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Between 1968 and 1971, researchers Edwin L. Murphy and Doris H. Calloway published three, count ‘em, three studies on flatulence. The 1969 paper was about astronauts and their farts, specifically a study to determine the level of flatulence produced by difference astronaut space diets. Picturing how the study went brings into focus the many indignities astronauts face for their shot at space travel.
Their paper formed part of a loose trilogy of flatulence-related papers that the pair worked on, which kicked off with 1968′s “The Use of Expired Air to Measure Intestinal Gas Formation” and concluded with 1971′s “Reduction of Intestinal Gas-Forming Properties of Legumes by Traditional and Experimental Food Processing Methods.” Truly, if you needed to know something about farting in the late 1960s or early 1970s, you went to Calloway and Murphy. I would kill to be able to put something like that on a business card.
Link -via the Presurfer
11-year-old Christian Summers, like many kids (and adults, for that matter), think that passing gas is funny. But not the school bus driver lady, no siree!
According to his school bus driver, he also thinks passing gas is fun. She didn’t find his flatulence so funny.
"She’s like, ‘I’m gonna sign you up. I’m gonna sign you up’. I’m like, ‘It was an accident," said Summers.
For letting it rip on the ride home, Christian was slapped withn an hour of detention at Thoreau Park Elementary.
"I thought it was pretty dumb," said Summers.
It seems breaking wind is now breaking the rules. The detention slip reads, quote "Thinks it’s funny to pass gas while on the van. I’ve told him it’s not funny, nor polite to the others in the van. While others scream, he laughs."
But what does a kid do when he’s got to fart?
Christian now fears his flatulence. If he’s caught passing gas on the bus again, he could get four or five days of detention.
"Depends on how much more gas he has," said his father.
Now he’s secretive when letting one slip on his small school bus.
"When I have to pass gas, I have to cover myself because it won’t stink up the bus," said Christian.
Emily Valdez of Fox News has the story: Link – via Arbroath
More baby and kids stories over at NeatoBambino
It’s called the “Better Marriage Blanket” and is supposed to absorb noxious bodily odors. The advertisement claims that the carbon fabric lining of this blanket keeps flatulence beneath the covers. It also suggests that the blanket would make a great wedding or anniversary gift.
Link via Geekologie
The following is an article from The Best of The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Papal Belvedere by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1545), showing
German peasants farting at the pope.
It used to be that no one talked about farts … now, it's no big
deal. You can't get away from it. Which is fine by us. Here we honor people
who have made an art out of passing gas. (By the way - if this is your
favorite part of the book, we recommend a tome called Who
Cut the Cheese
Reprinted with permission from The Best of the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader.
The Bathroom Reader Institute handpicked the most eye-opening, rib-tickling,
and mind-boggling articles from everything they have written
over the last ten years and carefully crammed them into 576 pages of the
book.
Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute has published a series of popular
books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure
yet fascinating facts. Check out their website here: Bathroom
Reader Institute.
The staff at the Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, England learned their lesson last year, when farting turtles set off overflow alarms at another aquarium. The turtles get a Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts, which cause gas in turtles as they do in humans. When feeding sprouts to the turtles this year, the Norfolk aquarium lowered the water level to keep the expected bubbles from splashing water and setting off sensors.
Now the Yarmouth turtle tank -12 feet in depth and width holding 250,000 litres of water along with George the 3ft long green turtle – has been partially emptied for the festive season.
Thousands of litres have been removed to lower the water by a six inches and keep the sensitive alarms clear.
Displays Supervisor Christine Pitcher said: ”Last time an aquariist had to dash to the centre in the middle of the night, so we’re not going to take any chances.
”Sprouts are really healthy for green turtles.
”The high levels of calcium in them are great for their shells, the fibre is good for their digestion and they also contain lots of beneficial Vitamin C, sulphur and potassium.”
Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: Flickr user pkingDesign)
Listverse has information about 10 strange studies that scientists have conducted, such as how breasts bounce while women jog, can sheep recognize each others’ faces, and flatulating fish. From the latter:
Two teams carried out this research project. One studied Pacific herring in Bamfield, British Columbia, while the other focused on Atlantic herring in Oban, Scotland. It was discovered that the Atlantic and Pacific herring create a mysterious underwater noise. It turns out that the high-frequency sound was created by releasing air from their anuses. The noise was always accompanied by a fine stream of bubbles. Researchers suspect herring hear the bubbles as they’re expelled, helping the fish form protective shoals at night.
The link is just a smidgen NSFWish because, well, I guess scientists are kinda pervy.
Link via The Presurfer
You might know beans are delicious. You may even remember all the words of the schoolyard rhyme about them, but what else do you know about the fruit? Most people take beans for granted because they seem to be such a simple side dish, but there’s a whole lot more to beans than you probably realized.
A Bean By Any Other Name
Because beans are grown all throughout the world, it’s common for certain species to have multiple names. In fact, at least 11 types of beans have four names or more and certain species like the fava bean and navy bean have over 10 names. Other names for the fava bean include broad bean, butter bean, Windsor bean, horse bean, English bean, fool, foul, ful, feve, faba, haba and habas. The navy bean is also known as Yankee bean, white pea bean, pearl haricot, Boston bean, Boston navy bean, pea bean, haricot blanc bean, small white bean, haricot bean and fagioli. You may have thought you never tried a type of bean and actually just heard one of its alternate names.
Source
Beans Kick It Old School
These fruits are one of the longest plants to be cultivated by humans. Broad beans have been planted and grown since at least ancient Egypt and common beans were harvested over six thousand years ago in the Americas. Most of the beans we eat fresh come from the Americas and were first discovered by Christopher Columbus.
Source
They Really Are Somewhat Magical
Or at least, magical enough to be involved in folklore. There are multiple folk tales that involve magical beans growing all the way into the clouds –the most famous of these is, of course, Jack and The Beanstalk. There is also a Grimm’s fairytale that describes a bean that laughs at the failure of others so hard that its sides actually split open.
Source
They’re Often Considered Lucky
Multiple cultures associate eating or planting beans on certain days with good luck. Certain areas of Europe consider it to be lucky to plant beans on Good Friday. In Nicaragua, newly weds eat a bowl of beans for good luck. New Year’s Day involves a number of superstitions, in the Southern U.S., Malta, Brazil and Italy eating beans or lentils is considered to bring increased prosperity in the next year.
Source
Attack of the Killer Beans
Certain beans, especially those that are red in color, contain harmful toxins that can only be removed through cooking. Strangely, eating these beans when they are undercooked may be more toxic than eating the beans raw. Sometimes the undercooked beans will still taste and smell fine though. The toxicity will usually not result in death, but in severe nausea and diarrhea.
Source
Ever Wonder What Makes Them So ‘Musical?’
It’s widely known that beans and cabbage can make you fart. The reason is that many beans have the same sugar molecules found in cabbage. Because a certain enzyme that humans don’t have in their body is needed to digest these molecules, bacteria in the large intestine digest the sugar. This digestion produces increased gases as a byproduct. Soaking the beans in water for a few hours can help reduce this problem, so will the induction of certain other enzymes, like those found in Beano.
Source
Hold the Beans Please
The followers of Pythagoras had a lot of dietary restrictions, on top of being vegetarian, they also refused to eat beans. The reason is unclear, but many people believe it was due to flatulence, while others believe it was because they look like female genitalia. The most commonly accepted reason though is that the beans and humans were said to be created from the same material.
Source
I was hesitant on posting this because I didn’t want to offend but my goodness this clip is so hilarious that I just had to share it with you. It sort of looks fake but who cares, I nearly busted a gut watching it (no pun intended)
Link: Youtube
