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My son asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I said the granddaughter he gave me was plenty. The look of joy on my wife’s face every time Poppy’s name is mentioned is the greatest gift I could ever imagine. God is so good.

Dogs have been found to be sensitive to Earth's magnetic field, and apparently align themselves along the magnetic north-south axis before they defecate. Czech and German researchers studied 70 dogs during 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations over the course of two years, and found that when the Earth's magnetic field was stable the dogs chose to align themselves with it. When it was unstable, such as during a solar flare, the dogs would become confused.

A team of European scientists with way too much time on its hands has discovered that dogs tend to position themselves in alignment with the earth’s magnetic field before they take every big, steamy dump. The Czech and German researchers committed two years of their professional lives to the longitudinal study of canine crap, reports The Christian Science Monitor. The point was to determine magnetic sensitivity in dogs—at least when they poop. The proud scientists say the findings “open new horizons for biomagnetic research.” There were 37 dog owners in Germany and the Czech Republic involved in the study. There...

The state’s child protection agency has found that the family of a 9-year-old Brockton rapper did not abuse or neglect him by allowing the boy to star in several videos posted online showing him in club scenes and simulating sexually suggestive activity with women. The controversy surrounding Luie Rivera Jr., whose stage name is “Lil Poopy,” began in February, when Brockton police filed a child abuse and neglect complaint against Luis Rivera, the boy’s father. After a month of investigation, the state Department of Children and Families has closed the case without taking any action against the father. “After a...

Tossing feces with pinpoint accuracy may not immediately strike you as sophisticated behavior, but researchers studying the brain activity of captive chimpanzees have found that the smartest apes also happen to pitch the most accurate poop, according to Physorg.com. Playing dodgeball with poop-wielding chimpanzees may sound like an odd career choice, but Bill Hopkins of Emory University, who spent the last several years observing the throwing accuracy and brain scans of chimpanzees, had a hunch that this behavior had a deeper significance.Particularly curious to Hopkins was the fact that chimpanzees are the only species besides humans known to regularly throw...

A local reporter in Eureka, California has the unenviable task of trying to figure out who pooped on a local bank. Via YouTube: "News Channel 3 Eureka CA reporter asking the Occupy protesters if they peed or pooped on the bank. All they can say is that the bank pees and poops on us all every day. She then walks through the camp and then gets assaulted by a camping occupy protester who doesn't want to occupy her time." Check out our new original video from Occupy Wall Street: #OWS Quiz, Part II: How Much Do the Protesters Know About...What...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The seats of some well used methods of public transportation have been analyzed by a biologist and the results might keep commuters on their feet. A supervisor with San Francisco State University's biology lab recently tested the bacterial content of a random BART seat and a Muni seat. The Bay Citizen commissioned the study. On Muni's plastic seats she found two forms of harmless bacteria, and after using an alcohol wipe on the seat no bacteria was detected. But the cloth seats on BART told an entirely different story: tests of the seats on BART revealed fecal...

For his wife this Valentine’s Day, a farmer has created a half-mile wide arrow-pierced heart recognizable from the sky about 12 miles southwest of Albert Lea. Following plans he jotted on scratch paper, Bruce Andersland drove his tractor and manure spreader earlier this week in the special shape for his wife, Beth.

Cure for killer bug - but there's a catch KATE FOSTER IN THE annals of medical history, this could go down as one of the most effective but stomach-churning treatments ever devised. Scientists seeking a cure for a deadly superbug have successfully treated patients using human faeces. Trials in a Scottish hospital have shown patients suffering from the Clostridium difficile bug can be cured using 'donor stool' administered via a tube through the nose into their stomach. Clostridium difficile was last week at the heart of a damning report into cleaning failures at the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust...

Japanese Make Gasoline From Cattle Dung By KOZO MIZOGUCHI, Associated Press WriterFri Mar 3, 7:57 AM ET Scientists in energy-poor Japan said Friday they have found a new source of gasoline — cattle dung. Sakae Shibusawa, an agriculture engineering professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, said his team has successfully extracted 1.4 milliliters (0.042 ounces) of gasoline from every 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of cow dung by applying high pressure and heat. "The new technology will be a boon for livestock breeders" to reduce the burden of disposing of large amounts of waste, Shibusawa said. About 500,000...

PROVO - There is a new coffee shop in town, but it's no Starbucks. The entry is framed with little white Christmas lights, there are half-a-dozen couches to go along with a few tables, and the walls are yellow, red, green and purple. Opposite a faux-brick wall there is a wall dedicated to nonsense. "Girls are like ladders," one customer wrote. Another scribbled: "I love yellow people." It's all the same to owner Christin Johnson. She's just happy the people who jotted down the messages wanted to stick around in her Vermillion Skies De-cafe and Lounge long enough to pen...

Call it the gift that stops the giving. A local pet group is offering a gift set to send to neighbors whose dogs think your yard is their personal privy. For a fee, Responsible Owners of Mannerly Pets will send a cordial letter to the offending neighbor, reminding them of their community responsibilities, along with a one-month supply of doggy-doo bags. Anonymously. "It's just another one of those couple-of-glasses-of-wine kind of ideas," said Barb Heideman, co-founder and director of ROMP, a group that advocates and raises money for Twin Cities dog parks. Heideman and friends have their tongues firmly in...