Country Life

467- Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

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467- Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

11/23/21 by Tove Danovich, Lasha Madan

Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/131692649
Episode: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/stitcher.simplecastaudio.com/3bb687b0-04af-4257-90f1-39eef4e631b6/episodes/5f14d72c-7b2e-4634-abb6-d6573753af30/audio/128/default.mp3?

The French bulldog is now the second most popular breed in America. Their cute features, portable size, and physical features make for a dog that can easily travel and doesn’t require a lot of exercise. But these characteristics sometimes have a detrimental effect on the dog’s health. Tove K. Danovich writes “Rather than requiring human owners to change their lives to accommodate a new dog, the French bulldog is a breed that’s been broken to accommodate us.” Historically, dogs were bred for functional reasons, not aesthetics. But evaluating a breed based on how they accomplish a task is tricky, leading to the rise of visual standards more easily judged. As breed standards were formalized, purebred dogs grew in popularity and became a luxury of sorts; but with a limited genetic pool, this popularity naturally led to a lot of inbreeding to maintain breed consistency. Cute Little Monstrosities of Nature

The Purple Paint Law

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The Purple Paint Law

Many states – West Virginia and Pennsylvania have implemented purple paint laws that allow landowners to paint trees purple to indicate private property, replacing the Posted No Trespassing signs which used to require that the property owner be listed to ask permission to access or hunt or contact them about other concerns about their land.

The idea is that people can nowadays find landowners either by the county websites with their interactive GIS browsers, via their ArcGIS REST Services or various apps such as OxHunt. No need to list the landowner on the sign – traditionally posted signs were pretty expensive to post in a legal number, a few bucks a sign which can really add up if you are posting more than a few acres. Purple paint in contrast is cheap.

The DEC has been marking their property borders with yellow blazes for some time now to supplement their state land signs. Paint means you can cover a lot more area for cheap. Does purple paint mean that more land owned by private owners will be closed off from public use or does it just reinforce existing posted signs?

Honestly I think the solution should be a hybrid model. Maybe their should be some relaxation on the distance of posted signs with the use of purple paint but I think traditional posted signs with landowner contact information posted at major access points like corner posts, driveways, or road borders. Online databases are good but no trespassing signs are more effective and I think landowner information should be listed near the entrances.

Wagyu – Wikipedia

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Wagyu – Wikipedia

Wagyu (ε’Œη‰›, Wa gyΕ«, "Japanese cattle") is any of the four Japanese breeds of beef cattle.

In several areas of Japan, Wagyu beef is shipped carrying area names. Some examples are Matsusaka beef, Kobe beef, Yonezawa beef, Mishima beef,[1] Ōmi beef, and Sanda beef. In recent years, Wagyu beef has increased in fat percentage due to decrease in grazing and an increase in using feed, resulting in larger, fattier cattle

Socially Defined Context of Smell

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It’s often funny how much of our world is defined by socially learned context of smell. πŸ‘ƒπŸ½ A lot of babies eat poop, they aren’t all horrified by smell of their own poop — at least until they’re yelled out by the mom and told gross.

Non-farm people think honeywagons spreading manure really stink, πŸ’© mainly because their parents told them poop is nasty, and hydrogen sulfide tickles their nose in the wrong way. Farm people might instead joke, it’s the smell of money — maybe pungent but it’s the best stuff to make the crops grow really well and provide the chance of passing a profit or at least surviving. After a while, manure becomes almost unnoticeable or at least not very pungent to those who live out in the country.

Smell is very much part of our lives, 🌽 and so much of it is based on what we think is good or bad. Silage smells wonderful to farmers, as they know it will make for healthy cows and livestock that produce a lot of milk and meat. As does fresh cut hay and other crops. Non-farm people might smell the same thing and either have a negative impression or a neutral impression.

Whether it’s sewage treatment plant, the landfill, the barnyard, πŸ„ so much of it based on our context and our experience. When you learn that smell isn’t natural but based on the context you give to things, it will give you a totally different way of looking at things — not based on whether or not something is pungent but what the real impacts of human activity are.

Shots – Health News : NPR

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How The Ivermectin Culture Wars Took Off : Shots – Health News : NPR

U.S. health authorities and most doctors do not recommend using it to prevent or treat COVID-19, citing a lack of clear evidence on whether the drug works. Yet myths and beliefs around the drug have taken on a life of their own, fueled by a small group of doctors whose views diverge from the medical consensus, by right-wing commentators and by internet groups where people share tips on sourcing and dosing.

The thing about Ivermectin cultural wars, is not the stupid people who are making themselves sick taking it, but all the farmers and homesteaders with sick livestock that can't get an essential  dewormer for their livestock. Folks goats, sheep and other stock are literally dying because of idiots buying up the supply of this essential pesticide.