Re: [GTALUG] Right to Repair Article in NYT

| From: ac via talk <talk@gtalug.org> | what is the diff between male and female bovine excrement? :) Male cattle are bulls (or steers, if castrated). Female cattle are cows (or heifers, if young). OT: "mankind" includes females. "Cows" is often used in a way that includes males. The distinction in the case of excrement is just a matter of idiomatic English. "Cowshit" is just not a common expression. I've never heard "steershit" or "heifershit". No such distinction is made in the equine or porcine cases. Chickens are another interesting case. Female chickens are chickens. Males are roosters (or capons). I will leave the application to excrement as a exercise for the reader. Cows are normally smaller than bulls. In literal terms, they have less excrement per individual. At least in dairy herds (what I have experience with), there are way more cows than bulls (for obvious reasons) so the balance of excrement tips the other way. Cattle excrement may vary depending on the situations in which it appears. Partly this is diet and partly it is due to post-evacuation mechanical factors. - grazing - feedlot - in stalls in a barn - loose in a barn. - on the bottom of your shoes Bulls are usually kept in stalls (if at all). This is to control their propensity to fight and to breed in ways not controlled by the herdsman / herdswoman. This has an effect on the excrement.

On Oct 29, 2020, 4:19 PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com>, wrote:
The distinction in the case of excrement is just a matter of idiomatic English. "Cowshit" is just not a common expression. I've never heard "steershit" or "heifershit".
The closest I’ve ever heard is “off in a cloud of heifer dust” (which, in a corral, is dirt mixed with desiccated and pulverized cow manure). It’s also the name of a book: https://burnstownpublishing.com/product/off-in-a-cloud-of-heifer-dust-%E2%94... and a spice-mix. ../Dave

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 04:19:53PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier via talk wrote:
Male cattle are bulls (or steers, if castrated). Female cattle are cows (or heifers, if young).
OT: "mankind" includes females. "Cows" is often used in a way that includes males.
Well most of the time when people see "cows" they are in fact cows. You don't see too many bulls around. They can be a bit bull headed and kinda annoying after all. So I guess people using cows generically are usually correct by accident.
Chickens are another interesting case. Female chickens are chickens. Males are roosters (or capons). I will leave the application to excrement as a exercise for the reader.
An adult female chicken is a hen. An adult male chicken is a rooster. The species is chickens. -- Len Sorensen
participants (3)
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D. Hugh Redelmeier
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David Mason
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lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca