More children wearing diapers to Australian schools

Australia’s Courier Mail reports that children as old as five are being sent to school in nappies because their parents cannot be bothered toilet-training them.

The problem has become so widespread that Education Queensland is drawing up a toilet-training fact sheet amid calls from teachers’ groups that nappy-wearing children be banned from attending school. …

State School Principals Association president Norm Hart has written to Education Queensland, citing concerns that the problem could result in litigation – with teachers possibly accused of molestation.

"Toilet training is a parental responsibility and not something that should be taught at school.”

Why burn poop on a doorstep when you can cook it in a 7-Eleven microwave

Three high school students who thought they were being funny by sticking a bag of poop in a Sandy, Utah 7-Eleven microwave and cooking it for 10 minutes have been arrested.

Earlier this week, police released surveillance video of three teens who walked into the convenience store near 2200 East and 9400 South, took out a one-gallon plastic bag with human feces inside and put it into the microwave while the clerk wasn’t looking.

The boys left the store, and the clerk figured out what had happened when a foul stench filled the building. The store had to be closed temporarily because of the odor.

Sandy police Sgt. Victor Quezada said the surveillance video was broadcast by local news stations, investigators received numerous tips from callers, and that on Wednesday morning, five high school students were greeted by police as they arrived for school in the morning. Two of the boys eventually were released, while the other three, two aged 16 and a 17-year-old, were arrested for investigation of third-degree felony criminal mischief.

The 7-Eleven figured out the video surveillance thing, but USDA says it’s too complicated for slaughterhouses.

Tellruide, Colorado, has a problem with poop.

Tellruide, Colorado, has a problem with poop.

Dog poop.

A local biologist, Ramona Gaylord, told city council that the impact of waste produced by 100 dogs located within a 20-mile radius of a watershed draining to a small coastal bay would contribute enough bacteria and nutrients to temporarily close it to swimming and shell fishing after two to three days, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A new form from the Marshal’s Office is due to come into circulation soon. It will enable passersby to document occasions on which they witness owners neglecting their doodie duties. By signing the form the complainant agrees to be called as a witness if a ticket is issued and the matter goes to trial.

So pick up your poop.

And if you find some old poop, send it to University of Oregon archeologist Dennis Jenkins.

Jenkins found 14 feces, or coprolites, in the Paisley caves in south-central Oregon. He reported in Science on Friday that the oldest piece of crap in the collection was 14,300 years old.

Eske Willerslev, a Danish expert in ancient DNA and one of the authors of the paper, said genetic material found in the ancient poop suggests the earliest known North Americans came from Asia and Siberia, and were the ancestors of modern native peoples

As they sing on Scrubs, Check the Poo.

Babies won’t be banned from public pools — yet

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that babies in diapers will most likely not be banned from public pools this summer to prevent the spread of cryptosporidium.

But, their parents may be required to buy special swim diapers that do a better job of containing diarrhea than widely available but ineffectual diapers like Huggies’ Little Swimmers.

And if there is another outbreak, tots in diapers will likely be banned.

Utah had one of 2007’s largest crypto outbreaks in the nation, with 1,949 crypto cases reported. To try to stem the illness, spread through fecal-oral contact, pools in most of the state barred children under 5 from late August to late September. Children in diapers were banned through mid-November.

State epidemiologist Robert Rolfs was quoted as saying,

"Children should be able to go swimming. Most of the children aren’t causing any trouble."

The suggested state rule would require waterproof pants and/or swim diapers that fit around the legs and waist for children 3 or younger, those who aren’t potty-trained, and anyone without control of bodily functions.

Taco John’s E. coli lettuce grown next to Calif. dairy farm

The Bakersfield Californian reported on Friday that a 16-month federal and state investigation found that lettuce raised on Wegis Ranch in Buttonwillow Calif., and served at Taco John’s restaurants was the source of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak that sickened 81 people in Iowa and Minnesota in late 2006.

The report does not definitively state how the lettuce was contaminated but said water contaminated by manure from two nearby dairies could be a possible source.

Wegis Ranch uses manure water to irrigate some fields where animal feed is grown, according to the report. It said lettuce linked to the E. coli outbreak was grown directly across from two of those fields.

In addition, the ranch’s irrigation system may have allowed manure water to taint freshwater used to irrigate fields where lettuce was grown, the report concluded.

E.coli samples from the ranch and dairies genetically matched the strain found in the tainted lettuce. The dairies were Maya and West Star North.

The next day, Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had published guidelines that suggested employees of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable processors wash their hands to help stop the spread of contamination.

Yes., handwashing is important. So is not growing fresh product in cow shit.

Don’t eat poop.

Cat poop coffee

Brian for Cornell University alerted me to a new video that appeared on CNN this morning.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/offbeat/2008/01/05/mi.cat.poo.coffee.beans.wzzm

Cat poop coffee, or kopi luwak — otherwise known as the most expensive coffee in the world — is, according to wiki, coffee made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). The civets eat the berries but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, and in the Philippines (where the product is called Kape Alamid). Vietnam has a similar type of coffee, called weasel coffee which are coffee berries which have been defecated by local weasels. In actuality the "weasel" is just the local version of the Asian Palm Civet.

Lots has been written about cat poop coffee, but here’s a more graphic representation from a few months ago.

And don’t eat poop.

Top 10 movie poop scenes

Propellor.com has posted what it deems to be the Top 10 Poop Movie Scenes.

Below is the list of movies. You can visit propellor.com for pics and descriptions.

And I’ve seen all the movies except the last one, Friday.

It’s hard to argue with the classic simplicity of Caddyshack — a Baby Ruth chocolate bar in the swimming pool — but I’ll go with Harold and Kumar.

Don’t eat poop.

1. Dumb & Dumber
2. Along Came Polly
3. American Pie
4. Van Wilder
5. Austin Powers – International Man of Mystery
6. Caddyshack
7. Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
8. Not Another Teen Movie
9. KingPin
10. Friday

Pigeon poop payoff

Fifty-six-year-old Shelton Stewart, a former New York doorman who slipped on a pile of pigeon droppings on a subway station’s stairs in 1998, has been awarded $6 million in compensation.

The New York Post reports that the trial took three weeks, but the jury took less than a day to award Stewart $7.67 million in damages. He’ll get only 80 percent of that, or $6.13 million, because he was found 20 percent liable for failing to avoid the poop pile the second time around.

New York City Transit has indicated that it planned to appeal.

Stewart was planning to use his windfall to buy a house and take his two daughters and grandchild to Disney World in Florida.

Don’t Eat Poop

Douglas Dakin, a high school teacher and soccer coach in Stone Mountain, Georgia, doesn’t want to eat poop. He e-mailed me and said he saw a woman from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control wearing a Don’t Eat Poop shirt and he wanted one for himself.

The shirt’s in the mail, Doug.

Tell me your best Don’t Eat Poop story and I’ll send you a shirt too.

Or you can give to the International Food Safety Network.

Give large. Give small. It’s all on-line at
https://one.found.ksu.edu/ccon/new_gift.do?action=newGift&CCN_FUND_ID=3894&SCENARIO=SELECTFUND

Any problems, just e-mail me, dpowell@ksu.edu.

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