Free Republic

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster...

It's Live Earth Versus AfricaThe Monitor (Kampala) OPINION 8 July 2007 Posted to the web 9 July 2007 Kofi Bentil Kampala Few people in Africa will get to see Al Gore and his troupe of rock-star ecologists strutting their stuff during the series of Live Earth concerts this weekend --because most have neither television nor electricity. That's just as well, because they would be aghast at LiveEarth's bizarre message. In Africa, we have much more serious things to worry about than climate change. Indeed, if they achieve their objective the concerts will have done harm to the people of Africa....

MEAD, Nebraska (Reuters) - The frosty-breathed cattle jostling for position at a feeding trough in rural Nebraska are not quite as typical as they appear: their manure is being captured in a new bid to quench America's thirst for ethanol. Like other cows in the Midwestern landscape, the animals at the Mead plant, part of an experimental scheme dubbed "Genesis", churn out a steady supply of energy-rich excrement each day. But these 27,000 cattle stand on slatted floors to deposit an estimated 1.6 million pounds (726,000 kg) of dung daily into deep pits, which are located adjacent to a new...

Scientists have run high-tech tests on harmful bacteria in local rivers and streams and found that the majority of the germs in the Potomac and Anacostia rivers come from wildlife dung. The finding has put the Environmental Protection Agency in a quandary. “I was out in a wilderness area last week,” said EPA Public Information Officer Forest Greene. “Everywhere I looked there was dirt, debris, and decaying vegetation. I ruined a good pair of shoes stepping in some animal’s dung. These creatures are fouling their own nest, so to speak. This really throws a monkey wrench into our perspective on...

SEATTLE (AP) — The Association of Trial Lawyers of America voted during its convention this week to change its name to the American Association for Justice. Spokeswoman Chris Mather said there was overwhelming support for the change, and that the new name "reflects whose side we're on in the fight for justice." The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, a critic of the trial lawyers group, called it "an astounding admission of the unpopularity of trial lawyers in America." The 60-year-old association has 65,000 members.

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...

A worker with India's main opposition party displays an antiseptic aftershave made of cow urine at a stall in party headquarters in New Delhi February 25, 2005. Alongside life-sized posters of Hindu nationalist leaders, Indian political activists can now buy lotions, potions and pills to cure anything from cancer to hysteria to piles -- all made from cow urine or dung. (B Mathur/Reuters) NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Alongside life-size posters of Hindu nationalist leaders, Indian political activists can now buy lotions, potions and pills to cure anything from cancer to hysteria to piles -- all made from cow urine or...

Police in Germany are hunting pranksters who have been sticking miniature US flags into piles of dog poo in public parks. Josef Oettl, parks administrator for Bayreuth, said: "This has been going on for about a year now, and there must be 2,000 to 3,000 piles of excrement that have been claimed during that time." The series of incidents was originally thought to be some sort of protest against the US-led invasion of Iraq. And then when it continued it was thought to be a protest against President George W. Bush's campaign for re-election. But it is still going on...

Organisers of the MTV Europe Music Awards are in a panic over an unusual last minute problem - horse dung. The ceremony is taking place in the Tore di Valle racecourse in Rome later and bosses are worried the overpowering smell of manure will offend star guests. An insider said: "All the dressing rooms are based around the track and it really stank of horse dung at first. Organisers have been desperate cleaning to get rid of the smell." Stars including Eminem, Gwen Stefani, Franz Ferdinand - who will also be performing - and Anastacia are all expected to attend...

Education authorities in southern India have suspended a teacher for forcing his students to eat cow dung. It's believed the teacher imposed the punishment because pupils laughed when he fell off a chair while sleeping in the classroom. The teacher, Basavarajappa, has been accused of ordering a student to bring cow dung into the classroom and making his colleagues eat it - four times. Parents made complaints to the management of the government school at Arundi after the children refused to attend classes. When the school management apparently failed to act on the complaints, the parents took the matter to...

Week of Aug. 9, 2003; Vol. 164, No. 6 A human migration fueled by dung? Sid Perkins Science News Magazine From Reno, Nevada, at a meeting of the International Union for Quaternary Research When people made their way from Asia to the Americas, the path they took may have been covered in dung. At the peak of the last ice age, when sea levels were low, a land bridge that's now submerged in many places connected what are now Alaska and northeastern Russia. Although much of the area was dry more than 50,000 years ago, firm archaeological evidence of human...

Out on the African savanna, a fresh and moist pile of fine-grained antelope dung is a nutritious treasure aggressively fought over by a melee of critters. The spoils go to those with the craftiest strategies to snatch and stash a piece of the pie. To gain an edge in this battle for the poop, the African dung beetle Scarabaeus zambesianus orients itself by the polarized light pattern cast by the moon to make a straight, nighttime escape with its morsel, according to Marie Dacke, a biologist at the University of Lund in Sweden. "There are so many beetles at the...

News in Science 18/4/2003 Ancient dung reveals a picture of the past [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s833847.htm] An arctic mound of soil covering a core of solid ice in northeastern Siberia (Pic: Science) The successful dating of the most ancient genetic material yet may allow scientists to use preserved DNA from sources such as mammoth dung to help paint a picture of past environments. An international research effort led by Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark reports in today?s issue of the journal Science it has extracted well preserved animal and plant DNA from...