Sunday, October 26, 2014

Fantasy Apart from Reality

Once when deciding on what we should do, one night, a great friend and I cruised around town. This little farm side, being one of my favorite places; I decided to bring him here. We walked along the fence to look out into the valley watching the cows. He noticed the "No Trespassing" signs along with the countless locks on the gate door. "Maybe it's to keep the drunks from cow tipping out at night," I said jokingly. He told me a story about how in Mexico his dad would do it with his friends and the next morning the cows would be dead, due to not having some type of bone and having their guts spill out and internally bleed to death. I thought this was a cruel form of humor for one drunken night, but then something about the story didn't make scientific sense (of course, myself-- being secretly a bio nerd, I looked this up).


 "Let's get this out of the way: Cow tipping, at least as popularly imagined, does not exist. Drunk young men do not, on any regular basis, sneak into cow pastures and put a hard shoulder into a cow taking a standing snooze, thus tipping the poor animal over." ("Cow Tipping: Fake or Really Fake?")

Jake Swearingen, author of, "Cow Tipping: Fake or Really Fake?" explains to us-- with a sense of humor, how slim the chances of cow tipping really are, he uses a zoology doctor to explain the physics of cow tipping. He also interviews a farmer who has grown up and lived on a pasture for almost all his life before retiring, selling his farm and moving away. The farmer, like the zoology doctor, both give reasonable evidence on cow tipping. They say the cows are far too heavy and shift their weight against the person to stabilize themselves, proving to make an imagined fantasy-- unreal.
Here's a diagram of the doctors thinking:



From the works of , University of British Columbia student, Tracy Boechler and doctor of Zoology, Margo Lillie.






Regardless, It's still manageable to hurt the animal in the process of trying, either mentally, emotionally and most possibly-- physically.

I find it ironically funny how we find humor in the horrible and perhaps lethal situations, that we're to face in reality. I like to think it's due to the fact we tend to set our life in a fantasy to keep us from taking life so seriously and living freely without much care. 



Work Cited

Swearingen, Jake. "Cow Tipping: Fake or Really Fake?" Modern Farmer. N.p. 4 Sep. 2013. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.

6 comments:

  1. Wow I never knew you could hurt the cow if you tip it! Glad I have never done it! I always thought that it would be impossible to push a cow over especially if you are intoxicated.

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  2. I've tried it. (I grew up in Yerington, so we didn't have a lot to do on weekends.) I love the diagram.

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  3. I love how you started the blog! The blog instantly grabbed my attention.

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  4. This is really interesting. I like your little anecdote in the beginning, Also I love how you care for the animals n the cruelty it shows in your work.

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  5. I love your blog, I think its fascinating how the cows shift their weight. Your blog reminded me of the movie cars and how they tipped over the tractors and I agree that sometimes people find amusement in things that are hurtful.

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  6. Wow! Who knew cows have such an amazing ability. Seems like there is always something interesting to find out about most things that seem boring to us.

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