General Discussion Thread

[JoB]

Me: oh, the usual, helped out on the farm. We castrated a bunch of now-steers, you know.

(Language / faux amis fun fact: "Stier" is the German term for the fully functional version.)

Friend: oh really? You did the actual..doing?
Me: oh no! That's gross! I just held them still.

Vulcan nose pinch monkey wrench? :-S

The field of veterinary medicine started out as an ancillary science to raise and preserve the profitability of livestock farming, and there's a veterinary museum in the South of Stuttgart we once visited. Dunno what I expected (it was a bit of an off-the-cuff decision to go there), but it seemed like half of the exhibits were blunt instruments to deal with fertility issues in one way or the other.

[JoB]

(Re-post after my login timed out and I cannot see the post already posted. Forum tells me "you already posted that". Sorry if it winds up to really be a double.)

Over here we actually call the not so good kind "hot dogs," and they're actually eaten more often than the good stuff.  Do any other countries do that, or is that another one of the weird American things?

Well, I guess one should keep in mind that making sausages is an invention to make use of bits and pieces of meat found unusable for other purposes in the first place. Truly praise-worthy variants of sausage are sort of an afterthought.

Having that said, I'ld guess that the majority of sausages eaten in Germany are of the "blonde boiled" variety - Frankfurter/Wiener, Knacker, Bockwürste, Siedewürstchen, etc. etc.. Typically sold in glasses or tins - which means that it doesn't make too much sense to try and go cheap on the meat.

Not too sure about nondescript sausages for a BBQ, though. They come pre-spiced, and you can hide a lot behind that. We have a fries+grill right in front of our company, they actually recommend that you take their Thüringer, though you can also get a rote Bratwurst.

Oh, wait! Chances are that the most popular sausage is actually the Currywurst ...

[OrigamiOwl]

(Language / faux amis fun fact: "Stier" is the German term for the fully functional version.)
Vulcan nose pinch monkey wrench? :-S

The field of veterinary medicine started out as an ancillary science to raise and preserve the profitability of livestock farming, and there's a veterinary museum in the South of Stuttgart we once visited. Dunno what I expected (it was a bit of an off-the-cuff decision to go there), but it seemed like half of the exhibits were blunt instruments to deal with fertility issues in one way or the other.

The faux ami thing is interesting!
Heh, our crush had been broken (the cows were getting drenched too, so we kind of needed it) so it ended up being just me vs however much a steer weighs (they were about as high as my shoulder?) in a I eventful battle of strategic weight and arm placement and trying not to be crushed to death in the race.... :/ but we got burly reinforcements eventually so it was ok~ *wipes brow* but some Vulcan mind-stuff would've been good haha

The museum (and the past) seems.....really scary O__o aaaaagggghh!

[Fimbulvarg]

... I don't buy from Gilde...

But the kind you linked to is the hexagonal Gilde mystery sausage! It even says so in the url addre... Actually, never mind, too much sausage drama for me.

On another theme though: I had the weirdest dream last night while you folks were all chatting away in your daytime
A whole bunch of Minions were all meeting up at an airport because the rash was about and we were all going to some village, and Minna was in a bunker so she could continue ssss (lol) and Nimphy was a bundle of incredible cuteness with a huge lipgloss collection (?), and ThisCat and Fimbulvarg were super sleek and business savvy and Rollo was all mysterious and then it got weird because Eich had grown a Törbjorn beard- in fact, he WAS Törbjorn, "I'm an uncle now, and Törbjorn's and uncle, so I should look more like him!" And everyone was like "Ummmmm well then...ok" and then we had to make a radio to try contacting Minna and ask if she could end the Rash because for some reason ssss had started to come to life and and and IT WAS JUST

Business savvy? I think you spelled scruffy wrong.

[JoB]

so it ended up being just me vs however much a steer weighs (they were about as high as my shoulder?) in a I eventful battle of strategic weight and arm placement and trying not to be crushed to death in the race.... :/

... wait. You wrestled that half-a-metric-ton-or-so to a standstill?

http://www.landwirt.com/rinderberichte/rinder_fixieren,6,Nasengriff.html
https://www.agrimarkt.info/shop_detail.html?id=300426

(Random find: Got (thirst for) milk? )

[OrigamiOwl]

... wait. You wrestled that half-a-metric-ton-or-so to a standstill?

http://www.landwirt.com/rinderberichte/rinder_fixieren,6,Nasengriff.html
https://www.agrimarkt.info/shop_detail.html?id=300426

(Random find: Got (thirst for) milk? )

Not wrestled, no. More of a hug, lean and brace?

Only two of the links work, and I only understand...one of them....I think... Is that a nose ring thing? :/

[ThisCat]

Heee, I would totally be interested in a conversation about dissection and social insects! X'D
What are social insects? They sound irritating >;P

Social insects are, like, ants, bees, termites, wasps, certain aphids and a few more things. Often irritating, but very interesting. I can talk people to death on the structures of social insect societies.
Anyways, there's a reason I study biology now.

[JoB]

Only two of the links work

The last one being the nonfunctional one (because direct link to an image), I suppose ... ?

http://www.agrarbedarf.at/melkhygiene---eutergesundheit/index.php

Is that a nose ring thing? :/

Not a nose ring (stays on the animal), a forceps to do the equivalent of the (temporary) bare-hand grip.

[kjeks]

Not wrestled, no. More of a hug, lean and brace?

Only two of the links work, and I only understand...one of them....I think... Is that a nose ring thing? :/

Sort of. It's a nose gripper that makes it easier for you pulling bulls around though I wouldn't do that without the owner helping me out if anything goes wrong. Last time I had to work with cows was at a holm (in German we say "Hallig" to very small and flat Islands not far from the coast). We had to shoe them into the barn before the flood came, but that was rather easy because the cattle was so afraid of us, that they just ran straight and didn't even think of running down the barriers (which certainly wouldn't have hold them).

JoB the most scary thing about modern farming are the instruments used for getting boars semen. The whole pig production as it works on large industrial farms kind of scares me and every documantery now focusses on fertility or keeping of animals. About animal society issues nothing is said anymore.

Edit: JoB was quicker

[OrigamiOwl]

Social insects are, like, ants, bees, termites, wasps, certain aphids and a few more things. Often irritating, but very interesting. I can talk people to death on the structures of social insect societies.
Anyways, there's a reason I study biology now.

Oooooooh! Makes sense! So mosquitoes aren't social then? They just all like to fly in creepy swarms? Hmmm guess not..Just creepy bugs ;P

The last one being the nonfunctional one (because direct link to an image), I suppose ... ?

Nope, the first one...

And ew! What? I still don't get it JoB ;__;

Sort of. It's a nose gripper that makes it easier for you pulling bulls around though I wouldn't do that without the owner helping me out if anything goes wrong. Last time I had to work with cows was at a holm (in German we say "Hallig" to very small and flat Islands not far from the coast). We had to shoe them into the barn before the flood came, but that was rather easy because the cattle was so afraid of us, that they just ran straight and didn't even think of running down the barriers (which certainly wouldn't have hold them).

JoB the most scary thing about modern farming are the instruments used for getting boars semen. The whole pig production as it works on large industrial farms kind of scares me and every documantery now focusses on fertility or keeping of animals. About animal society issues nothing is said anymore.

Edit: JoB was quicker

Ohhhh, it /is/ what I thought it was. Phew :/ we don't have any of those.

I agree Kex, pig farming (and chicken farms) gives me the heebie-jeebies with some of the stuff that goes on.

Eeee-heee-eeeeeewk, maybe a new topic?
Cats?
Who likes cats? I do!

[kjeks]

Cats are nice, agreed. We have a barn, a garden and loooooots of wood around our house, but the landlady doesn't like animals. So in the next appartment maybe .

[potatobunny]

Not wrestled, no. More of a hug, lean and brace?

Only two of the links work, and I only understand...one of them....I think... Is that a nose ring thing? :/

I'm a city girl, so the farm animal talk only makes sense to me because I just reread all of James Herriot's books. It feels like a whole different world. 

[ThisCat]

Cats?
Who likes cats? I do!

I have a cat! He's super cute, but I don't see him as much since I moved out. When I'm home (like now) I can litterally scratch him for hours, it's so nice

[StellersJayC]

Social insects are, like, ants, bees, termites, wasps, certain aphids and a few more things. Often irritating, but very interesting. I can talk people to death on the structures of social insect societies.
Anyways, there's a reason I study biology now.

Ah ha! I was going to guess either that or those annoying extroverts who don't know the proper way to enter a conversation. I would definitely talk about insect-societies, though. They are quite interesting.

Not social or an insect, but the other day I found a wolf spider in a corner. I immediately sat on the carpet and watched for about fifteen minutes in fascinated horror before my mom came by and decided to vacuum it up. (If my brother had seen it he would have freaked out.) It's so difficult because on one hand I hate bugs and think they're disgusting, but on the other I love them for all their interesting-ness.

[kjeks]

It's so difficult because on one hand I hate bugs and think they're disgusting, but on the other I love them for all their interesting-ness.

In school we have small round plastic boxes with magnifying lense on top of it. Most of the small ones are afraid of spiders and bugs as well, but if I can catch one they urge me to put it in one of these boxes and they could sit in front of it the whole day. Espacially the ones normally known as the loudest