The cost and caché of “the world’s most expensive coffee” — kopi luwak — has created at least three related industries. BACKGROUND: Long-time readers might recall that Kopi Luwak is made from coffee beans that have been partially digested by the Asian Palm-Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus); an animal that cherry picks only certain fruits (some say, […]
Tag: poop
An Arielian take on trying digestively-processed coffee
Ig Nobel Prize winner Dan Ariely [pictured here, right] answers a reader’s question about a substance that produced an Ig Nobel Prize in 1995. A reader of Ariely’s blog asked: During a recent trip to Los Angeles, I stopped by a coffee shop offering a very expensive coffee called kopi luwak, or civet coffee. I […]
The experiment where they purposely made poop glow in the dark
Investigator Kirk Maxey introduced us to this research by saying: “For those with fetishes, we can add multi-colors….” He gives details, including the image reproduced here, on his blog, which begins thus: Lose Weight…and your poop will glow in the dark too! Sean Davies had a problem to solve: If you genetically modify enteric bacteria to make them more […]
Advances in toilet system testing: Wigglers & Pseudo Poop
Whither waste? Toilet testing, not everyone’s cup of tea, makes things flow better, for society’s sake. Metafilter features a little roundup of toilet testing info (thanks to investigator Scott Langill for bringing it to our attention): Pseudo Poop for Testing Toilets Testing toilet flush performance naturally requires the replication of real-world loads. Striving for accuracy, […]