I loved cycling home past stationary cars.\u00a0 In the flood, in the light rain that followed the storm, the smash whizz bang super cell thunderstorm that hit the city on Thursday.\u00a0 But it seems that truly the work that I was doing, when the power had to switched off due to flooding in the west of the building, is lost. Sigh. Ah well.<\/p>\n
The road the runs by the RVI was closed because of flooding near the roundabout in front of the Claremont buildings.\u00a0 As I reached there \u2013 water streaming from my left, off the hill, a male policeman calmly lifted a woman in a perfectly undignified fireman\u2019s lift \u2013 his hands around her legs and her buttocks by his ear \u2013 over his shoulder.\u00a0 He carried her with heavy stomps through the rushing stream and set her down on the far side where they shook hands.\u00a0 Then they went their separate ways.\u00a0 So English.<\/p>\n
If I trained postdocs to give talks using the Lessig method, like a TED talk.\u00a0 I would be doing myself a favour and I would be doing them a favour.\u00a0 I am not sure whether this is precisely what would benefit them, but it sure as heck would benefit me.\u00a0 I have met 3 postdocs who would be fabulous.\u00a0 I think I will start trawling for speakers in the pool of postdocs.<\/p>\n
Researchers are required to be as nimble as their field of study is, but the university where they work is different.\u00a0 A university, this university, is a large organisation with massive drag, slow to change and certainly slow to recognise organisational change.\u00a0 There are bureaucratic processes that sometimes help and sometimes hinder and procedurally they may be equal but would be called best practise, or red tape, depending on which side of bed I put my slippers on.\u00a0 And\u00a0whether I wanted to be carried over the stream.<\/p>\n
Within the organisation we have small businesses with projects \u2013 the primary investigators and their research questions.\u00a0 They write a business plan, aka apply for grants, and if they are successful they are up and running.\u00a0 Then they hire staff (teams of post docs) to do the work.\u00a0 Each one has a budget and overheads.<\/p>\n
The PI model is not a do-it-myself model.\u00a0 At best it is a VC or investor model of small business\u00a0which outsources HR, building maintenance, cleaning, desks, pens, computers; sticks and carrots.\u00a0It could also be seen as being paternal and patronising and taking care of all the details so that they don’t bother the PI.<\/p>\n
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I loved cycling home past stationary cars.\u00a0 In the flood, in the light rain that followed the storm, the smash whizz bang super cell thunderstorm that hit the city on Thursday.\u00a0 But it seems that truly the work that I was doing, when the power had to switched off due to flooding in the west … Continue reading Managing Intimacy – The Fireman’s Lift<\/span>