From service to servitude

 

After 12 years my Chromatography and mass spec service (already unable to keep up) will be dragged further down by a laboratory move.

Is my empire crumbling? I'm moving from the top floor to the ground (or what seems like basement). All the equipment must go, with all of the necessary meticulous dismantling and reassembling. The Atlas/Hades referencing cartoon is my scribbled expression of the downtrodden nature of the task. To enhance my enthusiasm for the move, the destination lab isn't yet fit for purpose. No fume hood or safe vapour removal, and existing surplus equipment still in the way.

I once joked about 'administration creep,' where all of the additional admin and pointless tasks begin to take over your time, leaving little room for the actual job tasks (like conducting science). I think the creep has reached 100%.

Copa Mundial versus productivity

It is not the war, the Hormuz blockade, or inflation that is responsible for the economic downturn. It is FIFA. Are there any eyes not turned to the World Cup in the Americas? 

My cartoon exposes my lifelong addiction to the FIFA World Cup. As if the obsession wasn't bad enough, FIFA enlarged the tournament to 48 teams. More matches, and less sleep.

The Consultancy Vacuum

 

My employer follows the current university trend of squandering large sums of PUBLIC money on consultants. Think of what we could have better spent the money on. My cartoon shows Sir John Monash (after whom the University was named) pondering this very thought. What do we have to show for 3 years of averaging over 12 million per year on consultants. I still can't cater for all of the research demand on my analysis services. Remember that the university takes a fair percentage out of all research grants to provide support and services to all research. I don't see any of that. Hmm, where does the money go?

Consultancy capers

On March 30, the 4 Corners program exposed an industry wide consultancy farce in the university sector. The NTEU reported that last year Monash University paid over 12 million dollars to consultants. In an organisation that struggles to deal with student numbers at its coal face, this seems unbelievable. The students would tell you how that money could have been better spent....

The Atomic Apostle

 

Peter Dutton led the Liberals into the 2025 Federal election with a promise of a nuclear future. It turned out to be a fissile strategy. The Coalition parties have been fragmenting ever since their election loss.

Trumping it.

 

Donald Trump displaying his disdain for the United Nations and Venezuela.

Here shown in Rodin's famous pose, thinking....'I always said the UN was good for NUthin!'

Drowning in PFAS

 The last few years at work have been spent analyzing Engineering samples for PFAS. So many samples that I barely had time to run any other LC-MS samples on the Q-TOF. This cartoon was perhaps a scribbled plea for help.

So I begin again

 

Typepad shut down on me, and I have had to start over.

Here I am carving a place in posterity for my fellow lab workers.