Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Climate Change Forum Research Work, Assistant Etc - OFF TOPIC

G'day all,

If this breaches the forum rules, I'm sorry and Amaranth Rose is free to remove it.

The research I carried out for many many months on the promise of a grant was cancelled because the Institute did not like the fact that every single paper they sent me had serious flaws in the assumptions used or in the scientific methodologies adopted to carry out the research. In several of the cases the matter either bordered on fraud or stepped right over the line into outright fraudulant behaviour.

It was such a small grant in the scheme of things and the requirements was that it had to be attached to a University that would support it. All of this took a great deal of time and effort and I did it. The Institute is a major entity and I believed clearly that no matter what happened they would at least fund the work that had been carried out, a report being returned to them generally every few days and often quite extensive reports being submitted on each paper they asked me to review. They didn't seem to be willing for me to cancel the process because they kept sending more matters.

Eventually I received this pretty short email indicating that my results did not "conform with their expectations for the project they had indicated they were considering funding. And that was that. I asked to be paid for the work that had been carried out and was told that no agreement was made for me to be paid (even though hourly rates for my work, delivery schedules and everything of a similar nature had been negotiated in writing, plus an allowance for assistants, for the use of the University's computers, my computers, the cost of purchasing massive amounts of storage for my computers etc, was discussed in great detail and each section was "signed off" on as we went through the discussions).

Now I'm out of pocket a lot, have done work to the neglect of such things as my own taxation returns for which my government took a dim view and cancelled by disability pension for a while.

I'm an expert in scientific methodologies, have advised corporations, non profit organisations, individuals etc for more than 25 years and many of these matters involved litigation. I have a record that actually includes not a single loss to a client where they followed by advise and that includes matters that went to the equivalent of the US Supreme Court and to the second highest courts in our country.

I cannot get a real job to save my life. I tried to get out of bed to right this and was voilently ill so I'm writing this sideways. But my brain still works and surely there is someone out there that could utilise my skills. Someone contacted me recently about a problem they had and I thought that I might be able to consult on that but it didn't pan out. I could have done the work without any great difficulty but they decided to not proceed with the project so didn't need my help.

I used to get paid $150 to $200 per hour for my work but right now just need to pay the rent. Anybody have any suggestions of how a beddridden analyst such as myself could still use the skills I had or is in need of some research assistance, some review of research, critical analysis of research etc etc I would be very grateful if they could email me. My email is easily found on this site but it is richard@tpahg.com.

This is very much off topic but there is a few of you that have been on this site for a while and have a reasonable idea of my reasoning skills as well as my abilities to express views. Maybe my posts lately have deteriorated badly and now suck big time. I have a little trouble because of too much pressure in my brain but think I can still hold my own and will be around for long enough to still be of use to someone who could use my admittedly, peculiar and unusual skills.

While this is aimed at Climate Science I've been given 30,000 page files on coal mine disasters; commercial airline crashes; supertanker failures and many very strange topics with the only instructions being to determine what reports if any have reasonable validity, what needed to be done to actually make a reasonable determination and very often what should be done to make the whole thing go away.

Sorry this is not on topic but as you might have guessed I'm a bit desperate.

Rics

Someone with your ability and background should not worry too much.

I know this sounds a bit optimistic and out of the norm for this forum , and you may not agree , but sometimes when your at your rock bottom is when you find the rope you need to climb higher.

I could sudgest that you write a book.

you sure know how to write and your writings read well...

I sincerely hope this adds a little hope to your situation.

Hello RicS,

What you are saying just proves the point, we are all under the thumbs of idiots and they are everywhere, here in the US too. You're a smart man, you will prevail. I saw a t-shirt one time with a white crane about to swallow a frog and the little frog was holding on to the cranes beak fighting for dear life and the caption said "never give up". This is not putting money in your pocket but I hope you the best.
Best Regards,
odin1

...and each section was "signed off" on as we went through the discussions).

Call a lawyer....

G'day Samwik,

I did threaten that but the much better threat was givin it to the press or a conservative think tank. Trouble is, if I do, succeed in publishing anything somewhere down the track, by doing this, I'll leave myself open for being written off as a lackey for the ultra right wing.

Oh and their legal reply included the comment that I did the work "voluntarily" without the finalisation of the grant and even though the work performed amounted to more than 50% of the total research I was doing so only in order to attempt to pursuade the Institute that the grant was reasonable. If this had been delivered in person I would have hit someone. I had told them several times that my medical condition was causing serious problems in doing this research and the grant needed to be completed so I could have the appropriate assistance and several times I begged off researching a particular paper only to have a very senior person email me back saying that they desperately needed the review that they had sent me and eventually it would all work out to our mutual benefit.

Unforunately, all of the documents amount to a serious intent to enter into a grant but unless I can prove they sent the research with the deliberate intention of not providing the grant, in which case, they would have committed a fraud, I actually am stuck in a sort of limbo.

But thanks for the comment anyway.


Richard