Is there a possibility of ingesting (and becoming infected with) enteric bacteria from a nearby fart?
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki (the noted Australian author and science commentator on Australian radio and television) and his microbiologist friend have put this to the test! They took a agar plate (bacterial growth medium) home and had a eight year old boy fart on the plate, pants down, from a distance of five centimetres. Overnight, the second Petri dish sprouted visible lumps of two types of bacteria that are usually found only in the gut and on the skin. But the flatus which had passed through clothing caused no bacteria to sprout, which suggests that clothing acted as a filter!
Most notable is the concentration of enteric bacteria in the "initial blast zone" at the centre of the plate, surrounded by the mixed skin and enteric bacteria located in the "splatter ring" around the "initial blast zone".
Finding
Don't situate an unprotected face within 5 cm of an unsheathed flatulent anus. Also, don't fart naked near food. “Our deduction is that the enteric zone in the second Petri dish was caused by the flatus itself, and the splatter ring around that was caused by the sheer velocity of the fart, which blew skin bacteria from the cheeks and blasted it onto the dish. It seems, therefore, that flatus can cause infection if the emitter is naked, but not if he or she is clothed. But the results of the experiment should not be considered alarming, because neither type of bacterium is harmful. In fact, they're similar to the ‘friendly’ bacteria found in yoghurt.
All right, it's not rocket science. But then again, maybe it is?”
Now, Just for fun... Do you know how or why Dinoasaurs disappeared from Earth... A Jursaic Fart!
Oh my God! I got this video link, and I’d have watched it about 20 times since this morning, trying to hear everything she says. Even though I am way behind on finding it... it is still hilarious! And then, I found a video with the lyrics.This is part of a comment from one of the YouTube videos about the author of the song: "This lady is a wonder and yes she wrote it.....I met her in August in Dallas, Tx. where she lives near. She is a member of Women of Faith and this is part of her ministry." I just got an email from my friend Dianne, and here's what she had to say: "That is SO hysterical! Anita Renfroe is very funny. We got the very humorous pleasure of seeing her perform here at the end of November. She was just a scream. I got a couple more books of hers (already had a couple) and a CD. If you ever have a chance to read The Purse Driven Life or The Purse Driven Christmas, they are a riot!!We even got pix and autographs with her. You can also watch her on Bananas if you get that show - or probably even rent a Bananas video."
Here are the lyrics, in case you think you really don't need to listen to the video... I'm sure you will want to take a few minutes to listen to her sing it after reading them anyway.
Get up... Get up now Get up out of bed Wash your face Brush your teeth Comb your sleepyhead Here's your clothes and your shoes Hear the words I said Get up now! Get up and make your bed Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you wearing that? Where's your books and your lunch and your homework at? Grab your coat and gloves and your scarf and hat Don't forget, you gotta feed the cat
Eat your breakfast, The experts tell us it's the most important meal of all Take your vitamins, So you'd grow up one day to be big and tall Please remember the orthodontist will be seeing you at 3 today Don't forget your piano lesson is this afternoon so you must play Don't shovel Chew slowly But hurry The bus is here Be careful Come back here Did you wash behind your ears?
Play outside Don't play rough, will you just play fair? Be polite Make a friend Don't forget to share Work it out Wait your turn Never take a dare Get along! Don't make me come down there Clean your room Fold your clothes Put your stuff away Make your bed, do it now, do we have all day? Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay? Can you even hear a word I say? Answer the phone! Get off the phone! Don't sit so close Turn TV down No texting at the table No more computer time tonight! Your iPod's my iPod if you don't listen up
Where are you going and with whom and what time do you think you're coming home? Saying "thank you", "please", "excuse me" would make you welcome everywhere you roam You'll appreciate my wisdom someday when you're older and you're grown Can't wait till you have a couple of little children of your own You'll thank me for the counsel I gave you so willingly But right now I thank you not to roll your eyes at me
Close your mouth when you chew Take a bite may be two of the stuff you hate Use your fork Do not burp or I'll set you straight Eat the food I put upon your plate Get an A Get the door Don't get smart with me Get a grip Get in here I'll count to three Get a job Get a life Get a PHD Get some sleep
"I don't care who started it! You're grounded until you're 36" Get your story straight and tell the truth for once, for heaven's sake! And if all your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump, too?
If I've said it once, I've said at least a thousand times before That you're too old to act this way It must be your father's DNA Look at me when I am talking Stand up straighter when you walk
A place for everything and everything must be in place Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about, Oh! Brush your teeth Wash your face Put your PJs on Get in bed Get up here Say a prayer with mom Don't forget, I love you (kiss)
And tomorrow we will do this all again because a mom's work never ends You don't need the reason why Because, because, because, because I said so, I said so, I said so, I said so I'm the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom, the mom!! Ta da!!!
Just in case you decided to hear it yourself.... watch the video below...
The Dugong is a gentle 3m long, grey brown bulbous marine mammal with a flattened fluked tail. Like whales, they do not have any dorsal fin, forelimbs modified into paddle like flippers and distinctive head shape. The broad flat muzzle and mouth are angled down to enable ease of grazing along the seabed (See image--my first attempt to illustrate, after my work for the record sheets during my college days!). Eyes and ears are small reflecting the animal's lack of reliance on these senses. Distribution & Habitat
In India the dugongs are known to exist along the Gulf of Mannar coast and along the Palk Bay, apart from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These are places where the sea is shallow and their feeding grounds, seagrass beds exist over large areas. They prefer wide shallow bays and areas protected by large inshore islands. Vagrant animals will occasionally appear as far south as Kanniyakumari, in Tamil Nadu. Dugongs are legally protected by the Indian Government, and all the Commonwealth Nations. With less than 80,000 existing in the wild, their populations are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Food & Feeding
They are purely vegetarian, feeding exclusively on seagrasses, cropping the leaves and roots by using their broad muzzle to move the food into the mouth. Dugongs tend to occur in groups or herds and their movement over an area can be followed by the sand plume disturbances to the sea floor. Breeding
Like their close relatives, the manatees in America, female dugongs in season, attract the attention of a number of males, one or two of which will eventually mate with her. One young is born after a gestation period of 12-14 months and will continue to suckle from the mother for about 18 months. They may remain with the female for a number of years, as she will not calve again for periods of between 2.5 to 7 years. This low reproductive rate has implications for their conservation worldwide and leaves them vulnerable to dramatic declines due to the impact of human activities. Threatened Today,thanks to several unplanned development activities, that occur along the two "under developed" districts of Tamil Nadu, viz., Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi, the region is degrading more than ever before. Add to this, the trawl-fishing activities along practiced by the fishermen in these region have litterally scrapped the seabed off their food, the seagrass. A Greenpeace Video on Dugong
Dugong Feeding
Something for the Kids A cute cartoon video with a song on Dugong. Although the song calls it ugly and says also called Manatee, (they are two different species) and give only the 3rd prize in a Miss Sea World Competition among sea-creatures, it's worth watching and probably with a little change in words to make it positive, teachers could teach the song as a nursery rhyme. Something I tried would read like...:
Dugong... dugong It's the cow of the sea Sea.... sea... SEA...!
Dugong... dugong It's also locally known in Tamil as Aavuliya... aaaahhhh...
It doesn't have wings That would be silly B'coz, it doesn't Live in the Treeee Compared to the Dolphin... it's quite...pretty
Dugong... dugong It's the cow of the sea Dugong... dugong It's quite the queen of the sea!
"Journeys" are special University Lectures in which Carnegie Mellon faculty members share their reflections on their journeys -- the everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make a life.
With equal parts humor and heart, Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch recently delivered a one-of-a-kind university lecture that moved an overflow crowd at Carnegie Mellon - and is now moving audiences around the globe.
Follow his inspiring journey through his childhood dreams to groundbreaking achievements at Carnegie Mellon. Co-founder of the university's EntertainmentTechnologyCenter and creator of Alice, a revolutionary software that teaches computer programming, Randy shares the lessons he's learned that helped him turn his childhood dreams into reality.
Dr. Randy Pausch, a Professor in CarnegieMellonUniversity who is ailing from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.
To know about his present health status, please look: Health Status
If you desire, you can download the PDF file of the transcript here: Transcript Watch Randy's lecture on the video below
Back in the eighteenth century, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by students of the Eton College, who, upon consulting their Latin Grammar Textbook, found four ways of saying "don't care". In order, those were flocci facere, nauci facere, nihili facere, and pili facere (which sound like four of the seven dwarves, Roman version, but I digress). As a learned joke, somebody put all four of these together and then stuck –fication on the end to make a noun for the act of deciding that something is totally and absolutely valueless. It's one of the longest words in the English language. A quick Latin lesson:
Flocci facere (is from floccus, literally a tuft of wool and the source of English words like "fleece" and is related to the verb floccipendo which means, literally, "to give the value of a bit of fleece" or "to take lightly.")
Nauci facere (is from naucum, meaning "few" or "almost nothing.")
Nihili facere (is from ni+hilum, "not even a thread" or nothing; as in words like nihilism and annihilate)
Pili facere (is from pilus, a small hair, which we have inherited in words like depilatory, but which in Latin mean a trifle.)
Facere is from the verb facio meaning "to do" or "to make."
Tion" is a standard English nominalization form.
When put together, we get "the making light of a few trifles of nothing." Thus, the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification becomes "the act of estimating something as worthless." flɒksəˌnɔsəˌnaɪhɪləˌpɪləfɪˈkeɪʃən/ [flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuhn]
Of course, the word is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). These can then be edited to form verbs, like floccinaucinihilipilificate, and adjectives, like floccinaucinihilipilificatious, or even other nouns, like floccinaucinihilipilificatism. When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
The next most commonly referred to long word, antidisestablishmentarianism, the ideology of being against the dissolution of the Church of England.
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word. The word’s main function is to be trotted out as an example of a long word that can be used in everyday speech. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the actual longest word is highly scientific and specific. The first recorded use is by William Shenstone in a letter in 1741: “I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money”.
It had a rare public airing in 1999 when Senator Jesse Helms used it in commenting on the demise of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty: “I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT”.
Is the officially longest word, the name of a fictional dish mentioned in Aristophanes' comedy Assemblywomen. The original Greek spelling had 171 characters.
In the video below you could see a youngster twisting his tongue, trying to pronounce some of the longest words in English Language... He's trying the following words. Repeat after him if you may please...
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapoka iwhenuakitanatahu (See the photo on top, the name of a place in Newzealand!)
