OT
The Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs series with Mike Rowe really outdid itself tonight. They started with a nifty visit to Rancho LaBrea and showed the process of recovering and restoring the fossils there.

Then, though, they lifted the edge of the world and looked underneath when they visited a northern California rendering plant. They pulled no punches, from the smelly truck that picks up the half-decomposed cows to the grotesque grinding machine that swallows them whole to the hellish cellar room where uncured hides are salted and stored. The giant cookers were the worst. This is where ground, half-rotten cow is converted into oil for cosmetics and bone meal for chicken feed, among other things. The show was full of disclaimers, including some from Mike on the spot, about the graphic and disturbing nature of the images. Some of it would have gagged a maggot (many of which were in evidence in the footage).
I’ve been through two wars and a variety of other unpleasantness but the video made me want to retch just watching. With the smell added in, I almost certainly would have been ill.
Mike’s insights into our unwillingness to face the processes we nevertheless use, and from which we profit, approached the level of philosophy. This is honest and necessary work but, as with so many things, it is something most would prefer not to know about. It was really intriguing, if more than a little bit disgusting.