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A slow-motion, underwater fart
11.28.2016
10:16 am
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I had thought that this morning I might prepare a post about Adam Curtis’ excellent documentary, HyperNormalisation, which is certainly the best documentary of the year, in my opinion.

It’s an examination of US and Middle Eastern affairs and how they relate to the power structure shift from the political to the corporate, and how this new power structure has created a “truth” out of lies designed to simplify complex world dynamics, and how this false narrative is held in place by mass human interaction with a cyberspace that allows people to exist in insular narcissistic bubbles that reflect the user’s selves back at them. This depressing document can be viewed, at least for the time being, on YouTube HERE.

HyperNormalisation suggests a false reality that is at this point so complex that there may be no hope of unraveling it, and it’s the reason whereby atrocities like Brexit and Donald Trump can happen completely under the noses of the groups of people who might have been able to create opposition.

But, yeah, I’m not going to post about that today…

Keep reading after the jump…

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Posted by Christopher Bickel
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11.28.2016
10:16 am
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Fart terrorist’s secrets revealed
05.22.2015
10:12 am
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So many of the great scientists have suffered or sacrificed for their work. Jonas Salk gave the world a vaccine for polio without patenting it (and therefore majorly profiting). Marie Curie actually died from prolonged exposure to radiation as a result of her research. Giordano Bruno was imprisoned and executed by the Catholic Church for his belief that the stars were actually distant suns! All of these guys are total chumps though, because food writer Dennis Lee has actually broken ground on a “fart dip” using his own body as the test subject—now that is commitment. What would inspire someone to develop such a dangerous chemical weapon?

I imagined myself at a fancy party where I served a magical delicious dip. It would be addictive and wonderful, but what people would not know is that every ingredient was picked to maximize flatulence. Then, a few hours later, everyone would secretly start farting uncontrollably and pass out. Everyone would be so embarrassed that all these dumb fancy food parties would go away forever

Chaos, destruction—I like it! (He is also about to be unemployed, which I think might be a factor, if not a motivation.) Unfortunately the dip—made up of onions, lima beans, sour cream, cabbage and prunes (some of the most flatulence-inducing foods, according to Lee)—looks disgusting every step of the way, and results in a flavor he initially likens to vomit, and later “hummus that has been mixed with French onion dip and sweet dried fruit.” As for its efficacy, Lee felt sick after eating an entire bowl, and from what he could tell, the dip only produced a single (though massive) fart.

We’ll call it a prototype?

The recipe, after the jump…

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Posted by Amber Frost
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05.22.2015
10:12 am
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Sociological feminist fart study results
03.18.2015
11:16 am
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Neuroses of the anus are perhaps the most common and socially encouraged bodily anxiety—the disposal of waste is pretty universally accepted as gross, and no one wants to talk about it much. At what point though, do manners become cumbersome and rarefied, robbing us of our rightful earthly amusements? Certainly, a good fart joke is a pleasure most often denied the “fairer sex”!

Luckily, sociologists Martin Weinberg and Colin Williams (two trailblazing researchers from my alma mater of Indiana University—go Hoosiers!) are doing the dirty work—so to speak. In their article “Fecal Matters: Habitus, Embodiments, and Deviance” (seriously, that title was published by Oxford University Press), the two address not only the embarrassment surrounding passing gas and defecation, but the gendered manifestations of shame itself! Their abstract:

This article examines fecal matters—namely, the social concerns that can accompany defecation and flatulence. Researching 172 university students, we show how aspects of the socio-cultural context as “embodied” in four groups of participants (heterosexual women and men and non-heterosexual women and men) mediate the operation of the “fecal habitus”—that part of culture that interprets and organizes fecal events (Inglis 2000). The study finds that the heterosexual women and the non-heterosexual men show the greatest commitment to the habitus and the heterosexual men the least. It provides some evidence that the non-heterosexual women also show a decreased commitment. Theoretical contributions show how the concept of embodiment can highlight everyday “social problems prevention work” by paying attention to the role of the different senses, the emotional components involved in bodily mishaps, gender discrimination and the privileging of male status, and the elaboration of stigma theory.

Yes!  Finally, the social sciences are dealing in the shame gap between the sexes! See below for edifying tables—some predictable, some of which may surprise you! (Lesbians posed a particular conundrum for the researchers: Although as a group, lesbians were the least likely to think others would find farts funny, conversely our sapphic sisters come in second only to heterosexual brahs in farting on purpose to get a laugh. Go figure… and gay guys are the least likely to fart intentionally. Who knew?)
 
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Via Sociological Images, Thanks to Gerard Di Trolio

Posted by Amber Frost
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03.18.2015
11:16 am
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