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If you are lost in the woods with your dog and your compass breaks, do not despair. Wait for your dog to arch its back and poop and watch closely — Fido might be telling you which way is north. Or south.
In a study published by the journal Frontiers in Zoology, researchers found that, when the earth’s magnetic field is stable, dogs off leash prefer to poop with their bodies oriented along the north-south axis.
Scientists monitored 70 dogs of 37 breeds over a two-year period for a total of 1,893, um, “observations.” They found that “Dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the North-south axis under calm [magnetic field] conditions.” The effect only holds when the earth’s magnetic field is stable, which, researchers note, is only about 20 percent of the time in daylight.
Researchers said this is the first time magnetic sensitivity was proved in dogs and the first time “a measurable, predictable behavioral reaction” to magnetic field fluctuations has been “unambiguously proven in a mammal.”
The study did not find that dogs have a preference for which direction, north or south, they prefer to point their business end when doing their business.
So yeah. Try not to break your compass still.
14: Yeshua son of Joseph, following much talked about bar mitzvah, apprentices as carpenter.
114: Yuanchu era of the Chinese Eastern Han Dynasty gets off to promising start under precocious 12 year old Emperor Liu Hu.
214: Roman Emperor Claudius II, who would crush the Goths once and for all at the Battle of Naissus, is born.
314: The Synod of Ancyra in Galatia, modern day Turkey, begins theological considerations highlighted by a sliding scale for the punishment of bestiality.
414: Trying to solidify his tenuous hold on the Western Roman Empire, Emperor Honorius marries off sister Galla Placidia to the Visigothic King Ataulf.
514: Cissa of Sussex, part of the original Anglo-Saxon invasion which slaughtered local Britons down to the last, becomes King of South Saxony and founder of Chichester.
614: The Persian army, led by Shahrbaraz and reinforced by Jewish rebels under Benjamin of Tiberias, lays siege to and conquers Jerusalem.
714: Birth of Pepin the Short, King of the Franks, whose success in consolidating much of Germany will be considerably overshadowed by that of his son, Charlemagne, aka Charles the Great, aka Father of Europe, who, himself dies in
814:
914: Vikings, under Jarl Ottar or Ottar Jarl (mentioned in the Saga of Olaf Tryggvasson) rid Ireland of the Irish.
1014: Cnut, who may have been dyslexic, is proclaimed King of England by the Vikings while retaining the Danish throne to have something to fall back on.
1114: In what has to be his best or at least a very good year, ambitious Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona and his Pisan allies conquer Ibiza and Mallorca.
1214: After besieging Beijing for over a year Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes level the city and send Emperor Xuanzong packing.
1314: On 24 June the most decisive battle in the First War of Scottish independence, The Battle of Bannockburn (Blàr Allt a’ Bhonnaich) is won after Robert the Bruce’s men pepper the road with potholes greatly aggravating Edward II’s troops.
1414: The Tibetan Lama Je Tsongkhapa unites the Sutric and Tantric paths of Buddhism during one memorable evening in the spring.
1514: Massive fire devastates the Rialto of Venice despite the abundance of water due to low hose pressure.
1614: On April 5th Pocahontas (‘Playful One’), the Powhatan princess who intervened on behalf of John Smith, marries English tobacco planter John Rolfe when Smith not ready to settle down.
1714: “10 poor boys and 10 poor girls” are enrolled in the first co-ed school, Archbishop Tenison’s Church of England High School, Croydon.
1814: Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden getting only West Pomerania in return.
1914: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo sets in motion events leading to World War One and the Glasgow band.
2014: The Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, a universal health insurance mandate not universally welcomed, goes into effect in the United States.
