Derek Lowe, an Arkansan by birth, got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship on his post-doc. He's worked for several major pharmaceutical companies since 1989 on drug discovery projects against schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, diabetes, osteoporosis and other diseases.
To contact Derek email him directly: derekb.lowe@gmail.com
Twitter: Dereklowe
I was going to put up another post here at lunchtime, but they've been tearing up the street or something right outside my building all morning. It's like a gigantic dental drill is trying to break in here - my desk vibrates. I've hardly had two sequential thoughts all morning - any more of this, and I'll be fit to be a managerial consultant.
Maybe sales? A recent Dilbert had Alice bonking an interviewee's head on a table and, when asked how the interview went, said "I bonked too hard. We got a new sales guy."
The landscaping guys show up here every two weeks to mow and trim the weeds. They usually end up sending a rock or two through a window. Then Maintenance shows up to fix the window and it starts all over again. Very Dilbertesque.
I wasn't there when it happened, but more than a decade ago when they were piloting the foundations for a new department store, they hid some sorta seam in the ground and the lamps started swaying at my highschool a coupla kilometres away.
lets just hope they won't hit anything important in the ground - like a gas or water main of fiber-optic cable that connects you to the net - those can take quite a while to repair.
Last time they were compacting the ground here for new buildings our labs shook rather badly and later our parked cars got snowed with sticky tar filaments when they did the roofing...
When the roofs here were redone, they managed to set ours afire and didn't notice (well, they thought they'd put it out...) until one of the people on our floor complained that he smelled smoke. Turns out that, oops, that fire wasn't really out.
We got the day off, and the roofers managed not to burn the building further. No more barbeques on the roof, I guess.
There was another time that they were drilling a hole through an exterior wall with a hammer drill. The guy with the drill didn't realize that he had hit a steel I-beam. The building was literally roaring. I grabbed a sound-level meter- it read 118 dB in the office!
8. Anonymous BMS Researcher on August 19, 2009 6:43 AM writes...
In grad school I was in a masonry building, which meant anytime they wanted to run new pipes or wires they had to drill through the walls, making a sound like a dental drill on steroids.
1. Hap on August 18, 2009 11:44 AM writes...
Maybe sales? A recent Dilbert had Alice bonking an interviewee's head on a table and, when asked how the interview went, said "I bonked too hard. We got a new sales guy."
Permalink to Comment2. Bored on August 18, 2009 12:30 PM writes...
The landscaping guys show up here every two weeks to mow and trim the weeds. They usually end up sending a rock or two through a window. Then Maintenance shows up to fix the window and it starts all over again. Very Dilbertesque.
Permalink to Comment3. Sili on August 18, 2009 1:23 PM writes...
I wasn't there when it happened, but more than a decade ago when they were piloting the foundations for a new department store, they hid some sorta seam in the ground and the lamps started swaying at my highschool a coupla kilometres away.
Also.
Permalink to Comment4. The Pharmacoepidemiologist on August 18, 2009 4:10 PM writes...
Nonesense. Management consultants need quiet to think through how to say nothing while saying everything. I don't think you've sunk that low.
Permalink to Comment5. milkshake on August 18, 2009 4:43 PM writes...
lets just hope they won't hit anything important in the ground - like a gas or water main of fiber-optic cable that connects you to the net - those can take quite a while to repair.
Last time they were compacting the ground here for new buildings our labs shook rather badly and later our parked cars got snowed with sticky tar filaments when they did the roofing...
Permalink to Comment6. Hap on August 18, 2009 4:54 PM writes...
When the roofs here were redone, they managed to set ours afire and didn't notice (well, they thought they'd put it out...) until one of the people on our floor complained that he smelled smoke. Turns out that, oops, that fire wasn't really out.
We got the day off, and the roofers managed not to burn the building further. No more barbeques on the roof, I guess.
Permalink to Comment7. Bored on August 18, 2009 7:10 PM writes...
There was another time that they were drilling a hole through an exterior wall with a hammer drill. The guy with the drill didn't realize that he had hit a steel I-beam. The building was literally roaring. I grabbed a sound-level meter- it read 118 dB in the office!
Permalink to Comment8. Anonymous BMS Researcher on August 19, 2009 6:43 AM writes...
Permalink to CommentIn grad school I was in a masonry building, which meant anytime they wanted to run new pipes or wires they had to drill through the walls, making a sound like a dental drill on steroids.