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Scientists Discover Cows Point North
Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen have discovered that cows tend to point north. The researchers studied deer in the Czech Republic and looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth. The animals tended to face north when eating or resting. "We conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment," the scientists wrote in an article. I guess cows will become the must-have item for long-distance hikers now. Having an edible compass would come in handy if you get lost.
That was spherical cows of uniform density - at STP.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
They may just like sun on their backs and not in their eyes.
Next, these researchers will discover a bizarre new breed of Australian cows that like to point south.
Yes, but I also just wanted to be the first to call this finding bullshit. ;-)
I live in ranching country, and when I pass the cows on the road, it seems quite random to me. If I was lost, and came across a cow, I wouldn't use it for directions...
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Perhaps it is north because the cows are pointing in that direction...
Visions of Wile E. Coyote leap to mind...
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
Perhaps they are showing reverence to the almighty invisible polar cow.
I hear he's where 2% milk comes from.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Interesting that the cow in the picture is clearly pointing west. :=)
Maybe cows in India are into Feng Shui.
when eating or resting
As distinct from all the other varied activities cows fill their day with.
I'm very glad that Slashdot finally added the ability to include informative pictures with their stories. For too long, I've seen news stories about cows and wondered to myself, "What exactly is a cow? What does one look like?" Now, thanks to this excellent feature, I no longer have to suffer the embarrassment of cow ignorance.
Thank you Slashdot!
Bring 25 cows to the north pole and see if they all arrange themselfs in a star formation.
One would need to find out where Gary Larson lives. If he is in the northern portions of the globe - Alaska, Siberia - then we can only deduce that the cows are paying tribute to their master.
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The cows in the pictures are pointing left, which is south from where I'm sitting.
Oh, I'll play!
My theory is that Google Earth does take good pictures of cows. The resolution isn't good in rural areas where cows normally reside, and it isn't economically feasible to take high-res photos of every single farm. So what they did instead was invested a bunch of money taking one really, really accurate cow picture. Then they did a global search and replace, replacing all the fuzzy cows with their one HD Cow. That cow happened to be facing north-- and thus, all cows seem to be facing north
For the lightning round, I'll suggest they only looked at one herd of cows, and since cows are herd animals, they were all pointing the same direction.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
TV Satellite dishes point south - So when I'm lost in the wilderness, that's what I look for.
I also noticed that the cows in a herd all used to point the same direction. It might be north, or it might be south. The prevailing winds in this area tend to be from the north during the winter and the south during the winter. You can ask any rancher, and he will tell you that cows stand with their backs to the wind.
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not to mention goats in 4 varieties of leg length, uphill goats, downhill goats, leftfacing goats and rightfacing goats. Legs on the upper slope will be shorter.
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But they're a bugger to strap to your wrist while you are out hiking.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
Well, I have this stash of about 400 neodymium magnets, I'm going to have lots of fun burrying them in the local farmers fields in exciting patterns.
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A well-known scientist once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant cow." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the cow standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's cows all the way down!"
Since George W. Bush got elected, they've all been thinking about stampeding to Canada.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
"He"? Dude, I'm never drinking 2% milk again. *shudder*
...but they cannot tell us angles of inclination because.. *ahem* ... there is no cow level.
I'll be here all week and stay away from the veal.
Maybe the cows know global warming is an imminent danger, and are trying to avert the situation by providing a net thrust on the Earth to push us into a higher orbit.
Well, I have this stash of about 400 neodymium magnets, I'm going to have lots of fun burrying them in the local farmers fields in exciting patterns.
Try to get them to spell out "eat mor chiken".
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Which must be confusing for the cows...
I believe your right. It appears that the first was, in fact, a shorten version of the longer post. Both conveyed the same concept and nearly all details could be implied from the original statement.
Furthermore, I believe it should be pointed out that the first post was only a single sentence in length; however, the second post was a full three paragraphs of text.
I just wrote this to point out that your statement was indeed correct and appeared too short so I figured I should expand on it. Perhaps the second poster will understand a three paragraph explanation of your statement.
Never before has the slashdot junk character filter been so unfortunate.
Moo.
You don't want to ever mate northern and southern cows. The offspring are "spinners", which are only useful as rodeo bulls or for producing milk shakes.
By the way, do rodeo bulls in the northern hemisphere tend to spin in the opposite direction as southern hemisphere bulls? Someone should do a study on this.
What happens when they graze at the north pole..? Do they stand up on end?
Jokes are like deadlines...
Visions of Wile E. Coyote leap to mind...
As well they should! He is a Super Genius, after all...
what was the comment again?
I'm still trying to get my cow to float on the surface of a small dish of water. Am I the only one having problems with this?
I clicked that link thinking... "Please don't let it be me..."
Speaking of correlation, who the hell tagged this story with "correlationisnotcausation"? As if the magnetic field would somehow align itself with the cows.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
You would have to choose between eating the cow and staying lost or using the cow as a compass and staying hungry...
The earth is a sphere, so you can't just look at surface patches and expect a uniform distribution. For example, any cow you drop on the north pole is always going to be on a North/South axis. Since there are more cows at higher latitudes, you get preferential North/South orientation even if cows just stand around randomly.
If it is truly a result of magnetic field, then they'd be able to show it by showing a correlation to the magnetic declination
Or they could just wait for the poles to reverse then the cow should all roll over on their backs during the shift. The greatest cow tipping on the planet.
Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification
You seem to have an esp that I don't have.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
You believe his right to do what?
who the hell tagged this story with "correlationisnotcausation"?
Clearly, they were referring to the Google practice of using cows to orient their aerial photographs northward.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
Um, I think you can safely assume that is because you didn't point a satellite camera at them. They only pose facing north for satellite photos. Sufficiently high altitude planes will work for cattle in European countries, but not North America.
you sir resemble the southern end of north-facing cow
Debian FTW
They're heisencows... observing them changes the direction they are pointing.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
*******WHOOOOOOSH
Yes, but it's a cow -- not exactly the pinnacle of cerebral complexity.
actually, if you mate an australian cow with a north american cow, you end up with a calf that points "up." this biological defect inevitably causes the calf the starve to death.
Chickens are also fed a smaller version of these, just after birth.
It's called a chick magnet.
As most glider pilots can tell you, cows have their backs against the wind. We use them for wind cues during emergency landings.
So does that mean you can't use the term "bullseye" for a good landing? I've got a mental image of a glider slaming into a bull.
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But it does produce delicious veal that flips itself over automatically when cooking.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
You believe his right to do what?
Mom, there making fun of me... again!
There? Where?!?