PHOTO:Neurodiversity

I’ve recently become fascinated by the use of self-reported questionnaires in psychological research, and have been noodling around looking at some measures that are freely available. My current favorite is the Disgust Scale, developed by Jonathan Haidt, et al. Here are some choice questions from the 27-number test.

Please indicate how much you agree with each of the following statements:

1. I might be willing to try eating monkey meat, under some circumstances. (Maybe I should be troubled by the fact that I don’t understand why this is supposed to provoke disgust.)

3. It bothers me to hear someone clear a throat full of mucous. (My husband + allergy season = ARGH.)

10. It would not upset me at all to watch a person with a glass eye take the eye out of the socket. (Okay, but if they put it in my glass I might have to put a frog on their pillow).

How disgusting would you find each of the following experiences?

19. Your friend’s pet cat dies, and you have to pick up the dead body with your bare hands. (Aw, that’s really sad. Can I stuff it?)

20. You see someone put ketchup on vanilla ice cream, and eat it. (Whatever floats your boat, baby. Just stay away from my cone.)

22. You discover that a friend of yours changes underwear only once a week. (There is not enough ewwwww in the world for this.)

You can take the test and score yourself here. I got 38 (the highest possible score is 100). You?

You know all those fuzzy headlines about different animal species pairing up? You SO know what I’m talking about. Like baby hippo and tortoise become fast friends, Hurricane Katrina orphan puppy best buds with baby tiger… that kind of pukey cute stuff.

Well, I’ve just come across what may be the most bizarre, intimate and gross animal pairing yet: the chicken and the gecko.

Some poor Aussie doctor was cooking himself some eggs when lo and behold there was a dead little GECKO INSIDE THE EGG. Yeah. Ew. And as if to read our minds and in a feeble attempt to allay them “health authorities say the discovery is nothing to be alarmed about” according to ,a href=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/16/2246597.htm>ABC News.

Like any good confused and fascinated citizen he took some pics and made his egg into a headline.

Now I know you’re asking yourself HOW HOW does this happen. Well, the dominant theory at Australia’s Egg Corporation is that the GECKO CLIMBED UP THE CHICKEN’S CLOACA. The question remains: why???? 

I just got an email alert from the FDA giving notice of a recall of 6-7 pound tins of canned vegetables that may have been contaminated by the evil bacteria botulism (which produces the paralyzing neurotoxin used for Botox injections! Yum!)

And I know that I really shouldn’t find all this funny, but seven POUNDS of canned veggies? SEVEN POUNDS. Yeah. 

Who hasn’t had a little food poisoning every now and then? Yeah? Everyone? Well here’s a creepy thought: once you’ve puked your guts out for 72 hours straight, the microfauna that glued you to the toilet could be the root cause of your kidney failure 20 years later. Sound fun, non?

The AP has put out a really interesting report on the poorly understood and woefully under-researched longterm effects of food poisoning. Remember the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak way back when? One little girl named Alyssa Chrobuck survived, but now she has high blood pressure, colon inflammation, a hiatal hernia, thyroid removal, endometriosis. I mean WOW. That is NOT GOOD.

Also, check this out:
“About 1 in 1,000 sufferers of campylobacter, a diarrhea-causing infection spread by raw poultry, develop far more serious Guillain-Barre syndrome a month or so later. Their body attacks their nerves, causing paralysis that usually requires intensive care and a ventilator to breathe. About a third of the nation’s Guillain-Barre cases have been linked to previous campylobacter, even if the diarrhea was very mild, and they typically suffer a more severe case than patients who never had food poisoning.”

Campylocater is spread not only by poultry but also RAW MILK. Definitely another “con” to add to the list when deciding whether nonpasteurized is the way to go.