From The Anals Of Science

Why do stools float or sink?

This was studied and published in 1972 (funding by U.S. Public Health Service):

"Floating Stools -- Flatus Versus Fat"  N Engl J Med (1972) 286, 973-975.

The funniest part: left hand column, third paragraph under "Methods":

"A cube of stool, 5 to 10 g, was cut from the specimen by means of a wire blade (more commonly used for slicing cheese)"

The Dirty Jobs

Mike Rowe on the very same topic, sort of: link

'Today, skilled trades are in demand. In fact, there are 3 million jobs out there that companies are having a hard time filling. So we thought that skilled trades could do with a PR campaign,' he said with a smile. 'So we took the same idea, went ahead and vandalized it. Work smart AND hard.'

What Rowe is saying is that the 4-year college degree is not for everyone. I was halfway through high school when I saw my father lose his job as union printer at Madison Newspapers, Inc. That was over 35 years ago -- right at the beginning of the 40-year period Rowe puts his finger on. My reaction then was to buck up and actually get into college -- the first one in my family -- which is something that you only hear minorities touting these days. That move worked for a long time. But things have changed, especially for young people and older (50+) people. We face unprecedented changes, and nobody has a long term solution.