Analysis:

There is a long term connection between magnetic fields and religious issues. It has been the custom for various groups, for instance, to bury the dead in a particular orientation. My good friend and former PhD Student, Emily Weglian, included this research in her thesis on mortuary practices in Britain and Colonial America. Actually, I encouraged her to investigate the magnetic (compass) aspects of the orientation issue for burials but she easily showed that there was not too much to that … compasses were not really widely used.

What would happen sometimes in Europe is that the church would be built with a specific orientation, then after that graves would be oriented with the church or the church yard.

The reasons why the dead would be buried in a certain direction usually had to do with either the direction of the Holy Land or the direction of the sun. One neat quirk that Emily uncovered is that the priest would often be buried in the opposite direction of his congregation. This is an orientation usually reserved for people who were bad … committed suicide or some other blasphemy … but for the priest it was so that on the Judgment Day when everyone arose, he would be facing his congregation and, I suppose, continue where he left off..

Anyway, back to the claims at hand.

The 8.5 used in this interview may refer to the magnetic declination. 8.5 degrees is not too far off for the current average for Britain, and it is close to zero or Mecca. It changes fairly quickly, so every several decades or so one would have to adjust the location of the holy centers, or airline hubs, or whatever would be of concern. Of course, the declination is not relevant to anything, it is just something we need to adjust for. But I’m pretty sure that “time” works the same way along the longitudes. This may be a confusion that arises from the use of words like “minutes” and “seconds” when speaking of radial measurements (degrees can be converted into minutes and seconds … but it is not the minutes and second that pass as time. Just the minutes and seconds you need to know to pass analytical geometry)

The Earth’s magnetic field does vary in strength across the planet’s surface. This variation in strength across space is accompanied by variation in time, and is thought to be related to polar orientation changes. As I understand it, the “total” magnetic field of the earth is a consensus of multiple “dynamos” that vary between each other and over time. So you get a complex pattern.

The author of this idea cannot be referring to strength of the magnetic field. The earth’s magnetic field is strongest at the polls and weakest at the equator, but as I say varies locally. Mecca is not especially weak in it’s strength these days, maybe a bit above average for that latitude.

The author seems to be saying on one hand that a strong magnetic field is good, and on the other that it is bad. The magnitudes of strength being talked about are small.

The Earth’s magnetifg field 330 - 67 microGauss. A field of 10 gauss can erase your hard drive. A typical bar magnet is about 100 gauss Blood changes its behavior at about 500 Gauss. So both Britain and Mecca are both fairly safe in this respect.

Regarding the “dextro-rotatory” claim, this is an apparent reference to the “handedness” of how some molecules are put together. It is not about how the anatomy of a person is organized cont.http://gregladen.com/wordpress/?p=156

i found this vid while looking for that"dr."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2koek3lydAM[/youtube] .. .. ..no laughing...

Nebogipfel wrote:WTF?

Are you sure this isn't a mashup? On the other hand, by the expression on the interviewer's face, he thinks it;'s a load of BS too

Oeditor wrote:Could be a "put up job", I suppose.

Gawdzilla wrote:Hey, you have to agree that doing science on camel-back is challenging enough without having to also get it right.

Be Afraid wrote:In my mind, this is the problem behind Islam. Their system of education is woefully inadequate.