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Kids death-staring into judges' souls while showing pigs has people confused and howling

Who knew pig showing was this intense?

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash (left) and Dan Renco on Unsplash (right)

The staring is part of the competition.

A video of kids waving a narrow rod in front of a pig while hunching like Dracula and giving someone a death stare has taken the internet by storm, leaving people scratching their heads.

"What did I just watch?" seems to be the primary response to the video shared on the @dadsonfarms TikTok page, followed by various versions of "Where am I?" and "What is happening?" and "How did I end up here?"

The befuddlement is only matched by the curiosity and confused laughter that naturally result from seeing something so…unbelievable? Unexpected? Unusual? Uncanny?

How else should one describe this?

@dadsonfarms

Krew and Karis at The Revival livestock Show! #showpigs #pigshow

"This is the weirdest thing 😂😂🤣 I have so many questions!!!" wrote one person.

"Why do I feel like this is a staring competition and the pigs are just a added difficulty 🤣," wrote another.

"Yay!!! I’m back on hunchback death stare competition while also showing pigs tiktok!" exclaimed another.

"Again. What did I react to, to end me up here?" asked another.

If you've ever stepped foot in the world of 4-H or FFA (Future Farmers of America), you likely recognize there's a livestock showing competition happening here. But if you're a city slicker with no rural or agricultural ties, you may not know that "showing" animals is even a thing.

Not only it it a thing, but it's a highly competitive endeavor with specific rules and guidelines and expectations. It does help to have the showmanship requirements explained, however, and thankfully the kids' dad explained in a separate video.

The kids showcased here are Karis and Krew, twins who compete in the 13 to 16-year-old category of pig showing. The pigs are Smack Down and Greta. The reason the competitors stare so intently is to show they are paying attention to the judge and also to show how much control they have. (And according to one commenter, they get extra points for keeping eye contact with the judge the whole time.)

More questions answered here:

@dadsonfarms

@Lawrence Johnson I tried to answer all your Questions about showing Pigs 😊! #showpigs #pigshow

People have been fascinated to learn about how much goes into these exhibitions. Who knew pig showing was this intense? And with judges being flown across the country—there's an official Livestock Judges' Association and everything—this is clearly serious business.

Except when you add the music to it, it just comes off as seriously strange hilarity.

@dadsonfarms

Great night to show at western regionals #showpigs #hogshowman

So what exactly is the point of all of this?

When livestock showing began in the 1800s, the primary purpose was to improve the quality of livestock. These days, it's more about helping young people developing character qualities through programs like 4-H and FFA while learning about farm animal care and preparation for selling. They learn about responsibility, self-discipline, hard work and professionalism through these competitions.

And they clearly master making eye contact as well. You can follow @dadsonfarms on TikTok for more.

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Heroes

This is who we're feeding with our extra food. And you'll spit out your corn as soon as you know.

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Whole Foods Market

This article originally appeared on 12.17.14


Here's something you may not have known: In 2008, we grew enough food for 11 billion people.

(Reminder: There are just over 7 billion humans here on Earth.)

But half of that food went to feeding animals (you know, so we could eat them). And a great deal also went to fueling cars.

Clearly, we're not hurting when it comes to our ability to grow food. But how we grow that food matters. In the industrial system that feeds much of the globe, it takes 10 calories of fuel to produce one calorie of food.

Which, let's be honest, is not the most efficient process. That's why so many people are keen on growing food organically — by which Wikipedia tells me means:

In other words, organic farming involves growing food more naturally with fewer resources. But here's a good question: Can organic food feed the world?

Allow me to quote noted food expert Michael Pollan:

"In industrial areas, organic [farming] achieves 92% of the yield of industrial [farming]. But you go to the developing world, and it produces 182% of current yield."

Not too shabby, eh? Maybe there's some hope for our food system after all.

For the full talk (don't worry, it's short), check out the clip below.

Nature

Cows go through puberty, and they're full of emotions, according to new study

live.staticflickr.com

Prior studies have shown that cows use different moos to express different feelings. And it turns out, they go through a lot of different feelings when they're going through puberty.

A new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science sought to improve cattle farming practices by uncovering more information on the personalities of dairy cows at different points in their lives. "Our study identified a period of inconsistency in personality traits over puberty," Nina Von Keyserlingk, a professor of animal welfare at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told the Guardian. Cows experience mood swings from changing hormones, just like human teenagers.

RELATED: Dogs can understand human gestures, even if they've never been around humans

Researchers corralled cows at the ages of one month, three months, one year, and two-and-a-half years, and observed their behaviors in a test area. Researchers looked at how cows changed their behavior when introduced to new people and things. They found that cows have pretty stable personalities in childhood and adulthood, which is consistent with prior studies. The teenage years are a different story.

At around 12 months, the cows became teenagers and behaved like it. Some days, hormonal cows feel shy and just want to be left alone. On other days, they'll nuzzle up to humans as if they weren't just a hormonal monster. Some cows became attention-seeking, and others grew solitary. Researchers believe that the changes in personality were caused by puberty hormones.

Once the cows started lactating, they chilled out and grew out of whatever phase they were going through.

Prior studies have found how the feelings of cows affect milk production. Stressed cows tend to eat less, grow slower, and produce less milk. They also have weaker immune systems. By learning how the personalities of cows shift in puberty, scientists hope they will have more insight into how to improve animal health and farming practices.

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"Our overall goal is to improve the lives of animals on farms," Heather Neave, who worked on the study, told the Guardian. "Ideally, in the future, management practices would be tailored to the individual rather than the herd, so that all calves and cows have an opportunity to thrive on the farm and reach their full productive potential."

So if you visit a farm and see one cow standing in the corner, writing in its journal and blasting angsty music, just know that it's going through a phase.

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Planet

Scientists discovered a mushroom that eats plastic, and believe it could clean our landfills.

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Fungi Mutarium mushroom eats plasticwww.youtube.com


Plastic waste is one of the biggest environmental issues of our time. And while a straw ban is not the way we're going to solve it — here's why – people everywhere are looking for ways to reduce plastic use and mitigate the effects of waste.

From handing out plastic bags with embarrassing labels to removing the plastic from six-packs to harnessing the power of a plastic-eating mutant (bacteria), more and more of us are working to find solutions to a growing global program.

Add one more strange and awesome plastic-killing discover to the list: A rare mushroom that feasts on plastic the same way you or I would when we go to that $5 buffet at Cici's. (I have been only once and I'm still thinking about it, even though just the thoughts are bad for my blood pressure.)

According to reports, the mushroom's plastic-devouring properties were first discovered in 2011, when a team of Yale undergraduates and their professor traveled to Ecuador for a research trip. They found the mushroom — Pestalotiopsis microspora — in the amazon and were astounded to find that the fungus not only subsists on polyurethane (it's the first plant to sustain itself only on plastic), but could do so without oxygen.

That means it could be planted at the bottom of landfills and happily eat its fill of plastic for eons to come! (Just like us at Cici's pizza!)


IRAQ-SOCIETY-POVERTY AFP/Getty Images


Despite our best efforts at increasing conservation and reducing waste, the U.S. continues to produce more plastic waste each year, while other recent studies suggest that recycling of plastic waste is actually declining.

The amount of plastic waste that we're producing is estimated to rise 3.8% each year, with an estimated 40 million tons of plastic waste expected to be generated in 2019 alone by American companies and consumers. National Geographic says that over the past 60 years, we've created an estimated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste. An astonishing 83.7% of that waste is expected to end up in landfills. Anything we can do to put a dent into the damage we're creating could make a world of difference for us and the planet.


NEPAL-ENVIRONMENT-RECORD AFP/Getty Images


Will these mushrooms be the end to our plastic problems? More research is needed to tell. Until then, we can all help keep landfills cleaner by avoiding single-use plastics in our lives.

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