Although they perhaps were not allowed to say it plainly in their published study, three scientists have identified a clear case of exchanging shit for brains. Details (with some euphemisms) are in the study: “Coprolites From Calvert Cliffs: Miocene Fecal Pellets and Burrowed Crocodilian Droppings from the Chesapeake Group of Maryland, U.S.A.“, Stephen J. Godfrey, […]
Cormorants are showering shit upon limousines that park unwisely in one particular spot in Rotterdam. Kees Moeliker, ornithologist, director of the natural history museum in Rotterdam, and Ig Nobel Prize winner (for discovering homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck), writes about it in the Dutch newspaper NRC. Here is a machine-translation into English: Full layer […]
A new, distinct form of backend processing— a very distant relative of potty training, for computers—is presented in this new study: “A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta,” Seung-min Park, Daeyoun D. Won, Brian J. Lee, Diego Escobedo, Andre Esteva, Amin Aalipour, T. Jessie Ge, Jung Ha Kim, Susie […]
Feces, faeces, ordure, dung, manure, excreta, stool, stool-NOT-faeces, and stool-NOT-feces are the prime examples in a newly published study that examines the need for data-driven standards. The study is: “Laying a Community-Based Foundation for Data-Driven Semantic Standards in Environmental Health Sciences,” Carolyn J. Mattingly, Rebecca Boyles, Cindy P. Lawler, Astrid C. Haugen, Allen Dearry, and Melissa Haendel, Environmental […]
Disgust gets a roller-coaster ride in a soon-to-be-published study (which you can download a full copy of now!). The study is: “The Meaning of Disgust: A Refutation,” Nina Strohminger, Emotion Review, in press 2013. The author, at Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University, begins the paper with this sentence: “In disgust research, there is shit, […]
A new study looks into a stool sample, to see whether the whole is indicative of the parts. The study’s title perhaps marks the start of a new era for medical journals. It uses plain, clear words: “An In-Depth Analysis of a Piece of Shit: Distribution of Schistosoma mansoni and Hookworm Eggs in Human Stool,” […]
Investigator Eileen Peters alterts us to the fact that Dr. Shit F. Chew—our Undersung Scientist of the Month back in December 2004 and again in February 2010—now lists her complete name on her web site. Her complete name is Dr. Shit Fun Chew. Dr. Chew now becomes our first three-time Undersung Scientist of the Month. […]
There is a metaphor here, in this short (0:01:33) video, about how people decide what’s worth looking at: The filmmaker is named Malik. (HT @almuraisy)