A Christmas miracle.
December 19, 2018 4:25 AM   Subscribe

Editors investigate after science journal publishes study with Trump's face on monkey feces It appears that some of our scientific scholars have, perhaps unintentionally, joined the thrum of world leaders, activists, and others who have mocked U.S. President Donald Trump. And they’ve done it in their own way.
posted by waving (48 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Clearly it's not a carefully poo-reviewed science journal.
posted by chavenet at 4:30 AM on December 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


Fake poos!
posted by popcassady at 4:56 AM on December 19, 2018 [18 favorites]


The peer reviewers passed it.
posted by nickmark at 5:02 AM on December 19, 2018 [9 favorites]


One step back and it becomes a smear campaign.
posted by Namlit at 5:17 AM on December 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


How is this different from, say, the Virgin Mary appearing in slices of toast?
posted by acb at 5:29 AM on December 19, 2018 [15 favorites]


Fæces, surely?
posted by Mayor West at 5:30 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


I love how the primary image of the story is so compressed by the CMS you can't see any details in the poo at all.

I'm sure the editors are shocked and dismayed and were no way in on this joke.
posted by Nelson at 5:32 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


The peer reviewers passed it.

Sure, but what about the poor reviewers?
posted by The Bellman at 5:45 AM on December 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


Trump involved in another fling?
posted by pracowity at 5:52 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


As a scientist, I actually find this upsetting. Gimmicks don't belong in science, and it undercuts the mission of the entire enterprise when people pull stunts like this. What were their findings? What did these authors do to progress knowledge? I have no idea, because they decided to make a poop joke, and that is now the focus of their work. Real professional. I don't buy for one moment that the authors didn't know what they were doing, sorry.

Politics absolutely belongs in science (science is politics), but not like this.
posted by sockermom at 6:00 AM on December 19, 2018 [20 favorites]


The peer reviewers passed it.

Sounds like they're getting enough fiber in their diets.
posted by tommasz at 6:00 AM on December 19, 2018 [6 favorites]




This is from the National Post, suppliers of quivery right-wing outrage to Canada's elderly well-to-do. They only recently ousted the National Enquirer's David Pecker from the board, for any sake.
posted by scruss at 6:10 AM on December 19, 2018 [10 favorites]


How is this different from, say, the Virgin Mary appearing in slices of toast?

It's a little early to go full Marshall McLuhan, but, uh... sometimes the medium is the message.
posted by Mayor West at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2018 [9 favorites]


What were their findings? What did these authors do to progress knowledge? I have no idea, because they decided to make a poop joke, and that is now the focus of their work.

Assuming facts not in evidence. I think that it's quite likely that, rather than spending their time looking for a picture of a baboon taking a shit, they outsourced it to a research assistant, and either they decided to have a little fun with this (probably not imagining that anyone would scrutinize cartoon dookie for hidden messages or faces) or they just grabbed the first bit of clip art that looked suitable.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:24 AM on December 19, 2018 [12 favorites]


I'm giving the authors the benefit of the doubt here. No scientist I have ever worked with, no matter how anti-Trump, would ever risk their scientific reputation for a quick joke. I'm with Halloween Jack.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:28 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


This is a perfect example of the scatological imperative.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:28 AM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


I have to admit, I'm astonished to be reading about monkey poop on MetaFilter and yet ChuraChura doesn't seem to be involved at all.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:34 AM on December 19, 2018 [11 favorites]


No scientist I have ever worked with, no matter how anti-Trump, would ever risk their scientific reputation for a quick joke.
We must know different scientists, then. I've heard keynotes about how science needs more "jokes and spoofs" from luminaries that really set my teeth on edge, so maybe I'm just primed to be upset about this sort of thing already.

I'd love to hear from the authors of the paper about what actually happened here; they could easily set the record. This story came across my feed about a week ago. The first author uses Twitter regularly.
posted by sockermom at 6:35 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Imagine the horror on that poor monkey's face when he tried so hard to rid the world of evil and yet.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 6:38 AM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


This man is our President. I believe that people should show a little more respect than this nonsense.
posted by bradth27 at 6:54 AM on December 19, 2018


A newly discovered blind and burrowing amphibian is to be officially named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, in recognition of the US president’s climate change denial.

Now, I get the intention of the researchers, but it's probably going to have the very unintended consequence of, in the long run, lionizing Trump rather than bashing him. Many generations from now, Trump's awfulness will likely be a faded memory and this will probably be seen as some sort of celebration of the man, rather than some ironic stab at him.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:55 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Sure, but what about the poor reviewers?

Pooer reviewers.
posted by pracowity at 7:06 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


Individual number two
posted by faceplantingcheetah at 7:09 AM on December 19, 2018 [19 favorites]


This man is our President. I believe that people should show a little more respect than this nonsense.

Fuck this noise. No one deserves respect because of their station in life. The way it's supposed to work is that the office of the President is so honorable that only the most honorable people hold that office. Then because those people are honorable, people will show them respect.

But if they're not honorable, and they demean the office itself, then people should respect the office, yes, but not the person.

Respect is earned, not deserved.
posted by explosion at 7:10 AM on December 19, 2018 [78 favorites]


acb: "How is this different from, say, the Virgin Mary appearing in slices of toast?"

Remind me to skip breakfast if ever at acb's.
posted by chavenet at 7:14 AM on December 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


He's seen the love inside of you
posted by stevil at 7:17 AM on December 19, 2018


Yup, poo face is about all the respect trump deserves.
posted by blue shadows at 7:34 AM on December 19, 2018 [4 favorites]


Like everything else, it's made of corn.
posted by peeedro at 7:46 AM on December 19, 2018 [7 favorites]


Reviewer #2 is always the worst. They don’t respect the duty of the peer review system.
posted by johnxlibris at 7:58 AM on December 19, 2018 [2 favorites]


We must know different scientists, then. I've heard keynotes about how science needs more "jokes and spoofs" from luminaries that really set my teeth on edge, so maybe I'm just primed to be upset about this sort of thing already.

Same here--and they are not necessarily jokes aimed at powerful people, either. I have seen well-known scientists deal with career setbacks in the last couple of years for unexpectedly including swimsuit models in herpetology talks, for example, or scientists who showed up on international television in a shirt with "sexy ladies" on it. I do not trust senior scientists' sense of risque humor to be generally appropriate and aimed firmly in directions punching up.

Look, the last major conference I was at--the second International Congress on Evolutionary Biology--included a wide variety of scientists who included small potshots at Trump in their talks, introductions that mentioned the widespread fear and unease within scientific communities, and open discussions taking the time to acknowledge presenters that could not be present in Montpellier because of immigration concerns in the US. I am all about scientists openly expressing their opinion with the state of things in the US. I'm even all about scientists tossing jokey potshots at Trump as a way to express protest and talk about things this administration is doing.

But something like this I don't find particularly amusing, in part because it's intended to fly under the radar and elicit giggles only from people who share an in-group with the graphic's designer--it doesn't seem to have been designed to talk about anything!--and it feels like bad tactics. It feels like bad judgement rather than standing up to make a point, and in an arena where bad judgement surrounding humor in science has often been directed at me and people like me... well, it doesn't really make me feel safer, at least.

I am very :| about all of it.
posted by sciatrix at 8:09 AM on December 19, 2018 [8 favorites]


“I said the journal editor wanted your theses. Thee-SEEZ. Thee-SEEZ.”
posted by jonp72 at 8:31 AM on December 19, 2018 [14 favorites]


Reviewer #2 is always the worst.

QFT.
posted by Sophie1 at 8:38 AM on December 19, 2018


Relevant comment from the Pearl Harbor day megathread here.
posted by TedW at 9:23 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I do not understand why you would do this. I mean, I hate Trump, and his face deserves to be on shit, but both of these researchers are post-docs -- if I was on a hiring board I would be very concerned about giving them jobs in my department. I do not want my science to be political. In this case, I happen to agree with it and even think its a little funny, but next time will I? Sneaking this past the editors means that I could never trust these two; they have lost all credibility as far as I am concerned.

Though, all that said, we did print out a zoomed in version of Trump's shit-head and put in on the wall of my lab.
posted by os tuberoes at 9:37 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


… but Nature are onto it, TedW, and will be changing the PDF soon. The Internet Archive abides, however.
posted by scruss at 9:39 AM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


if I was on a hiring board I would be very concerned about giving them jobs in my department. I do not want my science to be political.

I dunno. In five or ten years, however long the hangover from this blasted hellscape administration lasts, when they're all in prison and it's all of a sudden tough to find anyone who remembers voting for Trump, I wonder if the lasting legacy of these years will be the war on truth. If so, it could be pretty advantageous to list on your CV an indelible middle finger directed at the rotten core of the attack on the academy itself, from a time when it was still considered controversial.
posted by Mayor West at 10:56 AM on December 19, 2018 [5 favorites]


i just downloaded the pdf and it looks like they've already fixed it. it's blurred out now when you zoom it.
posted by numaner at 11:06 AM on December 19, 2018


Fuck this noise. No one deserves respect because of their station in life. The way it's supposed to work is that the office of the President is so honorable that only the most honorable people hold that office. Then because those people are honorable, people will show them respect.

But if they're not honorable, and they demean the office itself, then people should respect the office, yes, but not the person.

Respect is earned, not deserved.




That is your opinion, and I respect that. However, not everyone agrees with you, and not everyone sees him as someone who isn't honorable.
posted by bradth27 at 11:33 AM on December 19, 2018


OTOH anyone who thinks of Trump as "honorable" probably isn't reading science papers. Science is the enemy after all, right up there with fake news.
posted by Nelson at 11:37 AM on December 19, 2018 [6 favorites]


Mod note: No one is required to have any particular opinion of Trump, so you're entitled to feel how you feel. But I think it suffices to say that spending more than one comment arguing that people on MeFi should like or give deference to or extend the benefit of the doubt or any other fucking thing to him is misreading the neighborhood pretty badly and not going to be a good use of anybody's time. Drop it.
posted by cortex (staff) at 11:49 AM on December 19, 2018 [19 favorites]


This man is our President. I believe that people should show a little more respect than this nonsense.
posted by bradth27 at 9:54 AM on December 19 [+] [!]


I have so many questions about this.

Does this rule apply to all world leaders, or only the POTUS?

Why should people show a national leader unconditional respect (even if it's their own nation)?

Regarding the Trumpoo; every little bit of resistance helps.
posted by dazed_one at 2:52 PM on December 19, 2018 [3 favorites]


So Trump came from George W. That makes sense.
posted by metagnathous at 2:59 PM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, said it would be an "Obama-like mistake" to remove American troops.

Ah, yes. Ole Huckleberry can barely bring himself to criticize Trump unless he drags Obama's name into it.
posted by JackFlash at 3:26 PM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm all in favor of scientists poo-pooing Trump.
posted by BlueHorse at 3:34 PM on December 19, 2018


However, not everyone agrees with you

Way to shit up the thread.
posted by banshee at 4:36 PM on December 19, 2018 [1 favorite]


This really confuses me because I though Trump just meant what the Brits call Me-thane. They may now have to redo the Bristol Stool Scale.
posted by srboisvert at 8:31 PM on December 19, 2018


Shitty impression of a shitty president. Perfect.
posted by blue shadows at 8:56 PM on December 19, 2018


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