Lowing Cows: A Very Private Affair
I"m not lowing. Go away.
As to cows “lowing” in fields, I have no clue. Finally I ran across this in a dairy cow forum. As to a picture of this taking place, I tried google image search to find a “lowing shot” with no luck. I guess it’s a very private affair.
“We all know from elementary school that cattle are known to low. We’ve seen the drawings of the cows on their bellies with legs stretched out in front and behind. Few, if any of us, have actually seen a cow perform this lowing feat. Here’s what I have been able to establish to date:
- Lowing appears to be restricted to the last three weeks of December and the first week of January each year.
- Lowing is only known to occur when there is snow on the ground. There are no reports of Florida cattle ever lowing.
- A lowing cow actually creeps and slips across the ground slowly while keeping their profile as low as possible.
- Cattle are very secretive about lowing.
I discovered early on that lowing cattle will immediately get up and act nonchalant if they feel people are observing them. A field of lowing cattle will quickly move to the standard cow stance if they hear a car or truck approaching. Over the years I’ve been able to observe cow lowing by building a snow blind in a handy drift. It is truly exhilarating to observe a herd of cows lowing in unison. It’s not unlike synchronized swimming. The most stunning lowing I have witnessed involved a herd of black and white Holsteins. It was like watching a swarm of disembodied black spots undulating across the snowy field.”
The unresolved mysteries of lowing are still troubling. What exactly are they trying to sneak up on? Why are they so secretive?
Just in time for Halloween: Smell like hell.
Tried to get Digg format to accept link, but kept refusing it. So the link out is here. Scroll to bottom of page.
What does Space smell like ? Hopefully not like old people.
Smell Outer Space. Click here.
Meccano Spyke Robot Photo Gallery
Spyke the cool wi-fi and camera enabled robot kit is scheduled for release in September for Europe and October for the US. The robot can be assembled as Lunar Lander, Scorpion and just as a plain robot.
Microsoft Announces Mac Mini Killer (Picture)
Picture of Microsoft Mini killer. The design alone will floor you.
Getting past buying iTunes songs
I hunt and peck my music. At a buck a song from iTunes it’s not bad to grab that song that you heard, loved, and had to have. The down side is you end up with a locked song format with a limited way to use it. File sharing is another way to get that music. If you wanna go that route, fine. File sharing is turning into a carnie thing for me, and has a bit to much karma rebound to it.
Try this: I heard one song from a Judybats CD named “Ugly On The Outside” and I wanted to own it and have the freedom to do anything with it. So I went to Amazon, found the
CD and clicked on “buy used and new”. I found the CD for $1.19 with a shipping charge of a buck. So I get the song for $2.19. Subtract a buck that iTunes would have charged and now the song is $1.19 .
I get the whole CD, the freedom of a clean, non monkey format and extra songs I might like and once it’s on my Mac the ability to give the CD to someone else.
My songs that I buy I love to share with my friends and I want the freedom to do that. When reel to reel was promoted we started sharing. You could argue listening rights till consumption, if you feel the energy to do so. Somewhere in the future the artists will band together and figure out a way for direct payment to the song writer/performer.
For me, it’s just the music.
UPDATE: Bare Naked Ladies are selling their latest CD directly from their website with no digital rights management !
Denmark and the Trans-Fat Ban
Hey, if Denmark can do it, we can make it happen to.
Getting Fat on High Fructose Corn Syrup
High fructose corn syrup has almost completely replaced sugar in most of our commercially made sweets. In 1966 we weren’t eating a gram of the stuff per year, and 40 years later we are downing over 70 pounds per person a year! That is a scary number, mostly because most people don’t know what they are putting in their body.
Do Blogs Still Matter?
Mike makes some good points. Have we reached a Blog Threshold ? My friends blogs still draw me back because we tend to exchange the same genre of interests. Maybe the next swing will be a sort of micro-blog affair. Read Mikes blog here.
Hi-Res Color Pictures from the 1930s and 40s
Striking color photos from the 30’s and 40’s. Downloadable in Hi-Res ! Click here. While your there, check out the pic of Cascade, Idaho!
The Finest Martini Ever Made
“The legend of the 10-minute Martini” I’ve tried a few martinis in my life time. They’ve run the gamut from Lemon Drops to Frank Sinatra’s favorite the “Burnt Martini”. When I ran across Bingo’s perfect assignment of investigating the “Legend” martini I was skeptical. Here’s the direct link.
