this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 132 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Did they study the paint chemicals themselves to see if that by itself was a natural bug repellant?

Did they check if the paint chemicals are even safe for cows?

πŸ€”

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What if it's just the white stripes (not the band)? Do white cows have the same number of flies? What if you paint them with black stripes?

Maybe those are answered in the article, but I'll never read it.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Yes. They had a control group with only black stripes along with an unpainted group. I would have to assume they also checked the paints for potential repellents, but I only skimmed the article.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6776349/

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I haven’t read the study, but most of these would need a placebo group, so divide the herd into thirds, one with no paint, one with stripes, and one fully painted white to get a baseline for each group. Also would be good to randomize which group each cow goes in each day so to rule out one cow who is especially tasty to flies.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

Also blindfold the scientists and the cows so it's double blind. We don't want the cows acting in a fly-attracting way because of placebo.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I've not seen the study referenced, but if I were doing it I'd have cows I painted with white paint, white stripes, black paint, and a control I left unpainted.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tha smartest mother fucker in the room

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (5 children)

What is the burger tie for? To repel hippies?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

No it’s to wipe the sauce off his chin after finishing a burger!

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 1 month ago

In the cited study with buckets, it was shown that striped and spotted surfaces attract fewer flies.

That makes me think if Nguni cattle Nguni cattle have an easier time with those pests.

If yes, that would be another plus for hardy landraces in place of overengineered, capitalmaxxed breeds.

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

So, I was able to convince a coworker that I had a friend who worked at our nearby zoo, and that my friend let me in on the secret that zebras aren't real, they're just horses painted to look like that, "big zoo is lying to us to get our money," you know.

Well, long story short I'm gonna need to steal this image from you and crop it, thanks.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago (3 children)

I'm going on holiday to Cambodia in February. Guess I'll bring my body paint supplies and run around in war stripes over my body.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

now that the song is playing forcefully in my brain i'm going to make you suffer with me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTsXHXMkJA

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Good for their physical health, but not great for their personal goals and expectations.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yup. Large creatures knows better than to wear stripes.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Oh, I was thinking more along the lines of any aspirations to not be a cow.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

My Chemilkal Romance

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That one zoo that painted a donkey and tried to pass it off as a zebra were just way ahead of their time

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[–] Imgonnatrythis 26 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Why has evolution let these cows down?

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I mean, we kind of hijacked evolution in favor of hypergrowth and ludicrous gazongas a long time ago.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hippity, hoppity. Your natural selection is now my property!

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago

I'm about to start dressing like beetlejuice

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Reminds me of a donkey I saw in Mexico painted like a zebra trying to trick tourists

[–] AlligatorBlizzard 42 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sure, but there's also the secondary market of people who think it's hilarious to get a photo with a donkey painted like a zebra to trick tourists. Lean into it a bit, like wrestling, it could be fun.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

After 10 Pacificos I will in fact be leaning

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is no donkey painted like a zebra, it's a majestic hybrid zonkey. Just 5 dollars to take a photo, or 3 for $10.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I’ll come back after 10 Pacificos

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Source? I'm curious to read about this. How do they know the paint didn't do it? Another comment here said that spots also do the trick, so if you have two cows in the same field, one spotted and one solid colored, is the solid colored cow getting 2x as many flies? Do the stripes still work when surrounded by other cows who don't have stripes? So many questions!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is why we need the paper linked with the meme. It seems obvious that a fly would prefer skin to paint.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How do they know the paint didn't do it?

There were 3 groups of black cows: an unpainted control group, a black stripe group painted with black stripes (not very visible because the cows were already black), and a black and white painted group. The control group had similar results to the black stripe group, which suggests that the black paint alone didn't do anything.

So further research could be to compare to an all black painted group and an all white painted group, with no unpainted fur, as well. If it's the pattern, then one would expect the totally painted cattle of either paint color would see similar results as unpainted.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago

If they figure out if it's the white stripes or black stripes that do the trick they could reach 100%.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I first read function as in mathemetical function, now I wonder, what the avarege zebras stripes function is

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago

Some horse fly blankets and hoods have a zebra pattern, probably for the same reason.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Why are the top comments in a science community so proudly anti-intellectual?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

It's a meme community, it's kinda in the name. Brains go out, meme go in. Monke laugh

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

So if flies are attracted to dead things, and black and white stripes deter flies, then I believe we've just explained Beetlejuice's appearance!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's where Hershey's Cookies and Cream chocolate bars are from!

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

What if the flies just hated the smell of the paint lol

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you say Beeflejuice three times....

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