Special Episode of Dirty Jobs...

2. Oceanographer
Dirty, but not in a good way. Maybe for Shark Week, or a special on the new Planet Green network.

1. Hazmat Diver
The expert that PopSci interviewed is Steven Barsky. 'Nuff said.

I have friends who work Levels 3 and 4 at Ft. Detrick, you know, with the BAD stuff, where you have to put on the most PPE you've seen in your life. No, I have not visited them there.

They need a raise.

Melinda

For the record, they love their jobs. And safety is first.

*sigh*

Public High School Science Teacher used to be #7 on that list...

I guess I should be happy that it got removed...but it really did bring to life WHY it was on that list...

(dealing with shoestring budgets for science supplies, some schools having OLD textbooks with innacruate information, using old equipment to preform modern experiments etc...controversy in science - evolution in particular)



Amory

Tazma, what a wonderful list of horrors! I could definitely see Mike and the 'Dirty' guys working at them.

Amory, I salute you. As a teacher of English and history, my classroom messes were strictly metaphorical ones. But I remember, from my friend Debbie (a science teacher), how involved, time-consuming, and nerve-wracking it was to prepare for and clean up after lab experiments.

Foul stenches...Gruessome dissections...And certain chemicals must be stored just so...

I substituted for her ONCE--she had a family emergency during my conference--and I spent the first 15 minutes of class trying to keep the football boys from setting fire to the Chemical Elements chart with a Bunsen burner.

Ah, memories...

Now I teach students who have actually burned entire buildings down.

Oh, well...

Becca(sue)