To put things in perspective, Sam had never really invented anything chemistry related by this time.\u00a0 In fact, this was a skill that he would not develop until sometime later after being fired by the GM.\u00a0 During the beginning stages of his indoctrination into the herd Sam met routinely with the GM.\u00a0 Sam told me that during meetings with the GM the student was required to submit ideas which were then discussed and finally each meeting concluded with the GM retaining the original copies of the ideas that the student had brought.\u00a0 These ideas were placed in the bookshelf drawer previously described earlier and possibly transposed and cataloged at a later date by the GM himself for future use.\u00a0 Regardless, the entire experience of being able to present ideas was fascinating to Sam.\u00a0 The whole idea that such a famous professor would sit and listen to a student was an ego boosting experience for Sam.\u00a0 Still, the GM was not completely satisfied with the ideas Sam was coming up with so he requested that Sam see a visiting scientist from Belgium and also professor Hardwood of the same chemistry department (not that he was really constructed of oak).\u00a0 Sam recalls professor Hardwood being somewhat agitated by his visitation and him stating \u201cwhy should I give the GM all my ideas?\u201d\u00a0 Sam then presented these third party ideas to the GM but he still wasn\u2019t satisfied.\u00a0 Finally, the GM reached into his treasure chest and pulled out what he thought was a sure fire idea for a great project.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to Sam at the time this idea was doomed to failure from the beginning and that his soft underbelly was about to get ripped apart at a later date by no other than the GM himself.<\/p>\n
So our foolish Sam began work on the GM\u2019s project.\u00a0 Despite keeping grad student hours he managed to make progress that pleased the GM.\u00a0 Again a digression is required here.\u00a0 As it turns out the GM managed to keep very lucrative hours for himself.\u00a0 Typically the GM would wander in to the University of Asscrack at around 2 pm, sit in his office for 4-6 hours and then scurry back home.\u00a0 At most he taught one class per semester (if that) and still managed to rake in a 5+ figure salary.\u00a0 Of course this is just a minor price to pay for the tax paying peons who reside in the great state with nothing on each end and yet it is so high in the middle.\u00a0 We will get back to the millions of dollars wasted on the GM\u2019s (supposed) inventions, not a single one amounting to any industrial significance.\u00a0 According to Sam the GM would give praise by saying \u201ckeep up the good work\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t worry about the literature I\u2019ll take care of that you just focus on the laboratory work.\u201d\u00a0 Finally Sam gave his first talk on this research.\u00a0 In the audience were people from the exploder tire company.\u00a0 Several days later they informed the GM that on a recent literature search a Japanese company that makes copying devices amongst other things had recently patented the chemistry Sam had been working on. \u00a0The GM immediately did a 180 on Sam.\u00a0 \u201cIt is your fault, it was your responsibility\u201d said the GM to Sam.\u00a0 Sam was then reassigned to train one of the exploder tire company\u2019s employees how to do some of the techniques developed in the GM lab while the GM tried to decide what to do with Sam\u2019s project.\u00a0 I should digress here yet again.\u00a0 This is when Sam started to wake up.\u00a0 The tire exploder scientist that Sam trained basically told Sam that the GM was going to be made a coinventor on a patent covering an idea he came up with.\u00a0 It would appear that the GM was nothing but a parasite; however, Sam still wasn\u2019t sure.\u00a0 One thing Sam did know is that the GM had lied about protecting his soft underbelly and that his project sure wasn\u2019t original as promised.\u00a0 In another \u201chindsight is 20\/20 moment\u201d Sam told me that later it came out in a local newspaper that the Japanese company mentioned above had previous dealings with the GM.\u00a0 In fact, from the chemical literature a number of Japanese researchers had spent time in the GM\u2019s lab working on almost identical chemistry.\u00a0 It was of little doubt to Sam that the GM\u2019s sure fire idea had ultimately come from one of these visiting Japanese scientists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
To put things in perspective, Sam had never really invented anything chemistry related by this time.\u00a0 In fact, this was a skill that he would not develop until sometime later after being fired by the GM.\u00a0 During the beginning stages … Continue reading