Let's hear it for the large tunneling dor beetle!

This is from a Science News article by Bethany Brookshire that ends with this awesome sentence:

"So when you think next about why aren’t drowning in poo, tip your hat to evaporation, microbes and insects like the dung beetle."

Via.

"Maggot Orgy"? Avert your eyes!

A gentleman named Ethan shot this video that he titled "Totally Barfalicious Maggot Orgy in the [Unmentionable] of a Dead Harbor Seal."

The title pretty much says it all. In his video notes, Ethan adds, "Not for the faint-of-heart, I suppose." Since I just had a fatal cardiac arrest after watching this horror, I can only say, "Thanks. Thanks a lot." (To see the video and then also have a heart attack, click "Read more."

Decomposing Blubber? Yes!

Some pictures don’t need any help from me to explain how charming they are. This is one of them:

A pack of hungry tiger sharks have been photographed taking advantage of an easy meal near Palm Island in the Great Barrier Reef off Northern Queensland. The sun-bleached carcass of a whale washed ashore and attracted a large amount of shark activity. Around ten tiger sharks, some reaching up to four metres in length, were spotted lifting their snouts out of the water and tearing decomposing blubber from the carcass.

Did you see that? “Decomposing blubber”! Man, this is going to be a good day. (From here.)

“Careful with that green juice! It’s Uncle Joe.”

Iona Erskine-Kellie

After a person dies, he tends to get gross pretty quickly. So what do you do with him? Well, the city of Cambridge has two environmentally-friendly ideas to dispose of dead bodies.

1.) Put the dead body in a silk bag. Then put immerse the bag in a strong alkaline liquid for three hours. The body dissolves! 

Mathias Klang

All that’s left behind is a greenish fluid and some white dust. (This is called resomation.)

The fluid isn’t toxic, so you can save it or just pour it out on the lawn!

2.) Freeze the dead body using liquid nitrogen. And I mean FREEZE it down to minus-320° Fahrenheit (minus-196° Celsius). That makes the corpse so brittle, it’s freeze-dried! Then you can just break it into tiny bits and compost it. Or bury it. Or sprinkle it on the lawn!

And “natural burials” are already allowed. This is when you put the body in a compostable container and bury it. Then it composts naturally! 

If you think these ideas are gross, think about the alternatives: Burying a body and letting it rot in a metal box, or barbecuing it until it turns to dust. These methods are just as gross and much less environmental!

More here.

Zombanana!

All I can say is that Benjamin Tripp is a fantastic artist. He's not just great, he's the GREATEST! And here's the evidence:

Maggots Are Really Cool!

Dr. Yan appears on the BBC with his feature "Bang Goes the Theory!". Here, he sets up a time-lapse video of rotting food. At the 0:28 mark, the meat starts moving because of the all the fly eggs....and within 15 seconds, the little beasties have taken over! The fly larvae go after everything soft and wet...and then we roll the credits!

The Horror in My Backpack

I use my backpack all the time. So I was surprised to reach into the bottom of it and feel something that felt like soft leather.

"What the heck is this?" I wondered, as I pulled the object out.

Astoundingly, it was a banana that I had meant to eat...a MONTH ago! But although it got slightly crushed over time, the banana didn't leak...it just got dryer and blacker.

And since the black banana didn't stink, I put it back on the fruit plate with the rest of its friends!