Cows talk to each other, including about food, shocking new study says

This is exactly the kind of government funded research that galls me. Anyone who grew up around cattle already knows this. Listen at a fence for 5 seconds and you can tell if the cattle are content, hungry, apprehensive, or frightened. It is the same with your dogs, you understand what they are feeling by their vocalizations and actions, and you know they cue each other the same way. But, in this case, did these highly educated folk consult anyone who raises cattle for a living? I'm sure they didn't, it would speed the research and lessen the need for government grant money.

Reminds me of a science show back in the '90s. Historical experts had long argued over the ways the stone blocks could have been placed on the pyramids, and there was no consensus on how it could possibly be done. The show hired two academic experts (the phrase was, "Brought them in..." one does not "hire" professors, though that is what it boils down to), a stone cutter from New Hampshire, and about 20 laborers from a local Egyptian stone quarry. The experts were at sea, but when the stone cutter and the crew of Egyptian laborers were briefed on possible solutions and turned loose on the problem, by the end of the second day they were scooting large blocks all over the place and up levels and placing them, using wooden runners and a clay slurry for lubricant. Hundreds of years of arguments solved by common workmen in 48 hours by actually trying to physically do it.

The Ivory Tower has to realize they are rarefied and coddled hot house flowers in many cases, and acknowledge the common working people know a lot more than the self-appointed elites generally assume they do.