One For The “What?!?!” File

I know this is going to sound like a bad joke, but did you hear about the guy who lost his bag of (ahem!) crap? No joke. This was reported in the news.

Apparently a doctoral student spent five years studying some lizard in the wilds of somewhere and collected the lizard dung for study. When the janitorial staff at the university came across the bag of dung, they did what most people, janitors or not, would have done—they tossed it in the garbage. Now the student is headed to court to sue the university.

Now, I have a few problems with this whole story, not he least of which is that it is in the international news. Firstly, what is there to be learned from this pile of crap? I mean, if you have already spent 5 years studying the animal, shouldn't you know what the thing eats and the processing time? Secondly, why bring this stuff home at all? Would it not be better to study it (if you intend on doing that) when the stuff is, how shall we say—fresh? My next question would have to be, if you are trying to get a degree from a university, is it really the best course of action, to sue said university? I would think that a lawsuit would cut down the chances for a successful dissertation defence.

Turns out the university offered the guy $750US for the loss. Holy smokes! Who knew that it could possibly be worth that much? I mean think about it! It's not like he lost a bag of gold. The guy didn't make a special trip to get it. He was already there! Did he not make any friends who could maybe go out and get some more for him and ship it to him using a courier?

I'm not sure what this guy wanted to prove with his bag o'smell, but you have to give him credit. Not everyone would do this in the name of education. It's a crappy job, but I guess someone has to do it!