Word Of The Day

Copromancy:

Copromancy is the art of prognostication based on examining feces. Copromancy has a long history, and is part of traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda. [RationalWiki]

Noted in the Feedback column of NewScientist (23 June 2018, paywall):

Feedback hasn’t given much thought to copromancy since “Dr” Gillian McKeith, who pored over potties like horoscopes, was flushed from our screens. Yet the art of fortune-smelling endures.

During last week’s summit in Singapore, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was reported to have brought his own portable toilet, to prevent foreign agents from capitalising on his leaks. With good reason: during a visit to Moscow in 1949, Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s excreta were swiped by Soviet spies hoping to divine his personality traits. A rare occasion when staff can be congratulated for going through the motions.

And again, same column:

MORE mystery droppings: residents of the Canadian town of Kelowna are keeping one eye on the skies after sewage twice rained down, creating a sort of Rorschach blot test for jobbing copromancers. Suspicion has fallen on aircraft bound for a nearby airport. Whether the plane responsible was anxious or angry is still unknown.

Wow.

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About Hue White

Former BBS operator; software engineer; cat lackey.

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