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Re: [Phys-L] [SPAM] Re: animal magnetism?



Experimental results don't have to make sense. We need to make sense after
we find the effect. Biological systems are complex, and we do know that
living things have capabilities and respond in ways we have never realized.
So it could be true. One needs to read the complete paper and see how the
did it and whether other factos such as the prevailing winds could have been
the actual factors. There are many critters who respond to the Earth's
magnetic field and many features of animals are left over from previous
times when those features were adaptive, so it might be possible, but then
they may have made a mistake.

As to cows, it has long been known that cows tend to orient themselves in
the same direction, for a reason that I do not personally know. Just read
Huck Finn for evidence of people knowing this.

In either case, people's beliefs are often independent of evidence. For
example the psychologists have long shown that corporal punishment,
especially when severe, tends to have bad effects on the individual. For
one thing it retards the development of mature morality, and the person
tends to think it is all right to do something wrong if you can get away
with it. By the way there is a model of morality which is based on looking
at its development over time. It is based on experiment. But people who
believe in corporal punishment can always cite personal examples to justify
it. The response of individuals varies a lot but the effect is evident when
looking at the aggregate of data and not a single case. The psychology
literature is full of firm results that people ignore and disbelieve. The
dog defecation in line with magnetic fields probably needs more experimental
support and some skepticism might be warranted.

Why not accept it tentatively, and use it as a conversational tidbit! "Did
you know that dogs poop lined up with the Earth's magnetic field?". Could
we use them as animate but smelly compasses? Just think if you are lost and
have a dog, but no compass you can use them to figure out North. Dogs are
certainly easier to walk with than cows, so if cows do the same thing you
are better off with a dog.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


I'm just trying to understand this dog/magnetism thing. Makes
little sense to me. I don't really believe it, despite the
"scientific evidence" I've read...