Dogs line up with Earth's magnetic field when they poop

From The Guardian: "For years, scientists have known that several species spontaneously align their bodies with the earth’s magnetic field when engaging in certain behaviours. A team of 12 scientists from universities in Germany and the Czech Republic came together in a unique study that observed 37 breeds of dog over a two-year period. Exactly 1,893 defecations and 5,582 urinations later, the team reach one incredible finding: "dogs preferred to excrete with the body being aligned along the north–south axis." Dogs join cattle, roe deer, red deer, hunting red foxes, red foxes, coyotes and grey wolves as yet another mammal to have a mechanism of "magnetoreception." Although their behaviour was only evident under calm conditions, it was a breakthrough in demonstrating changes in dog behaviour in response to the Earth's magnetic field."

Scientists still aren't sure exactly how the world's most popular pain reliever works

From Scientific American: "You’re unlikely to open a medicine cabinet in the U.S. without seeing a bottle of Tylenol, the brand name of a pain reliever and fever reducer also sold generically as acetaminophen. A health care trade association estimates that 52 million consumers use a product containing acetaminophen  every week in the U.S. The drug is in the news after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., head of the Department of Health and Human Services, implied that acetaminophen that is taken when a person is pregnant can cause autism in that person’s offspring. His statements run counter to the most conclusive scientific evidence to date. The drug is safe and effective when used as directed, but there is something surprising about it: no one is certain how acetaminophen works to relieve pain and fever. There are at least two theories about the mechanism of the drug, which was first  synthesized in the late 1800s, but debate continues."

He created some of the most iconic American toys and is still inventing at 104

From Wikipedia: "Eddy Goldfarb (born Adolph Goldfarb; September 5, 1921) is an American toy inventor. The creator of over 800 toys, he is best known for inventing Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, Battling Tops, KerPlunk, Stompers, and Vac-U-Form. The first item Goldfarb sold was the Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, a simple gag item which became a cultural icon. Goldfarb designed a wide range of toys, games, novelties and hobby kits for children of all ages. He invented more than 800 toys and holds close to 300 patents. Some of his most successful toys are Yakity Yak Talking Teeth, Battling Tops, Vac-U-Form, Arcade Babsketball, KerPlunk Hydro Strike, Giant Bubble gun (which had been prefigured in a 1974 novel, The Boy Who Invented the Bubble Gun by Paul Gallico,) Baby Beans Stompers, Shark Attack, Numbers Up, Quiz Wiz, Poppin Hoppies, Beware the Spider!, Chutes Away, Marblehead, and Snakes Alive!"

Hi everyone! Mathew Ingram here. I am able to continue writing this newsletter in part because of your financial help and support, which you can do either through my Patreon or by upgrading your subscription to a monthly contribution. I enjoy gathering all of these links and sharing them with you, but it does take time, and your support makes it possible for me to do that. I also write a weekly newsletter of technology analysis called The Torment Nexus.

Thomas Edison helped create Hollywood by suing filmmakers over his camera patents

From the Saturday Evening Post: "The predominant narrative regarding the rise of Hollywood was that land was cheap outside of Los Angeles, the weather was always pleasant, and labor was easy to find. All these factors that drew people to Hollywood are completely true; however, the major factor that pushed independent film makers out west was Edison’s cutthroat business style, which left film makers only one option: escape the reach of his grasp. As a result of the invention of the kinetoscope movie projector and the kinetograph movie camera, Edison opened America’s first movie studio, Black Maria. The founding of Black Maria made West Orange, New Jersey the unlikely film capital of the world. With Edison’s studio beginning to pump out the first silent movies in history, competition began to grow, causing him to react accordingly. Edison used what he is often most known for to deter competition and ensure that Black Maria maintained its supremacy — patents."

The eruption of Mount Vesuvius turned a Roman man's brain into glass

From The Conversation: "A young man killed in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE was likely overcome by a fast-moving cloud of gas at a temperature of more than 500°C in a process that transformed fragments of his brain into glass, according to new research. The man’s remains were discovered in 1961, and in 2020 researchers confirmed that parts of his brain had been turned into glass. This is the only example of vitrified brain matter found to date at any archaeological site. Scientists conducted a study of the material using a scanning electron microscope and a neural network image-processing tool and identified traces of the victim’s brain cells, axons and myelin in the well-preserved sample.The new study, led by Guido Giordano of Roma Tre University and published in Scientific Reports, explains how the unusual sequence of rapid heating and cooling required to turn organic matter into glass may have occurred."

This is what it looks like when your GoPro falls 3600 feet and keeps recording

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com