Everybody’s at it.
Everybody seems to want to sex up the appeal of their career, to attract BYTs to come and do what they’re doing, even if it might be counter-productive. Scientists are as guilty as anyone else (and I know a certain NN-er actually once said ‘scientists are sexy’ in a crowded room. The horror). Different vocations have, obviously, different aspects, and recruiters play on the ones that they might think would be appealing to the ‘right stuff’, while downplaying the not so pleasant duties.
Grim Reality
I see the Army Navy knuckleheads are at it, again. This weekend, the Royal Marine Commandos (who, before they start looking for me, I have to admit are the toughest bunch of bastards you could ever hope to have on your side) will be at cinemas across the UK, laying down the ‘”Bergen Challenge”:http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/PeopleInDefence/VideoMarinesToChallengePublicAtASilverScreenNearYou.htm’, in which you have to (try to) carry one of the sixty pound rucksacks the boys in the green berets take with them everywhere (it’s pretty rough in down-town Portsmouth, I hear).
Publicity shot
And—
Well, you’re all way ahead of me already, aren’t you?
What about the ‘Gilson Challenge’? Or the ‘Pipette-tip Racking Challenge?’ The ‘How Many Colonies Can You Get Out of a Single Aliquot of Competent Cells Challenge?’ The ‘Who’s The Fastest Crystallographer?’ race.
I’m sure you can think of more.
What about the “staying awake in the plenary after the conference dinner” challenge? Or the “make some sense out of this pile of data” challenge (this one is graded by the impact factor of the journal you get it published in)?
I saw the Royal Marine Commando cinema ad yesterday. I thought it rather fine. The occasion was a rare outing to the cinema in which Mrs Gee and I watched Quantum of Calcium Release from Intracellular Stores. Which was also rather fine.
In the year to October I handled >700 new manuscripts. Sixty-pound packs are for fairies.
Ooh. Get the manuscript past Gee Challenge?
Trailer for…
Man in ill-fitting lab coat is seen entering a booth in which there is an MP3 player. As he enters it starts to play.
“Jim, your mission is to investigate the research you eloquently described in your proposal, the referee’s would like to pint out that the project would be better focussed on concrete outcomes and expect significant progress by the mid-term review. You have three years. This message will erase in 10 seconds.”
The screen of the iPod goes blank.
I’d quite like to ‘pint out’ my own project, Brian.
Apart from that, good idea. Grant Impossible? (Pun intended)
How many things can you do while eating a McDonald’s challenge?
Can you get people to collaborate challenge?
Couple of years ago, I hosted a medium sized conference in Glasgow. I managed to bring together a somewhat diverse bunch of individuals from around the UK.
Expecting a somewhat challenging day ahead (long story), I chose the U2 version [1] of MI as the opening track during the warm up. Apart from one attendee, no-one picked up on the choice of music 🙁
In the end, the conference was much more productive than I thought it would be, which was great.
[1]