What Cows Can Teach Us About Zoom Calls : NPR

Opinion: What Cows Can Teach Us About Zoom Calls : NPR

It comes from researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and the Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria, who compared the vital signs of 28 cows as they were petted while listening to a live human voice, and those same cows being petted while they heard merely a recording. They published their findings in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.

"Our study suggests that live talking is more relaxing for our animals than a recording of a human voice," said Annika Lange, an author on the study. "Heart rate variability was higher when cattle were spoken to directly, indicating they were enjoying themselves..."

And as other studies have confirmed, happy cows produce better milk.

October 17, 2020 Evening

Good evening! Clear and 34 degrees at the Cherry Ridge Camping Area. ๐ŸŒŒThere is a south-southwest breeze at 5 mph. ๐Ÿƒ. Cool but clear, I have a big ol roaring fire ๐Ÿ”ฅ tonight to stay warm.

While I was kind of hoping I’d have the whole camping area here to myself ๐Ÿ‘ค so I could listen to music ๐ŸŽถ as loud as I wanted to, there are a few campers down the way and they seemed to have gone inside pretty early because of the cold. I know that I usually prefer to camp at a roadside site that is more spread out but there aren’t many options nearby.

It was a nice day, lots of blue skies and fall colors ๐Ÿ‚๐ŸŒž but as to be expected in higher elevations they had very much faded away. Spent the bulk of the day at Glimmerglass State Park ๐Ÿž and then poked around Cooperstown for a while, which was really hoping but I didn’t want to spend too much time there with the pandemic. ๐Ÿ‘พ Of course, because I’ve been traveling my phone ๐Ÿ“ฑ wants me to install the state’s COVID-19 tracking app but honestly that’s creepy and it’s not like I’ve been indoors or near anybody except for a brief stop at Hannaford on Daunesburg to pick up some groceries. ๐Ÿช

All day was kind of cold โ„ although part of it was I’m unwilling to accept winter is coming and I was just wearing a t shirt ๐Ÿ‘š with my vest. The colors were really good down by the lake and up here by camp. โ›บ

I really like the rough cut lands ๐Ÿšœ๐Ÿš๏ธ of the backroads of Otsego and Madison County, the mud and manure, the run down farm houses and the earthy smell of livestock. ๐Ÿฎ The junk cars and rusty tractors, the goats ๐Ÿ staked down in front yard, the deer ๐ŸฆŒ hung from the tree, the pig pen ๐Ÿฝ in the corner of the yard.

In a few years I plan to live in a place like that. ๐Ÿก๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ– I’m making good money at my job now ๐Ÿ’ต but I’m really trying to save every penny I can, so I can eventually own land out in the country, live in small town. But not New York State – I don’t want to have to beg some judge for a pistol ๐Ÿ”ซ permit and I want to be able to have burn barrels ๐Ÿ›ข and have fires to burn debris and brush whenever I want and not spend all my money on property taxes. In other words rural living minus the New York State part. Kind of like Pennsyltucky minus the high taxes although there is a lot to like about the state especially in the Pennsylvania Wild Region although many other parts of the state have wooded hills above the fertile valleys. ๐ŸŒ„

Tonight will be mostly clear ๐ŸŒƒ, with a low of 30 degrees at 3am. Seven degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical night around November 13th. South wind 5 to 7 mph. In 2019, we had light rain in the evening, which became cloudy by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 41 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1978.

Tonight will have a New ๐ŸŒš Moon with 1% illuminated. At 7 PM, the moon was in the west-southwest (253ยฐ) at an altitude of 1ยฐ from the horizon, some 226,468 miles away from where you are looking up from the earth. ๐Ÿš€ Lots of stars โœจ tonight. I got out star viewing app earlier. At the state speed limit of 55 mph, you’ll make it there by April 7th. Buckle up for safety! ๐Ÿ’บ The Blue ๐ŸŒ Moon is on Halloween ๐Ÿฆ‡ Saturday, October 31. The darkest hour is at 12:47 am, followed by dawn at 6:50 am, and sun starting to rise at 7:18 am in the east-southeast (102ยฐ) and last for 2 minutes and 58 seconds. Sunrise is one minute and 12 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ„ The golden hour ends at 7:57 am with sun in the east-southeast (109ยฐ). Tonight will have 13 hours and 3 minutes of darkness, an increase of 2 minutes and 48 seconds over last night. Always amazing how fast winter comes when it gets well underway. Nights are so long now and it seems like nine 9โƒฃ o’clock is the middle of the night now.

Tomorrow will have increasing clouds โ˜, with a high of 56 degrees at 3pm. Three degrees below normal, which is similar to a typical day around October 25th. South wind 9 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became mostly sunny by afternoon. The high last year was 52 degrees. The record high of 84 was set in 2016. There was a dusting of snow in 2015.โ„

In four weeks on November 14 the sun will be setting in the west-southwest (245ยฐ) at 4:39 pm (Standard Time),๐ŸŒ„ which is one hour, 36 minutes and 17 seconds earlier then tonight. In 2019 on that day, we had cold, partly cloudy and temperatures between 37 and 20 degrees. Typically, you have temperatures between 49 and 32 degrees. The record high of 70 degrees was set back in 1973.

Looking ahead, Regular Deer Season in Southern Zone ๐ŸฆŒ is in 5 weeks, Small Business Saturday ๐Ÿ›๏ธ is in 6 weeks, Repeal of Prohibition Day ๐Ÿบ is in 7 weeks, Boxing Day ๐ŸฅŠ is in 10 weeks, Static Electric Shock Day ๐Ÿงผ is in 12 weeks, National Cheese Lovers Day ๐Ÿง€ is in 14 weeks, Save the Pine Bush Turns 43 ๐Ÿฆ‹ is in 16 weeks, Presidents Day ๐Ÿ‘ด is in 4 months, 5:30 PM Sunset ๐ŸŒ† is in 18 weeks, and Snow Moon ๐ŸŒ• is in 19 weeks.

Corner

The Truck with Glock Logo in the Back Glass

Every day when I drive to work, there is this nice truck on North Syracuse that has a big “Glock” logo on the back glass. I think it’s pretty neat, although it does make me resentful to be a New Yorker to no end. I don’t think one should have to ask permission of a judge to own a handgun, or any other firearm.

Many of our cities have a crime problem. But the solution to crime is simple — going after criminals. You don’t have to extreme firearm restrictions to go after crime, creating criminals out of law abiding citizens. Instead, you just need to go after murders and other violent criminals who commit actual crimes of violence.

North-west from the Gulf