A Poop Bank in Massachusetts Will Pay You $40 Every Day

Are you under 50 years old, willing to make daily trips to Medford, and have regular bowel movements? You, my friend, could be earning $40 a day—just for pooping.

All you have to do is visit OpenBiome, launched in 2012 as the only independent nonprofit stool bank in the country. The brainchild of MIT postdoctoral associate Mark Smith, OpenBiome collects, tests, and provides fecal samples to 122 hospitals in 33 states for one of the most interesting medical treatment innovations today: fecal microbiota transplantation.

“Think of us as a blood bank, but for poop,” said Smith, who developed OpenBiome when he saw the gap in the medical structure to provide many patients with the life-saving fecal samples. “You shouldn’t have to fly across the country to get poop.”

Full Boston.com Article

Posted in Interesting | 1 Comment

Bag of Randomness

cwGAQEd

  • Cupcakes never live up to the hype.
  • Bill Murray was on Letterman last night and at one point just started to run outside.  There was this couple who weren’t paying attention to their surroundings and Murray took the guy’s bottled water and took off.  He then went back to the couple and the man had a WTF face going on and then he swiped the girl’s pretzel to her astonishment.  Sometimes those things are scripted, but this look totally improvised.
  • I’m not sure what surprises me more, how Texas Healthcare Presbyterian Dallas has bungled handling things or the fact they were a finalist for a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.  I once wrote a research paper for that award in grad school, and it’s pretty high praise just to be nominated.  But seriously, I had more faith in ‘Western’ medicine than what’s been displayed.
  • Of all the stuff I saw on the Internet yesterday, I most enjoyed this article that utilized 29 eye-tracking heatmaps on advertisements, webpages, grocery stores, models, and other things.  Men tend to focus more on a woman’s face than one would think, but they also tend to focus on other men’s packages more that one would think.
  • These pictures of the only airline in North Korea are quite interesting.  It kind of reminds of pictures of Cuba and seeing old cars that have been well kept or restored.
  • Local Food Network News: On Oct. 18, the network will be holding an open call for home cooks with no prior culinary education to compete in the channel’s newest culinary competition featuring some celebrity chefs from the franchise.
  • An interesting article on how certain Democrats and Republicans are actually trying to court Muslim voters.
  • We haven’t even reached the midterm election yet but all news reports seem to think it’s going to be a Jeb Bush vs Hillary Clinton race in 2016.  Normally I think it’s nuts to think that far out because so much can happen, but I really don’t see it any other way.
  • Lubbock County Judge Tom Head on why he accepted his pay increase, “If I refuse it, it goes to the secular government, then God’s kingdom is not going to be advanced.”
  • A ‘Breaking Bad’ political ad voiced by Agent Steve Gomez.
  • Popular Halloween costumes so far deal with Ebola, Joan Rivers, and Mork and Mindy.
  • Dave Grohl is just a really cool dude.
  • Local talent Erykah Badu decided to sing in Times Square to see how much money she could make if she didn’t flaunt her fame, she came away with $.3.60.
  • Release dates set for Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Justice League movies
  • Maybe it’s because I had a military officer for a father, but being on time for anything meant being there 15-minutes early.  But in today’s world and everywhere I’ve worked or volunteered, meetings don’t start until about five after.
  • HBO will fulfill cord cutters’ dreams and launch a standalone streaming service next year
  • GIF – Bugs Bunny is fearful of the Ebola in Texas
  • GIF – A pedestrian saves a bike rider from traffic
  • I caught the Eric Dickerson ‘A Football Life’ on the NFL Network the other day, actually I missed the first ten minutes, but here area few things that stood out or I totally forgot about:
    • He did a Playgirl photoshoot.
    • He played for the Raiders.
    • When he broke Jim Brown’s rushing recording as a Colt, the Indianapolis booed him.
    • He broke the single season rushing record the same season Walter Payton broke the all-time rushing record.  Payton was presented a Lamborghini from his shoe sponsor Roos, and Dickerson was peeved when his sponsor, Adidas, gave him a large carrot cake.  But here’s the kicker, he’s allergic to carrots so he couldn’t even eat it.
    • He’s inducted into the Colts and Rams Hall of Fame despite having bad relationship with both clubs.
Posted in Personal | 3 Comments