(no subject)

[theweaselking]

Biologist fired from biology job for being utterly incompetent at biology, refusing to the the biological work he was specfically hired to do.

And, of course, he's suing, because his invisible friend speaks to him and tells him that all of biology is lies, and so he has a right to be hired as a biologist and paid to not do biology, duh, he eats poop.

Comments

[tsunami-ryuu.livejournal.com]

Go Woods Hole! He was refusing to do the work he was hired for. Tough shit on being fired, bub.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can switch him with the recently-fired director of the Texas Education Agency.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Texas is now more and more its own little nation, with its own culture and strange rules. The TEA has got to be the most freakish of the institutions in that state.

At least when Molly Ivins was alive, I could keep up with Texas politics in a humorous, nostalgic way. I know about Charlie Wilson BECAUSE of her (there's a movie coming out about him).

Anyway, back to the TEA: The TEA is extremely important. Why? Because publishing companies use the TEA to determine what will go into their textbooks. Where the TEA isn't ridiculously strict in what it allows, it's relentlessly quixotic in getting what it wants in there. If Texas will allow it, any state will, is the idea.

Finally: I don't think it was the drector of the TEA that was fired. I think it was their science director.

[swwoodsy.livejournal.com]

Well, the reason publishing companies use TEA to determine what goes in the books is because Texas buys billions (yes, really, billions ---OK, maybe millions) of dollars worth of textbooks each year for the schools.

A friend of mine temped for TEA in the library services/textbooks division. She entered and balanced the payments to and from public schools to TEA for textbooks and attended the meetings where they decided which books to use and why.

So if Texas won't buy the publisher's book for whatever inane, insane reason pops into the heads of the selection committee, the publisher modifies the book to be what the TEA wants. As goes the right wing, idiotic, narrow-minded, can't-think-their-way-out-of-a-wet-paper-bag fundies, so goes the nation. Home schooling really is looking like a better option.

I'm glad I live in Austin. I'm glad I voted. I'm glad I threw monkey wrenches.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree with what you say here, but New York and California just have to spend nearly as much, so I've always wondered about this argument!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Holy crap 4-year thread necro!

California is perpetually broke and buys *last year's textbooks* from Texas. The point is, Texas is a HUGE market.

[http://users.livejournal.com/-coelacanth-/]

I'm glad they didnt wuss out and apologize to him in fear of being sued. If he wants to not accept science, then he shouldnt be applying as ascientist for scientific jobs. Duh.

[sanityimpaired.livejournal.com]

"I want to be a bus driver. However, I am forbidden by my religion to enter an automotive vehicle. That won't be a problem, will it?"

How could somebody possibly think that refusing to do the things the job they chose to apply for clearly required has anything to do with religion? Seriously, WTF?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

More like:
"We need to hire a bus driver, who will drive buses."

"I want to be a bus driver. Here, you see, I have a bus driver's license and references from bus driving school and it is my ambition to drive your buses."

"Sounds good, you're hired to drive our buses."

"I'm sorry, but now that you've hired me, I must reveal that my religion prohibits me from driving buses. I am completely unable to drive any buses, ever. However, I am perfectly willing to perform the parts of my new job that do not require bus driving, while claiming the full salary you offered me as a bus driver, and I will sue you if you do not make this minor accommodation to fit my religion. Duh, I eat poop!"

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Uh.

If that's the way it goes, then that is one fucking smart bus driver. Certainly not a shit-eater!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Uh, no. That's what our poop-eating psuedoscientist WANTS. We he actually should GET is a happy kick in the ass and the instruction to either do the job he was hired for, that he knew he was hired for going in, and that his contract says he will do, or fuck off and take a position at a diploma mill for fundies who want to claim that they have an education but hate and fear knowledge.

That last, incidentally, is what he did.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I'm just sayin'. If you're trying to get out of a job, and get a cushy essentially-a-pension-check-for-life, that'd be a fairly novel way of doing it.

[eididdy.livejournal.com]

Huhuhuh... Wood's Hole.

[neobitch.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how these people get all the way up to and through a PhD program in a scientific field and then suddenly remember they eat poop don't believe in science.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I figure it's probably like the way geeks can tell you everything about a fictional setting or a gaming system, and still remember it isn't really real.

Best guess, there.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

To be fair, he was only unable to do 30% of the job description and could contribute somewhat to the job. Depending on the scope of the projects, if everyone agreed, it might have been possible for him to work on the other aspects of the work. Bloody hard to play devils advocate in this situation though.

Freeking idiot. If you want a job with a masters in biology without believing in evolution you have two options. Either treat it like a model (see newtonian physics) or don't apply for jobs specifically in _developmental biology_.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

His boss says he was only able to do 5-7% of the job.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Ahh, my apologies. I misread the "only 7 to 10 percent" as being him only able to only do 7 out of every 10 pieces of the work. Ugg.

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I can't figure this out... he specializes in zebrafish. What would possess a bible-believing christian to select that field?

Yes, well, you could theoretically do scientific work on zebrafish that has nothing to do with evolution and developmental biology, but all the scientific work not involving evolution and developmental biology could easily be accomplished by a grade 12 student.

[jagash.livejournal.com]

Well, he stated that his work was partially in toxicology. Simply examining the biochemical effects on zebra fish might require higher levels of training to deal with. Certain brands of ID can cope with "micro-evolution" and could handle minor changes.

It seems likely that he 'saw the light' after his masters, hence why he went for doctorate in philosophy.

[waterspyder.livejournal.com]

But the reason you work with zebrafish is because they have a mapped genome and it's easy to see generational effects. Maybe he viewed the effects of toxins as some sort of deviation from God's plan?

It's all a little weird to me.