VERY STRONG NAME FOR A ROCK BAND

Cave Snot

(Thanks to Michael Thompson)

Comments

[Suzy Q]

Cave snot? OK!

[casey]

Hey, that looks like what happens to my nasal secretions when it's really, really cold out!

[sthnbelle]

Let's see - a snottite might have been a stalagtite if it had held on a might tighter...nope doesn't work.

[Suzy Q]

Well, now that I read the article, Ew. No thanks.

But, as we all know, being first is most important, over actually knowing what the heck the story is about.

[baligurl]

The first time we snow skied, my husbands beard looked just like that.

[baligurl]

And I STILL hate the bot! judi, HELP!

[casey]

Snottite? SNOTTITE? How much do these so-called scientists get paid anyway? They do all this fancy schmancy scientifical type stuff and use big words and things and they can't come up with a better word that SNOTTITE?

[fivver]

That article has so many opportunities. Most of them including burritos.

[KDF]

Casey, really, the holidays are almost over. Hang in there, girl.

[fivver]

an ever-expanding dark palace place.

and Paris Hilton

[Siouxie]

*snork* @ fivver and talk about cave snot in that dark place...ewwwwiieee!

[Mike Thompson]

Yay, I actually made it with a submission!! My original email to Dave included the line, "Isn't this just booger-riffic?" Dave makes a good point, however. _Great_ name for a rock band!

[mudstuffin]

very acidic
ph of one or lower
the cave snot i mean

it's imbecilic
iq of eighty or less
that's paris this time

keen nerds in the dark
seek cave snot for thier thesis
yeah, let 'em have it

[Siouxie]

yay for you Mike!!

here, have some cave snot!

[Clean Hands]

Again, reading to the very end of the article, did anyone else find it disturbing that they're saying that basically the same thing happens on our teeth?

*going to brush teeth again*

[D.Esker]

First, as a geologist, I would like to defend the word 'snottite.' I mean, they could have called it a 'petromucusoid,' or something. Second, you will be happy to know that unless they work for an oil or mineral exploration company, geologists don't get paid very much. For example, I am a paleontologist, so my yearly salary is, lets see, carry the four . . . nothing. I work for free, and will be fleeing the country when my student loans come due. To be fair, a really experienced geologist can earn anything up to 10 times this ammount. So you got word 'snottite' for pretty much nothing.

[D.Esker]

Nix that extra 'm.'

[CJrun]

Cheers, DE, have a gumball!

I loved the word snotitte and humorous scientists. I worked for a microbiologist that named a newly discovered species 'LKG 17' [or something like that], as a tabloid that had heard about his work published a PANIC story about a 'Lurking Killer Germ Invading Beaches!'

[Lisa Bisa Fo Fisa]

"Hey, where are we? This cave's not on our map!"

[casey]

Personally, I prefer "petromucusoid". Where can I vote for the name change?

Here D.Esker *flips a dime*. A bonus for your cool word!

[Patchy the Squirrel]

As a geology student, I only got to work with pseudomonas biofilms. I would have loved snottite!

[Ernie G]

As I understand mineralogical naming conventions, snottite would necessarily have to be named for its discoverer, somebody with a name like Professor Snot. I learned this after I had suggested to a geologist that mineralized cave guano could be called "batshittite". He said that this would only be possible if it was first mentioned in the literature by someone named Batshitt.

[OtheU(manity)]

Well, it wuz!

I wrote that story about Professor Batshitt and his investigations into the development of hangy-down stuff in caves ... that wuz even before he published his findings ... merely sayin' ...

[D.Esker]

\Science Crap

OK, naming new minerals is actually a serious pain in the @ss. The process is controlled by the International Mineralogical Association Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification, which I'm sure is an dynamic and talented group of people, many of whom could easily be mistaken for minerals themselves. If you would like to check out the rules yourself, please look at http://www.geo.vu.nl/~ima-cnmmn/cnmmn98.pdf. Its 14 pages of action-packed fun, including sections on "Nomenclature of nanometric domains,"
"Nomenclature of polytypes, polytypoids and polymorphs," and of course, "Extended Levinson modifiers." The bottom line, however, is that a mineral cannot be named 'batshittite,' on the grounds that it is: A) amusing and, B) descriptive. Fortunately, 'snottite,' refers to a bacterial film on a cave formation, or 'speleothem,' and not a mineral. Speleologists are a very relaxed group of individuals, as the result of constantly whanging their heads on cave ceilings, and and therefore think nothing of giving amusing names to things. We need to give them a lot of credit for not naming it 'spoogite' or something.

/Science crap

[Betsy]

A snottite is an adherent to the doctrine of Snottism. They advocate a snottocratic form of government, where governance is in the hands of the biggest snots -- a "natural snottocracy".

Personally, I belong to the boogeroisie rabble...

[Clean Hands]

Thanks for the great refs, D.Esker! Pretty clearly, you ought to take up speleology, as you have the necessary relaxed attitude even without whanging your head on anything.