Cell Phone Shock and Livestock

Why, why, WHY are minutes so expensive here? I'm using Movistar, and after 20 minutes of talking/texting, I used up my 30-peso ($8) phone card. My phone, which will last me 6 months, cost me only $21. I must admit, though, that it's the crappiest looking piece of working junk I've ever laid my hands on - at least I won't have to worry about someone stealing it off me. What really shocked me was that organizing a night out with the girls cost me $8. Now I know why in Argentina, people spend very little time talking on the phone.

If you ever have a chance to go to a livestock exposition in South America, do it! It's unlikely the first thing you'd think of when you plan a cultural outing in Buenos Aires. There are two noteworthy things I learned today after a mind stimulating observation of the turkeys and cows.

First, a turkey has a flap of skin above its beak called a snood. I will list all the fascinating facts I learned about a turkey snood:

• It is a fleshy appendage that can stretch to twice its ordinary length during courtship (up to 6 inches)
• Females prefer long snoods
• Snood length may be in part determined by the testosterone level and is a good predictor of victory in a fight
• The snood becomes erect when a sudden rush of blood to the area causes it to swell up - I saw it happen!

After watching my first "snoodal" erection, I began to wonder if turkeys aren't so different from humans. And we thought we had evolved a little more than that...

Observing the cows compelled me do a little research. Guess what I found out? Argentine scientists are studying global warming by strapping packs to cows' backs to collect their farts and burps. Apparently, through their slow digestive systems, cows produce quite a bit of methane, a greenhouse gas. Methane is 23 times stronger than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere. Researchers estimate that 30% of Argentina's total greenhouse emissions could be generated by cows.

I love being a biology major in Argentina!