

Sell your poop for $13,000 per year - briandear
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/29/you-can-earn-13000-a-year-selling-your-poop/?tid=sm_fb

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giarc
I actually donate on a regular basis (not part of OpenBiome) and can answer
any questions people have (a sort of AMA). Edit - this isn't a joke comment, I
actually donate stool weekly.

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zo1
I'm curious about the... Logistics of it? Do you store it, somewhere till the
end of the week? Sit on a bucket, or use a ziplock bag? Scoop it out of the
bowl every time? Do you have to make sure it doesn't get contaminated with
urine?

Do they care about the consistency, color, smell, etc? Or is it just pretty
much _anything_ goes? Do they request that you eat a specific diet?

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spyspy
From the article it seems the donors are required to go to the office and do
their business there.

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giarc
It would be nice to have a dedicated bathroom. I work in a large public
building and therefore donate in a public bathroom. Can be awkward carrying a
bag into the stall with me. I get some weird looks, but then I remember why I
donate and it's all ok.

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username223
The really crazy part is that once some pharmaceuticals push their own
versions of fecal transplants through clinical trials, they'll try to raise
the price patients pay for the treatment by 10x or so to make a profit. Of
course...

> Since they have to come into the Medford, Mass. office, lots of them are
> Tufts University students. And plenty are recruited from the gym next door.
> "It's great to have a healthy contingent of regular gym goers right there,"
> Smith said.

PoopDate.io has potential. DISRUPT that bathroom!

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giarc
The problem with that is that it will push people back to DIY transplants. The
same thing happened when the FDA changed the rules for FMT and the number of
people doing it at home surged again. The FDA doesn't really know what to do
about FMT and it's pushing people to complete at home transplants with
untested donors and therefore putting themself at increase risk of adverse
outcomes.

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username223
Oh, I agree -- I don't know how to handle the problem either, and since the
majority of our cells aren't human, there are plenty more microbiomes waiting
to be transplanted (e.g. skin, underarms, feet). The incentives are incredibly
perverse, with drug companies wanting to spend as little money as possible to
develop drugs that appeal to the richest consumers, e.g. copycat drugs for old
men who still want to get it up for their young mistresses.

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Expez
This reminds of one of the greatest april fool jokes I've ever witnessed. In
one of the papers there was an announcement by the parks department or some
such about an effort to clean up the Vigeland park. The public was encouraged
to pick up dog crap in the park and hand them in to attendants for a few bucks
a pop.

The turnout was great and the park was cleared of dog crap, but unfortunately
no great fortunes were made :)

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phkahler
Why can't they just grow the desired types of bacteria?

On a related note, how can the bacteria survive in "pro-biotic" pills that you
can buy? I'm suspicious.

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gww
Not every type of bacteria in your gut microbiome is known and/or able to be
grown in culture.

As per your question regarding pro-biotics, some bacteria such as Lactobacilli
can be dried and remain viable when reintroduced to a liquid medium.

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abandonliberty
Yes - we can only culture a very small minority of wild bacteria.

For example, the recent antibiotic discovery that made the news came from
learning how to culture soil bacteria. No, we didn't learn what it needs. We
just grew it in it's natural environment: dirt.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8852487](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8852487)

Revolutionary. (seriously).

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raisedbyninjas
From the donation benefits section:

"Win competitions like biggest single donation of the month, or most donations
in a month for bonuses and prizes!"

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pervycreeper
Not what I thought it would be before clicking (too much internet for me, I
suppose).

One would imagine that testing would need to be fairly regular (no pun
intended), so I'm not sure what the $5000 figure is meant to represent.

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Cyranix
A bit off-topic, but: for an incredibly over-the-top violent-but-funny
animated movie whose plot revolves around profitable poo, give Aachi & Ssipak
a try:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachi_%26_Ssipak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachi_%26_Ssipak)

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ChuckMcM
That is a crap load of cash :-) Interesting concept though.

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stefantalpalaru
> poop

It's a brave new world where vulgar and scientific words are replaced with
baby talk.

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circlefavshape
I expect the author has children. Before mine arrived saying "piss" and "shit"
was the most natural thing in the world, now I say "wee" and "poo" (I live in
Ireland) instead, just out of habit.

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wtbob
You could say 'urine' and 'feces' or 'bowel movement.'

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DonHopkins
Or you could teach your kids to count, starting with #1 and #2.

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kjs3
My poop is worth every penny. Trust me.

