This has been going around the Interwebs the past week, creating a shitstorm, as it were, of press coverage: A Japanese scientist has allegedly created meat from human sewage.
And of course it would. It's got exactly the right ingredients for a story to go viral: a sensational and icky claim and a video that looks credible. Fox News, and other news outlet repeated it citing the YouTube video and reported the story matter-of-factly, taking the opportunity to lob some admittedly clever toilet puns in the process.
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But a few didn't take the bait and smelled BS. CNET and at least one other blogger
noted that they couldn't find a trace of the scientist anywhere on the
web except in references for the same story. They questioned why a
Japanese scientist would label his vacuumed-packed final product
“shitburger.”
Perhaps the answer lies in applying Occam's razor: What's easier, more likely and
more fun? Actually attempting to create fake meat from poop? Or
producing a video purporting someone did?
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.