We make these all the time when we’re kids. After a certain age they become things to be treasured. Today I learned about the cow magnet. “Cattle sometimes consume metal objects which are deposited in the reticulum, and this is where hardware disease occurs,” was what Wikipedia said. Pff, I thought, HARDWARE DISEASE? COW MAGNET? Sure. Someone must have been bored. But as it turned out, they actually exist.
Well, that was my awesome discovery of the day. What was yours? 
I WANT A COW MAGNET!
The coolest thing I discovered lately was a quarter on the ground. This was great only because I needed just one more quarter so I could do a load of laundry that day.
25 years ago there was a dude who would hang out at the arcade and give you 4 games for a quarter. He bashed the machine right under the coin slot with a cow magnet.
Sweet. 
Me, I’ll just be content with my two hard drive magnets. Though I have a feeling I might be a bit more content if they weren’t permanently and irretrievably STUCK TO EACH OTHER :\
How do they work, anyway? The way I see it, if you have sharp jagged metal in your stomach they will do damage, stuck to a magnet or not.
Crap! :eek:
I used to own a cow magnet!
I used it in a science fair project on magnets when I was a kid!
I thought it was a magnetized bearing of some kind. This was in Chicago, late 60s-early 70s.
Nobody else knew what it was either.
Cow magnets attract all the little bits of metal to keep them out of the folds/crevices of the reticulum where they can cause damage and cause the cow to stop eating. The magnet just pretty much stays in the stomach, out of the way.
The town where I grew up had a cow magnet factory.
Share an amazing recent discovery!
I learned last week that the guy who plays House on House is Hugh Laurie! He is the same guy who played Rowan Atkinson’s idiotic sidekick in the Black Adder series, isn’t he? I have seen tons of Black Adder but haven’t seen House other than in the commercials. The idea him playing such a dark and serious role, with a spot-on American accent at that, is hard for me to wrap my mind around. Maybe because I can’t do a foreign accent or even a domestic one to save my life, much less act with such talent as he obviously does.
Anyway that’s my amazing recent discovery.
I read this and started wondering what if they had an annual cow magnet festival. There could be a Miss Cow Magnet competition, cow magnet souveniers based on a mascot named Maggie, a cow magnet cake walk, a cow magnet roller coaster and snerk fudge with cow magnet sprinkles on it. Good times for all!
I discovered just today that on the original, unretouched recording of Manfred Mann’s “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” there is an extra instrumental section that was edited out before the record was released. In retrospect, it was a totally unnecessary part, and the producer was right to take it out. Except now every time I hear the released version, I’m going to hear that edit where the part is missing. I also discovered that the recording was engineered by Norman Smith, who engineered The Beatles’ records up through 1966. His voice is on the beginning of the track, announcing that it was “Do Ah Diddy, mono remix from four track, take 1.” (I love CDs with bonus tracks!)
I found out about cow magnets about 2 years ago when I was researching for a supply of craft magnets appropriate to make Wooden Trains in Brio scale. They blew my mind at the time.
Today’s discovery was a Tree Kangaroo living in a remote “Lost World Jungle” of Indonesia.
Jim
How do you convince a cow to eat a cylindrical metal tube, anyway?
I read that you just shove it in and they swallow it. Does that make sense, all I really know about cow digestion is multiple stomachs and chewing their cud.
Jim
That made me laugh so much more than it should have and I just giggled again while typing this.
I have no discoveries to share.
2 weeks ago I accidentally discovered that after about 30 seconds my vehicle’s headlights go off by itself when I turn the car off (thank og!)
I’ve had this car for 5 years!
A couple of months ago I discovered two broadcasts of legendary radio comedian Fred Allen from the 1932-1933 season in an auctioneer catalog. These programs had long been regarded as lost.
I want a golden-mantled tree kangaroo. That’s my discovery for today- a need for a rare tree-dwelling marsupial. Thank you, What Exit?.
Okay, this isn’t extremely recent, but…
A couple of years ago, I discovered that salad spinners actually existed. For years I had thought that they existed only as parodies of the kind of hokey kitchen tools that infomercials sell.
I first read the term in a Bloom County comic way back, the one where the TV set persuades the weak-minded Opus to order a dozen turnip twaddlers and salad spinners even though he didn’t want to.
You’re welcome, I read in one of the 7 articles on it, that is was so friendly it wandered over to the humans and was calm being picked up.
Two thoughts:
I didn’t know there were Kangeroos native outside of Aussie. That part was also a discovery.
Jim
This is a good article on it with pictures of some of the 39 new species found.
Jim
I’m upgrading my computer and I just discovered all the cool water-cooling systems (and beyond!)
Imagine a refrigeration compressor hooked to your PC so you can run the CPU at -40c! Peltier-effect coolers, phase change systems, CPU heat exhangers that look like something you’d find in a nuclear reactor.
Not to mention computer cases in the shape of airplanes and pirate ships. 
This is almost embarrassing for a classic rockster like myself… Thanks to the Viking Kitties, I just discovered the words to Led Zep’s “Immigrant Song”.
On we sweep with threshing oar
Our only goal will be the western shore