Free Republic

Fertiliser made from human faeces and urine is safe to use in agriculture and has "huge potential" to replace 25% of current synthetic products in some countries, according to research. The findings come as farmers continue to struggle with rising fertiliser costs due to a combination of climate change and the war in Ukraine. Researchers screened human waste for 310 chemicals - including rubber additives, insect repellents and pharmaceuticals - and only found them in 6.5% of the samples examined, but still at low concentrations. Scientists said low levels of the painkiller ibuprofen and mood-stabilising drug carbamazepine were found -...

Russian president Vladimir Putin has his bodyguards collect his excrement while on foreign trips in a bid to stop people gathering information about his health. A report has revealed that Putin's Federal Protection Service members are 'responsible for collecting his bodily waste' in special packets which are kept inside a dedicated briefcase until they return to Russia. Putin's health has been the centre of much speculation especially in recent months with the catastrophic Russian invasion of Ukraine, as instructed by the leader, including suggestions that he is suffering with cancer, dementia and even Parkinson's disease. And this latest revelation is...

After dispersing a gang of protesters camping in Lower Manhattan this week, police discovered that the residents had been using a nearby subway ventilation grate as a toilet. A disgusted neighborhood resident described witnessing "many individuals take turns squatting and sh****g right out in full view of everyone walking along the sidewalk." Mayor Bill de Blasio apologized "for evicting these people. Exercising basic bodily functions is both a natural and a human right protected by the US Constitution. The notion that it should be done privately behind closed doors and in a properly designed facility is a middle class prejudice...

Only in Clown World is it possible for big corporations to label heterosexuality as “gross”. Yes, the very thing that allowed them to type out those words in an e-mail, and gave them an opportunity at living a life in the waking world is “gross” for some people, but that’s just the way it is in an era of insanity. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m talking about Netflix’s response to the Straight Pride Parade group known as Super Happy Fun America. Recently the company posted up a tweet on July 26th, 2019 with an image revealing...

Pope Francis, who in the past has not shied away from offering his opinion on U.S. politics, said in an interview published Wednesday that “spreading disinformation” is probably “the greatest damage that the media can do” and called it sinful. Pope Francis compared the spreading of fake news to the desire to eat excrement.

While the most of the country has voted to veer away from the transformation of America spearheaded by President Obama, California has vowed to stay the course, at least on the environmental front. In terms of air quality, the state has enacted new regulations to limit how much methane gas cows are allowed to emit while farting. California Air Resources Board science adviser Ryan McCarthy called the attempt “truly ambitious. No one really knows how we’re going to get this done. The State Assembly deserves credit for taking on a task that may well be impossible.” “The obvious first response...

Something stinks in Warren County, Ohio. A massive truckload of manure was dumped outside the Democratic headquarters in Warren County, and office personnel are furious. [snip] Bethe Goldenfield, chairperson of the Warren County Democratic Party, unleashed a volcanic tirade on Facebook, writing: “What reasonable person thinks this is OK???? I won’t be responding to anyone who thinks this is acceptable behavior. It is ILLEGAL!” Security cameras recorded a truck dumping off a huge pile of manure outside the office at 12:03 a.m. on October 29. Police are investigating the incident, WLWT reported.

When they decided to print special collectors’ covers for the magazine’s September issue, all about “icons of change”, the publishers of Elle knew immediately who the stars should be: the actors Kristen Stewart and Amandla Stenberg, both of whom have made headlines for their refusal to conform to traditional notions of sexuality; the singer Zayn Malik, who walked away from One Direction, the biggest pop band in the world, at the height of its fame; and the transgender model Hari Nef. Nef’s cover is arguably the most radical of the four. It marks the first time a transgender woman has...

After the massacre in Tucson that saw six murdered and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., and 12 others wounded, President Obama gave a speech at the memorial where he called for raising the tone in politics. To honor the memory of those killed and wounded the president said: The loss of these wonderful people should make every one of us strive to be better in our private lives -- to be better friends and neighbors, co-workers and parents. And if, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse, let's remember...

Male animals often use their horns to fight over females, but at least one species’ females use their horns to fight over excrement. The species, no surprise, is the dung beetle. Unlike many of the animals we usually associate with elaborate horns, antlers, or other head weaponry—in which the male has the most impressive set—dung beetle females have horns that put the male version to shame.

...On the morning after the election, Kristin Rothballer, 36, who lives in San Francisco, kissed her female partner goodbye on the train while commuting to work. A black woman who sat down next to her turned and said she was sorry that Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, looked like it was going to pass. “We grabbed hands,” Ms. Rothballer recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I really want to congratulate you because we have a black president and that’s amazing.’ ” “Our conversation then almost became about the fact that we were having the conversation,”...

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Forget avocado, evening primrose oil or other exotic ingredients, the latest facial to hit New York is a mask made with bird excrement. The Geisha Facial, available at Shizuka New York for $180, about $100 more than the shop's other facials, contains nightingale excrement. The Japanese powder, also known as uguisu no fun, is rich in the amino acid guanine, said to brighten and cleanse skin. In the 18th century geishas and kabuki actors used the powder to clean heavy white makeup off their faces. "I'm always trying to bring Japanese culture and tradition to...

-- SNIP -- Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., quit last fall over sexually explicit Internet communications with male pages who had worked on Capitol Hill. Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., resigned in 1995 amid allegations he had made unwanted sexual advances to 17 female employees and colleagues and altered his personal diaries to obstruct an ethics investigation. On Saturday, Craig said he would pursue legal options to clear his name. He has retained Billy Martin, a Washington lawyer who represented Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in his dogfighting case, to pursue his legal options. Washington lawyer Stan Brand will represent Craig...

A Chinese woman survived a fall from a sixth-floor balcony after she landed on a large pile of excrement dug up by workers clearing a septic tank, state media said. The unnamed woman was stretching to hang washing when she lost her balance and fell from the balcony at her home in the southern city of Nanjing yesterday, the semi-official China News Service quoted a local newspaper as saying. The woman suffered only minor injuries after the 20cm heap cushioned her fall, the agency said. Workers had been dredging the tank after complaints by local residents, it said. DPA

What a mess: A Feb. 9 front-page article about the Pentagon inspector general's report regarding the office of former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith incorrectly attributed quotations to that report. References to Feith's office producing "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" and that the office "was predisposed to finding a significant relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda" were from a report issued by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) in Oct. 2004. Similarly, the quotes stating that Feith's office drew on "both reliable and unreliable reporting" to produce a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq "that was much stronger than that assessed...

Carter defends Mideast book as accurate By CHARLES ODUM, Associated Press Writer 29 minutes ago Former President Jimmy Carter said Saturday that the storm of criticism he has faced for his recent book has not weakened his resolve for fair treatment of Israelis and Palestinians. "I have been called a liar," Carter said at a town hall meeting on the second day of a three-day symposium on his presidency at the University of Georgia. "I have been called an anti-Semite," he said. "I have been called a bigot. I have been called a plagiarist. I have been called a coward....

I watched yesterday's hearings, Condoleezza Rice, last week, a couple weeks ago, whenever it was, Alberto Gonzales, and I came away with two conclusions. Number 1, the Democrats on the judiciary committee over there, Patrick Leahy and the boys, seem more interested in defending the rights of Al-Qaeda and Taliban terrorists than they do defending this country. And I watch Condoleezza Rice, and I'm listening to their guys go on and on and on, Barbara Boxer and John Kerry questioning her, and I don't hear one bit of news, not a shred of evidence from these people what they would...

Great moments in dealing with human waste spot the human story. In Crete, at Knossos, an elaborate sewerage was built, perhaps the first in human history. The ancient Israelites, in wartime, carried spears with shovels on the blunt end, to bury their feces so that the Lord would not walk on defiled ground. Romans placed public toilets at street side, with toilet holes separated by mere inches: citizens and denizens, male and female, would hitch up their togas and go, talking to their neighbors all the while. And one reason we shake with the right hand is that — before...

OTTAWA -- Here's a scoop that has Canadian Alliance MP Chuck Strahl holding his nose. A contemporary art gallery in Ottawa, supported by federal tax dollars, is staging a multimedia, interactive exhibition dedicated to excrement. The five-week show, which opens at an Ottawa art gallery next Thursday, is called Scatalogue: 30 years of crap in contemporary art. The Saw Gallery received a two-year, $72,000 operating grant from the Canada Council for the Arts last year, but no council funding was earmarked specifically for Scatalogue. A media release for the "living, interactive archive" says the exhibition is "a critique of the...