Deep Learning to Help People Know Your Shit

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 […]

A better-rounded understanding of why wombat poo is cubic

Ian Sample reports, in The Guardian, a new discovery by Ig Nobel Prize winners, about wombat poo shape: Scientists unravel secret of cube-shaped wombat faeces Researchers investigate why excrement emerges in awkward-shaped blocks … “My curiosity got triggered when I realised that cubical feces exist,” said Patricia Yang pictured below], a postdoctoral fellow in mechanical engineering […]

Thesis: “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” in Stockholm

A tidy stream of scholarship emerges from this 2017 thesis: “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow: Urin i konsten: om tolkning som händelse,” Jens Martin Svendsen, thesis, Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm Business School, Marketing, Stockholm University, 2017. The author writes: “Don’t eat the yellow snow—Urine in art: events of interpretationUrine seams to evoke feelings. Through […]

Spanish Medical Folklore: Inducing Milk

A 1910 British medical article about Spanish medical folklore includes some stories about how to induce milk: “Spanish Medical Folklore,” British Medical Journal, October 15, 1910, p. 1168. The unsigned article explains that its information comes from “two articles on Spanish superstitions, by Dr. Martin arrera y Dellunder, which appeared in the Gaceta Medica Catalana of […]