From: david@cats.ucsc.edu (David Wright)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: Re: Neuro-Muscular Reaction (was Re: Retrograde Recoil)
Keywords: Don't extrapolate goats *directly* into humans
Date: 8 Apr 92 22:32:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: darkstar.32401
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz


In article <8APR199213062524@rigel.tamu.edu> mst4298@rigel.tamu.edu (Mitchell S Todd) writes:
|david@cats.ucsc.edu (David Wright) writes... 
||mst4298@rigel.tamu.edu (Mitchell S Todd) writes:

[me]

||There is very little to no evidence that a neuromuscular response would cause
||Kennedy's head to snap back, away from the knoll area. These type of reactions
||are accompanied by a "violent straightening and stiffening" of the limbs.
||(Clark Panel). This was confirmed by evidence from the HSCA, who also used the
||same language to explain the backward headsnap. The latter used a film of a
||goat being shot in the head, the goat arched it's back and stiffend it's 
||legs. Lattimer also brings up goats, with presumably the same conditions.
||Clearly no such movement could be seen in the Zapruder films.
|
...
|	The goat tests demonstrate that a head shot can and will cause
|	a massive neuromuscular reaction. Since the gross anatomy of 
|	goats and humans differ markedly in some key respects, most
|	importantly, goats are quadrupeds and JFK was a biped.
|
|	For one thing, goats arch their backs towards the dorsal (or
|	posterior), while human backs arch towards the anterior. When
|	the goat arches its back, gravity holds both ends of the 
|	goat down. When a biped suddenly arches its back, there is
|	nothing to prevent this motion from moving the upper end 
|	of the creature backwards (in fact, the muscles of the back
|	are there to hold the biped up).

An arch movement is not really shown on the Zapruder film. The head snaps back
, and pulls the body up, and at the same time spinning to the left. 

|       ........As for stiffening of the limbs, since the goat's
|	limbs are already extended, the neuromuscular reaction causes them to
|	stiffen;

The phrase "stiffening of the limbs" I take to mean precisely that, wheather it
applies to goats or any other animal. Do you have any evidence that such a
reaction is false?

 the Z-film clearly shows JFKs right arm moving backwards
|	and extending, though the arm never fully extends. Since JFK's
|	arm is not extended to begin with, a NM reaction will cause 
|	it to extend.

I am not sure what you are saying. The arms don't stiffen. I suppose you are
repeating your claim above, that such a muscular spasm does not really
stiffen limbs. I have quoted three sources for stiffening of the limbs. It
will be interesting to find to look at your contrary evidence.
-- 
   |^^^^^^|      _______________________________________________________
   |      |      |                                                     | 
   |      |      | "Be Prepared for Enormous Fustrations"              |
   | (o)(o)      O         --Kreps, A course in Micro theory, p. 352   | 
   @      _)    o|_____________________________________________________|  
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   /     \                              All comments  are mine---(David Wright)