Mad Cows

In environmental chemistry, I am doing a prezi about mad cow disease. It turns out it is some scary stuff. It affects the cows nervous system and makes them act strange and loose their ability to walk.  It can spread to humans if they eat the brain and/or spinal tissue, or the meat surrounding it. TIME FOR SUPPER!!!!! TASTY!!!!   that is also how it passes from cow to cow.  I know you are probably thinking WHAT!?!? COWS EAT OTHER COWS BRAINS AND SPINAL TISSUE!?!?  but there are other ways a cow can unknowingly eat fellow cows brains.  People mix useful cow parts into their feed.  The poor moo cows have to eat their fellow cows brain.....I'm very happy I'm not a cow. The disease effects the human nervous system as well.  It can cause dementia and it is fatal.  So if I were you I would keep cow brains and spinal tissue out of your diet for good.

The Power of Poop

We read an article about a Pennsylvania farmer who installed a digester (a covered container that heats manure breaking it down and producing methane gas, which can be used for heat and electricity) on his farm.  He uses the manure from his 500 dairy cows on his farm to make enough methane to power and heat his farm, and power around 100 homes in the Central Pennsylvania valley.  Now that's a lot of dookie.  He gets a check from the electric company every year.  Lucky dog.  He can use the digester and its byproducts to heat his home and milk house, supply bedding for his cows, fertilizer his fields, pasteurize the milk he feeds his calves  and dry his corn. Helpful isn't it, it also helps the environment  YAY!  You can get electricity from poop, who knew?  I think this is a very good thing for farmers, except for the fact that a digester costs around a million dollars so its not exactly for everyone, but if u can spare a million bucks then, hey, why not help yourself and the environment....if you own a farm, of course.  I still think this is amazing that we can now turn our waste into power and other useful things, with a little help from bacteria and heat.