Annoyed janitor turns off super-cold freezer, destroying decades of scientific work and causing at least $1M in damages: lawsuit

NY Post ^ | 06/26/2023 | Steve Janoski

[ChicagoConservative27]

It could be the plot of a dark comedy if it weren’t a science tragedy.

A janitor working in a laboratory who was annoyed by an incessant beep reportedly flipped a switch that killed the noise — but also shut off a storage freezer, destroying decades of scientific work, according to the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute lab in Troy.

The cleaner’s alleged carelessness cost the lab at least $1 million in damages, a lawsuit the university filed against its third-party cleaning service charges.

“People’s behavior and negligence caused all this,” Michael Ginsberg, RPI’s attorney, told the Times Union in Albany. “Unfortunately, they wiped out 25 years of research.”

The super-cold freezer the custodial worker allegedly shut down held cell cultures, samples, and other elements stored at minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit, the Times Union said.

[Chode]

LOL... in 3

[SMARTY]

His union will protect him...so it’s HIS union agains the professors’ union... LOVE it!

BTW... the schools are awash in gov’t research funding

[EliRoom8]

Thank you for the Far Side!

Please, Sir, may we have some more!

[SunkenCiv]

I'm sure all the stuff in the Coldspot was related to white supremacist microaggression, so, good riddance.

[Clay Moore]

During Jimmy Carter we were asked to save energy so some genius decided that they could save all sorts of energy by just shutting off the main power going into the high school over Christmas or spring break.

After all there’s no people in there so there’s no sense wasting all that energy on HVAC.

We came back several days late and there was still so much rotten smell from the refrigerators it about made you barf.

[Dr. Sivana]

PERFECT! It sounded like a Far Side moment, and Larson already had it covered, and you found it. Thanks!

(Even more Far Side, was that the janitor did it on purpose.)

[Dr. Sivana]

This is not quite the same, but it reminds us of how annoying repeated noises can be:

[GingisK]

Moral of story: Sweep the floor yourself in critical laboratories.

[MinorityRepublican]

But it’s much cheaper to hire an outside company. Well, you get what you pay for.

Yep. They paid for it in the long run.

[hoosierham]

Power switches with locked covers.
No cords/cables that can be unplugged without keys

[Churchillspirit]

Good point.

[PLMerite]

"We used to have a cleaning crew that would unplug a network switch in a remote site to plug in the vacuum."

We had something similar where I used to work. Cleaning crew would plug vacuum into a particular wall socket and when turned on, whole room went down.

Lights, racks of equipment, air handlers, temperamental mainframes. Suddenly very quiet until someone said, "oh...sh!t."

[alexander_busek]

The super-cold freezer the custodial worker allegedly shut down held cell cultures, samples, and other elements stored at minus-112 degrees Fahrenheit, the Times Union said.

"Cell cultures," huh?!

Sure...

Regards,

[thesligoduffyflynns]

Who knows what they were working on?

This guy may have just save the entire

world

[thesligoduffyflynns]

🙋🌞 😂😂😆😆😂

[Cowgirl]

How many years can you study a yak? A life’s work no doubt. I said yak because the U of Alaska has a yak farm and I’ve been in Alaska 20 years and it’s always been there.

[Reily]

There’s clearly a lot for those U of Alaska agricultural scientists to yak about!

[nutmeg]

.

[SuperLuminal]

"My guess is the school is happy to have this gone, happy to have someone to blame for it going away."

Yes indeed...
Now have an "instant" list for supposedly critical experiments that will have to have original grant applications resubmitted without requiring any intellectual effort or capability...

[GingisK]

It had power. It was deliberately switched off. How would a backup power source help?