these are the timesdirty beloved
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17.5.07

Research: Man's Best Friend

Dogs, as they are physiologically similar to humans, are also often used to help scientists understand certain human behaviors. The Russian scientist, Ivan Pavlov, based his theory of classical conditioning on work with dogs. He rang a bell every time he was going to feed the dogs and noted that, in response to this, the dogs learnt that food was coming every time the bell rang. As the dogs' reactions to eating were to salivate, the bell alone was able to induce salivation. This principle relates to humans in many instances. Advertisements jingles or songs for different types of foods may make you hungry or desire the product advertised subconsciously.
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Pavlov "worked with" dogs by feeding them. That's nice, a nice image of a nice man learning about things that help us by being nice to dogs. Because every kid knows dogs like to be fed.
I was liking the Tree of Life until I came to this. It's in the kids' section. Describing what's been going on with science and the experimental animal population as "are also often used to help scientists understand" isn't going to cover it.
Taking a stand without actually standing up. Because you don't want the children to actually see what's happening there, because you can't defend it and you can't explain it to them in a way that will keep their respect. What it will do, if they see it for what it is is change them irrevocably and terribly, sort of like the pictures from Abu Ghraib did to the more naive adults who saw them.

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