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Cow Brains Into Biofuel
beatleadam writes "If the reality of $2.00 per gallon of gas does not scare you enough, then perhaps this will. '...Cattle brains, skull, eyes, spinal column, small intestine and other parts suspected of harboring mad cow disease were banned from human consumption in December as a safety precaution, shortly after the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States...' The FDA is now funding research aimed at producing biofuels from cattle brains. What about the exhaust given off from cars that are burning Mad Cow Fuels?" It's the grand circle of life.
It, like the gasoline put into the car in the first place, will be composed of hydrocarbons vastly too short to be formed into prions.
Go read up on what refineries do and how they work. It will put your mind at ease about this 'threat', plus which it's a fascinating problem they have to solve. Every day a refinery doesn't blow itself to smithereens is a testament to the skill of the engineers who built it.
If you're going to slaughter the animal anyway for food, wouldn't it be best to use whatever is left over in any way possible? I think that just using part of the animal and throwing the rest out is wasteful and more disrespectful than converting it into another use!
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
I dislike the moral high ground on things like this, because I don't think it works. Consider: In order for you to live, other things must die. Period. It is impossible for you to live without causing the death of animals and plants.
;)
The second thing is this: is it not better to use the cows more completely, rather than wasting large parts of them? If it was me being slaughtered instead of them - aside from the question of whether I want to be slaughtered, that's not important. If it *was* me, then - I would be much happier if they used most of me, rather than just killing me and taking my toenails.
And besides, it is kinda funny
I've always wondered, is it better to kill a cow without it knowing, or to use the current method of lining the cows up for slaughter?
Stress causes muscles to tense up and prevents the release of toxins from the muscle tissue into the bloodstream. Relaxed muscles do the opposite and are usually fairly clean because of a fresh supply of aerobic blood.
Wrong on two counts.
Cows do line up, but they don't show any sign of knowing that they're going to die. Noted animal behaviorist Temple Grandin, in her book Thinking in Pictures (which is actually about her autism), writes that cows are stressed to be separated from their fellows, but are calmed to be able see one another -- seeing that the cow in front is unstressed cues the cow behind to be unstressed. Except in Kosher slaughterhouses, death comes so suddenly (either by a bolt shot into the brain or by electrical stunning) that the following cow hasn't time to become upset before it too dies. To help ensure this, Grandin introduced curving passageways, such that the cow can see the cow ahead, but only the cow immediately ahead.
As to the effects of stress, you're also (mostly) wrong. Stress causes the release of cortisol, but this isn't a toxin per se. But a standard method in societies that butcher and eat meat immediately, is to chase or terrorize animals for a while prior to butchering, not to release cortisol, but to tire the muscles, using up oxygen reserves, so that lactic acid is released. Lactic acid is a natural tenderizer -- it's that "burn" you feel in muscles when you do aerobic exercises (but distinct from the pain of torn muscles as in weight training, although that tearing no doubt adds to the tenderizing too).
Additionally, in Korea and other countries that believe in the aphrodisiacal properties of dog meat, it is believed that the longer the dog is terrorized and beaten prior to slaughter, the greater the aphrodisiacal properties of the meat.
If you really want flavorful, tender meat, you want to look to the lineage of the beef, to control fat to muscle ratio, etc., and to the animals' diet -- what do you think "corned beef" is --, to control flavor. To add more flavor and to tenderize met, a good marinade is probably a good bet too.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
More intriguing is the use of manure. Cattle are not raised in confinement so much yet, but hogs are. Some of the confinement sites in Iowa make as much waste as small cities - and the biggest problem with it is that you need to plan to get rid of it. They make so much waste in such a small place that it becomes a problem (both ecologically and "smellologicallY").
If that manure can easily be converted into oil - that solves 3 problems very easily (excess manure running off into streams and creeks, smell, fuel).
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
COMBUSTED
The prions that cause BSE are incredibly hardy and are extremely heat resistant! They can easily withstand 1 hour at 360 C.
IDIOT
Why not just state your case without the flame? Take a deep breath, relax, think happy thoughts.. then post.
Mad Cow disease is a disease of prions - and from here
Somehow I doubt you can made good fuel this way. Besides which I personally still wouldnt touch the stuff even after all of this had been done to it. And that is what I teach my students as well.
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$2.00 per gallon of gas
I really don't know what people are complaining about, $2 dollars per gallon is not that expensive.
This is $0.46 per litre.
This morning, I payed 1.1 Euro per litre, or $1.46 or $6.30 per gallon; a surplus of $4.32 per gallon.
OK, I admit that this is expensive, but the world does not stop and our economy is running pretty smoothly (could always go better, I admit).
Just put those $2 measly dollars per gallon into perspective and perhaps, just perhaps, consider other (alternative) means of transportation...
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."