Animals in Alignment

Remember those cows who seemed to align themselves with the magnetic poles while grazing? Turns out the earth might not be the only thing prompting the cows’ positioning. The same researchers who studied Google map images to draw their earlier conclusion have found that power lines, too, seem to cause the bovines to stand facing particular directions.

Also in today’s links: phantom pain in a phantom limb, a new player in Internet movies, and more.

• A phantom limb is eerie enough, but what do you do when you’ve got a cramp in your missing arm? A researcher came up with a treatment method that allowed a patient to feel very real relief from pain in his phantom limb.
• IMDb wants to add the capability of one-button streaming for every movie it lists, all 1.3 million of them, the site’s founder said.
• Ongoing low-level radiation at the Chernobyl site appears to cause insect species to decline, an effect already noted by the researchers in bird populations. Researchers who disagree with these findings, though, say that the lack of human presence in the exclusion area has benefited animals.
• Amid the ongoing chaos in Madagascar, a scientist there to study the island nation’s magnificent ecosystem reports on the situation.