Science and poop

I heard something the other day that gave me pause to think – it concerned a student's science project.

Student’s science project finds more bacteria in ice than toilet water
In summary: A project entered in the Florida state science fair by a seventh grade student finds that ice at some fast-food restaurants contains more bacteria than water found in toilets at the same establishments, USA Today reports. For her project, 12-year-old Jasmine Roberts collected water samples from self-serve ice machines and drive-thru widows at five fast-food restaurants in South Florida and compared them with samples of toilet water collected from restrooms at the same facilities. Laboratory tests conducted with the help of a professor at the University of South Florida confirmed that toilet water contained “less bacteria than the ice 70% of the time” and that three of the five ice samples contained fecal coliform or E. coli bacteria. The professor from USF who assisted with the project says the findings are “not surprising” because toilets are routinely flushed, which clears bacteria, while ice often passes through hands and containers that harbor bacteria. He notes that consumers should “not be overly alarmed” because it takes far more bacteria than the amounts found in the ice samples to cause illness, but he advises people to make an effort to ensure that food and beverages are “handled properly”.

So a local government official responsible for food inspection had the following to say:

"Ice machines are part of the health inspections," Luebkemann said. "There are a lot of factors that have to be considered, like how accurately did she gather and test her specimens. Plus, comparing the ice to toilet water can be misleading because there are acceptable levels of bacteria for water."

Two things that I immediately thought of:

1. Acceptable levels of bacteria for water? Can you imaging wanting water dirtier that toilet water?

2. I am sure this grown up is sweating because of a little girl's science project. Sort of makes me giggle.

And when I read stories like this, after imagining ~Deb reaching for her gas mask and rubber gloves, I begin to wonder if we get too much information about dangers in our world. Mass murderers terrify me, but in the grand scheme of things, the odds of a mass murderer affecting my life directly (killing anyone I know) is very, very small. I have better odds getting laid by Orlando Bloom. And I don't live in California.

But after letting you know about this, I was wondering, what would cushion the blow. I mean, say, you are listening to this, eating your Burger King Whopper at your desk, sipping on your Diet Coke, laced with bacteria and fecal material. After accidentally spitting your Diet Coke concoction on your screen, what could you think of that would make this seem less gross.

For those of you with no aversion to anal play (and that is not me, you could think, "At least I don't know if my drink has fecal material in it. When I was tonguing my boyfriend the other night, I know I was licking poop."

Or, for those who like opera, you could think, "Holy cow. I like opera and drinking poop. I am going to hell." Okay, perhaps we don't have a lot of opera divas here. And opera is a form of torture, not a poorly constructed web browser.

I am trying to think of the positive spin to this story – perhaps we should stop frequenting fast food restaurants. Good for the waistline and you don't swallow poop. A win-win situation.

---

I think Mikey spends more time on the Internet than I do. Well, I sit on office e-mail, but I don't really explore much of blogland. Every once in awhile I do, but that's when I am bored. He wrote about a site that rates other blog sites, and when they rated his site, he did rather well.

I thought, what the heck, I will have them look at my blog (which they have done). And the review that looked at my blog did not like it at all. First, they mentioned that the template is boring – which it is. But I don't think they held that against me. What they did not like was the content. They gave one example of, admittedly, a weak post. And they are right. It was weak. But I am sure they looked at other posts. No additional contents. Basically I am someone, in their estimation, that tries to be philosophical, and fails. And, after being initially hurt, they are right.

I noticed a lot of people I normally read or occasionally read being reviewed. Although I can see how the reviewer got it right with me, some of the others are off the mark. Perhaps the people who run this site are just mean. Some constructive criticism, and some gratuitous criticism.

I mean, I have some funny posts, but because I post every day, some of the posts are crap. Heck, this one focuses on crap you drink at fast food restaurants.