A first lactation heifer's initial experience in a voluntary milking system or robot is so important to the cow and the farmer. Sometimes it gets a little difficult to actually get the cow to go into the robot for the first time, and we have to remember that it is okay. Don't get frustrated; let the experience take a little longer than you would like. They won't forget this one experience, so make it count. You are putting them through something that eventually you want them to want to do on their own. When I put a fresh heifer in the robot for the first time, I actually let her stand there for a minute or two while feed is dropping and she is trying to sniff every part of the robot.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars rovers have a special place in my heart. I loved seeing pictures of Sojourner nuzzling up to rocks, and I still wonder whether it managed to drive around the Pathfinder lander after contact was lost. Spirit going silent was heartbreaking, and Opportunity continues to inspire so far beyond its expected lifetime, even as a dust storm threatens to starve it to death. And I particularly remember thinking how insane it was that Curiosity was going to drop onto the surface from a hovering robotic sky crane (!), and then being entirely overwhelmed to watch it happen flawlessly from the media room at JPL. I'm not the only person who thinks that JPL's rovers are incredible, and other rover fans have been pestering the roboticists at JPL for a cute little rover that can be built at home.