#FieldWorkFail
August 4, 2015 9:14 PM Subscribe
"Accidentally glued myself to a crocodile while attaching a radio transmitter." The #fieldworkfail hashtag reveals the hilarious perils experienced by the Science side of Twitter.
Almost makes me wish I had done fieldwork. Almost.
posted by mogget at 10:03 PM on August 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by mogget at 10:03 PM on August 4, 2015 [2 favorites]
How many stories will never be told because they may not be entirely - what some might call "legal"? #fieldworkfail
posted by not_the_water at 10:03 PM on August 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by not_the_water at 10:03 PM on August 4, 2015 [3 favorites]
Doing archeological survey work on an Army Reserve base, my shovel test hit an underground bees' nest. I left my shovel sticking straight up out of the ground. Of course no one wanted to wait for me, so I had to go back and get it while the bees were still swarming.
Later, I hit with my shovel a large, intact artillery shell. We all got unexploded ordnance training the next day.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:07 PM on August 4, 2015 [16 favorites]
Later, I hit with my shovel a large, intact artillery shell. We all got unexploded ordnance training the next day.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:07 PM on August 4, 2015 [16 favorites]
Of COURSE it found this tree. Poor zebra!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:23 PM on August 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:23 PM on August 4, 2015 [4 favorites]
There's also #fieldworkwin which is pretty cool too.
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:58 PM on August 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe in Australia at 11:58 PM on August 4, 2015 [1 favorite]
I am giggling so hard I might pee.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:26 AM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:26 AM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
Just last night I was telling a fellow field linguist we really need a twitter to post the things that we say, but without context.
(Latrine bats probably need no context though. You can imagine all the context you need...)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 4:47 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
(Latrine bats probably need no context though. You can imagine all the context you need...)
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 4:47 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
Doing archeological survey work on an Army Reserve base, my shovel test hit an underground bees' nest.
Oh man, I do not miss fieldwork for a second. All sorts of animals used to take up home in our monitoring wells. Which resulted in more than one occasion where my coworkers and I ran screaming through the forest being chased by wasps. Or the times we had to fish out black widow spiders with very very long sticks after incapacitating them (or so we hoped) with a blast from a fire extinguisher. Or running away from the snakes that would slither out because there had been a crack in the protective casing big enough for them to sneak in.
I am so happy to work in an office now, even if they do think it's appropriate to have the AC on in the middle of winter.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 6:19 AM on August 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
Oh man, I do not miss fieldwork for a second. All sorts of animals used to take up home in our monitoring wells. Which resulted in more than one occasion where my coworkers and I ran screaming through the forest being chased by wasps. Or the times we had to fish out black widow spiders with very very long sticks after incapacitating them (or so we hoped) with a blast from a fire extinguisher. Or running away from the snakes that would slither out because there had been a crack in the protective casing big enough for them to sneak in.
I am so happy to work in an office now, even if they do think it's appropriate to have the AC on in the middle of winter.
posted by C'est la D.C. at 6:19 AM on August 5, 2015 [5 favorites]
I am giggling so hard I might pee.
#officeworkfail
posted by The Bellman at 6:27 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
#officeworkfail
posted by The Bellman at 6:27 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
Heard stories about an oceanography professor down south who would strip naked when retrieving buoy instrumentation. Folks considered it a rite of passage to work with this guy under these conditions. #FieldWorkFail
posted by oceanjesse at 7:21 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by oceanjesse at 7:21 AM on August 5, 2015 [3 favorites]
Scientists rock! This just makes fieldwork seem all the more romantic to a non-scientist such as myself.
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:22 AM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by FelliniBlank at 7:22 AM on August 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
I am so so so glad that I am not our lab's field specialist. My one season of fieldwork was enough to convince me that that was Not For Me--and I had a relatively cushy assignment working in Costa Rica and staying in an actual cabin with showers and a semi-reliable source of hot water. Most of my friends who do fieldwork work with way less.
And then there's my one good friend who keeps coming back from his field sites with stories about being menaced by soldiers with machine guns, which may have warped my opinions on fieldwork...
posted by sciatrix at 7:50 AM on August 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
And then there's my one good friend who keeps coming back from his field sites with stories about being menaced by soldiers with machine guns, which may have warped my opinions on fieldwork...
posted by sciatrix at 7:50 AM on August 5, 2015 [4 favorites]
Me: before burying cables in a farmer's field, make sure he does not intend to plow it.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:58 AM on August 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:58 AM on August 5, 2015 [6 favorites]
Seriously, these are fucking priceless:
I hit a southern brown bandicoot driving home from my day restoring habitat for southern brown bandicoots :-/
Spent 15 min. in W. Texas trying to identify rodent in live trap. Field guide failed to help. It was a Hamster.
Catching guppies immediately adjacent to a fer de lance
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:16 AM on August 5, 2015 [8 favorites]
I hit a southern brown bandicoot driving home from my day restoring habitat for southern brown bandicoots :-/
Spent 15 min. in W. Texas trying to identify rodent in live trap. Field guide failed to help. It was a Hamster.
Catching guppies immediately adjacent to a fer de lance
posted by FelliniBlank at 8:16 AM on August 5, 2015 [8 favorites]
Our site on St. Simon's island in Georgia was invaded by armadillos one night. There were three of them, each one stuck under the tarps covering separate test pits. Armadillos jump when they are scared. My lovely straight walls were soon not so straight...
posted by gemmy at 10:01 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by gemmy at 10:01 PM on August 5, 2015 [1 favorite]
These remind me of some of the "Things I learned as a field biologist" posts. They have some fun stories. a favorite is Things I Learned as a Field Biologist #294: "Congratulations, you have a botfly" edition.
posted by bleary at 2:55 PM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by bleary at 2:55 PM on August 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
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posted by not_on_display at 9:34 PM on August 4, 2015 [1 favorite]