The same could be said of having large groups of people living together.....as in towns, cities....
And the flu has been around a lot longer than intensive farming has :)

Personally I think the main danger would be that it could combine with an avian strain and come back next year in a much more lethal form. Its difficult to ascertain how serious the threat is this year as the numbers of infected are still quite low, but WHO must have good reasons for raising the threat level.

thats a bit harsh sleephead. I think she is just making the point that loans are not always the answer. Clearly the original poster had no means of paying off their original loans which is why they found themselves in the current awkward situation. Getting another loan is not going to help that. I dont want to spend the rest of my working days paying back loans sending my taxes to pay unpaid loans. Im not being elitest having this opinion....Im being realistic. Banks should not give money to people who will not be able to pay it back - if they had been more sensible in this regard the world would not be in such financial turmoil today. I understand that putting ones career on hold by a year can be a downer, but if the person really wants to do a masters then a year should not make a difference either way

Graphpad prism is pretty easy to use and does all the SD/SEM calculations automatically when u enter your data.Think there is a limited free version available online.

I think you should seek out the student ombudsman for your uni - S/He should be able to provide more detailed advice on how you should proceed with your appeal, and should be able to advise you how best to deal with your supervisor. S/He can help you organize your thoughts/strategy/documentation of your previous reviews, and may even agree to sit in on your meeting with your supervisor to ensure everything is "above board".

Personally I prefer to see things written clearly and concisely. Nothing annoys me more than having to trawl through 3 paragraphs for something that could have been said in two sentences. However, by saying it isnt academic enough....they might mean precise enough....I had that problem when I started writing my thesis. It does really depend on your field I guess. Are you giving all the necessary information to support your statement (without being convoluted)? Even though its great that you can write for the lowest common denominator, this might mean you are omitting vital information that people in your field expect to see. For example....even though your examiners will know this stuff....they still want to know that you know it :)

There is a calvin and hobbes cartoon which describes this perfectly :) Google calvin and hobbes writing. its funny! And sadly its also kind of accurate...

Why dont you just sit down and talk to this person? Calling him/her a loon isnt likely to solve anything. As for the examples you have given of tampering - stocks often get misplaced accidently, experiments dont always work as expected, and perhaps someone just knocked over your tubes in the waterbath - Ive had water leak into tubes once as I didnt seal them properly and they got knocked over :( Maybe these thinks didnt just happen by accident, but you should talk with this person and make it clear you would report any further tampering as professional misconduct....

Im not sure if you would be able to perform the repetitive tasks associated with molecular work in the lab if typing leaves you in agony....It will probably involve lots of pippetting of small volumes, and often causes repetitive strain injury to workers (me included :( ). Maybe you shopuld determine exactly what techniques you would need to perform before confirming a project.

Hey Hairui, sorry to hear about your situation, it must be very stressful. What field are you in? I have to agree with some of the points that commonsense makes - would changing the focus just mean writing stuff in a different way or actually doing more field work? I had a similar situation with my supervisor re a section of my thesis (Science). I really dug my heels in and vowed not to change a word I had written but supervisor insisted so eventually for peace and quiet and the hope of graduating some time this century I changed it. As much as I hate to admit it, my supervisor was right, the thesis is sooo much better for the changes. I had invested so much time in writing it the first time that I was just too close - couldnt see the wood for the trees as they say. Sometimes they can see things that you cant - it comes from years of experience. Also as Im sure you are aware, academia is a very small world so it would be in your best interest to try and end things as amicably as possible. Hope everything works out for you.

Im sure he has been trying to get a lectureship, but there is a lot of competition for permanent positions.If he hasnt secured a position by now there is likely a reason - either not enough publications, not bringing in enough funding...etc. It must be quite disheartning to be on the post doc merry go round for so long, but sadly I know of many people in his position. There simply are not enough permanent jobs to go around.

We usually just contact DHL or Fedex directly and pay them, then claim it back on expenses. Prevents time consuming foul ups :)

I dont think that Celina is worried about discrimination. Two years out is a lot of time to miss, and depending on your area within science, a lot can happen in two years. Also, would there be students working on the project with you who would be looking to the post doc for guidance.....that has generally been the case in our department....while PIs have the knowledge, it is the post docs who have the practical skills. Also you may want to check, but in our uni i dont think maternity leave applies to post docs....only to permanent staff (probably due to the nature of short term contracts). Again, not knowing your specific area it is hard to comment on the 9 - 5 schedule, but from my own experience thats not how it works. If you want tenure you need to publish, if you need to publish you have to put in the hours in the lab as you will be competing with people who can work longer hours, weekends etc. I guess it depends on your schedule of work now......if you do 9 - 5 now, you might be able to sustain that, I doubt you could decrease the hours and hope to get tenure...

the bioforum is pretty good, just google for it

Im not sure how getting someone else to do the work for you would help you to learn anything. I certainly wouldnt find it academically acceptable - learning to produce well written work is part of the PhD process.