Animal Science

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Cow-Tipping

JAKE SWEARINGEN: YouTube is the clearinghouse for all of human stupidity. If somebody does something that's dumb—and I believe cow-tipping is a very dumb activity if you do it—it will be on YouTube. And yet there isn’t a single one.

SCOTT SIMON: And the physics are daunting.

SWEARINGEN: The physics are daunting. When you actually get up close to a cow, it’s a large animal. The average dairy heifer comes in around 1,400 pounds. A bull can get up to 4,000. It really is on the equivalent of trying to tip over a small car.

SIMON: Back to the fact that we have staffers here who have maintained that they've been part of a cow-tipping. Now, forgive me—I hate to personalize it—but are you saying they're full of, you know, you can finish that sentence in a bovine manner.

—Scott Simon of National Public Radio and writer Jake Swearingen, in a serious discussion on the physics of cow-tipping, 2014. See Swearingen’s Modern Farmer article, “Cow Tipping Doesn’t Exist — But Cow Flipping Does”

• Editorial Comment: Well, now I'm going to have to find a cow and test this myself.

PeezPix by Ted Pease 
 

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PeezPix. ted.pease@gmail.com

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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Utah State University, Logan, Utah. ted.pease@gmail.com. (Be)Friend Dr. Ted, Professor of Interesting Stuff

“Words are sacred. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard
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