Dogs Like to Poop North to South...?

It would seem that all that sniffin' and spinnin' before your dog does his "duty" is more than just an annoying ritual, it would seem that your pet pooch poopin' preference is north to south.  Think of it as the doggy version of a compass spinning before it settles down...which just begs the question that if you were lost in the woods with poochie and no compass....couldn't you just wait for your compass canine to relieve itself a couple of time and just line up the twin peaks to determine north.....     and then well you are on your way....  my anime friend just said he is going to name his next dog Compass....oh that is just tooooooooooo good! 

Ok lets get serious here....The data comes from German and Czech researchers, who spent two years watching numerous dogs defecating and urinating.  They then compared the dogs' behavior and orientation with the geomagnetic conditions at the time.   They found that dogs preferred to poop while aligned in a north-south direction.  Curiously, females preferred to urinate in a north or south direction — males didn't show much preference.  

Wow talk about animal magnetism.....

For more ....... ummm info  check out the complete Live Science article  HERE

What's Inside a Poop? Inquiring Minds Want to know!

You know I just could not stay away from this one!  I really thought it was a joke when I saw the first link on Boing Boing.  Especially when it liked out to an article named:  

• An In-Depth Analysis of a Piece of Shit: 

Stranger still, it seems to be legit!  Links lead to PLOS: Neglected Tropical Diseases and talks about hook worms and other fecal egg counts....HONEST!!!  of course it is some of the methodology that set me over the juvenile edge.    Stuff like 

• 222 samples were collected....not saying a thing....each sample was cut into four pieces.  (turd cutter....hows that for a job description...I think I need professional help) 
• and of course this line "Some samples were homogenized"  
• and the infamous " keeping collected stool samples cool and moist

Not making fun of important research,  but I am totally amazed at some of the projects  and some of the people who contribute....that might have been a poor choice of words....

PLOS article

The Power of Poop

Now I know that in one form or another you are all familiar with gasification of waste products to generate electricity or for that matter, drawing of methane from landfills to do the same. So it seems to be a bit redundant to talk about the technology. But when Dan passed me this AP article in the BDN, I knew at the very least I would get a chance to do some lame poop jokes or something else scatological.

Artist Matthew Mazzotta, has an installation in a Cambridge MA dog park consisting of two steel, 500-gallon oil tanks painted a golden yellow, connected by black piping and attached to an old gaslight style street light. Yes, it's a poop converter called the "Park Spark".

The poop powered park presence is not meant to be a test bed of any sort. No it's goal is a bit more sublime. Mazzotta hopes the Park Spark will get people thinking about not wasting waste. Visitors and pet owners visiting the park say that they are seeing poop in a new light......

Poochie poop power projects themselves are nothing new. Several California cities tried to float poop projects of their own several years ago But in all instances the projects fizzled.

Mazzotta's poop project which is funded by a grant from MIT runs for a month

Huffingtonpost article