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10 Widely Believed Animal Facts That Are Totally Wrong Mar 16th 2016, 07:00, by Micah Duke Animals Himanshu Sharma March 16, 2016 Many of our assumptions about animals aren’t true at all. Yet we keep reiterating faulty information from myths and early studies that have been debunked. Here are 10 commonly believed animal “facts” that aren’t factual at all. 10 Zebras Looking at the black-and-white stripes of zebras, it’s hard to believe that they have something to do with camouflage. But that has been the widely accepted explanation since we first encountered these animals. Through research, scientists have debunked the camouflage theory, although we still don’t know why the stripes exist. The myth originated because we were observing zebras from our perspective of vision. It seemed to make sense that the confusing colors would help these animals blend in with their surroundings. As researchers from the University of Calgary and UC Davis found out, that doesn’t really apply to the zebra’s predators in the wild. The animals that hunt zebras—like lions and hyenas—can spot the zebras easily in nearly all kinds of light. Also, the predators can smell zebras long before seeing them, so camouflage doesn’t come into play in most predator-zebra scenarios. The researchers didn’t find any social advantages to having stripes for animals within the zebra community. However, there was evidence from previous studies that the stripes act as a safeguard against biting flies. 9 Piranhas Even though piranhas look like a species born and nurtured in the depths of Hell, they’ve really gotten a bad rap over the years. The mere thought of entering a piranha-infested body of water is believed to be a direct death sentence, a horror to which entire movies have been dedicated. Although it is true that they have scary teeth and barbarically strip their prey’s skin to feed, the belief that they attack live animals, even humans, is largely a myth. Sure, they can do it if they want to, but so can every other animal with teeth. There are no known instances of a piranha swarm intentionally attacking or killing a human being. One-off bite cases have occurred when fishermen have accidentally caught piranhas in their nets, which is quite understandable. Despite what movies depict, piranhas don’t kill mammals for food because their usual dietary preference consists of dead or decomposing carcasses. Even if times are desperate and they have to kill for food, piranhas usually go for insects and other fish, not full-fledged cows as was widely believed after Theodore Roosevelt came back with stories from his Amazon trip. People in the Amazon actually swim in piranha-infested rivers all the time. Other people have even tried to be eaten by entering tanks full of piranhas. They came out with nothing but a few nibbles, which is certainly not the stripped-down-to-the-bone aftermath that we have come to expect from piranha attacks. 8 Komodo Dragons If we had to pick the scariest reptile based on statistics and objective analysis, crocodiles would probably take the prize. But if we go by sheer gut and perceived horror factor, nothing even comes close to the Komodo dragon. While scary enough on the basis of their looks, Komodo dragons also kill in a distinctly horrifying way. They bite their prey, transmit the deadly bacteria from their mouths, and just let the infection do its job. Or do they? Komodo dragons don’t actually have an army of dangerous bacteria to do their killing for them. Instead, they kill using the traditional method of injecting their prey with venom. Their venom glands were discovered by a researcher from the University of Queensland in 2009. The man responsible for the myth was Walter Auffenberg. He saw prey developing nasty infections following bites from Komodo dragons and guessed that their method of killing must be bacteria. Thanks to his book The Behavioral Ecology of the Komodo Monitor, nearly everyone today believes the bacteria theory without having tested it. 7 Penguins Due to our lack of any real-world interaction with penguins, we see them as adorable creatures that live an equally adorable life in some of the harshest conditions on the planet. Even the way they walk is kind of cute and humanlike. To think that they are actually horrible creatures that engage in some of the most depraved acts in the animal kingdom is outright blasphemy to most of us. Sadly, we have grossly misunderstood these creatures for a long time. For example, male Adelie penguins in Antarctica regularly engage in necrophilia and rape. It was first documented by a British scientist studying their behavior in Antarctica on a 1910–1913 expedition. When he later wrote a paper about these animals, the section on the penguins’ sexual behavior was found by others to be too perverted to publish. “There seems to be no crime too low for these penguins,” he wrote in the banned four-page pamphlet circulated among a handful of biologists at the time. This type of behavior isn’t restricted to male penguins. Female emperor penguins have been found to kidnap other penguins’ chicks to make up for their own lack of fertility. If opposed, they resort to outright violent means. It doesn’t even have to involve other penguins. On some occasions, the female emperor penguins have kidnapped chicks from completely unrelated bird species and tried to raise them as their own. 6 Pigs Quick, what’s the first image that comes to your mind when someone says “pig”? It was probably something like a fat, sweaty creature wallowing about in filth. There’s even a saying “sweat like a pig” to refer to excessive sweating. However, pigs don’t have working sweat glands. That’s why they chill in the mud to cool down. Contrary to popular belief, pigs are fairly clean animals. We’ve already discussed the extraordinary intelligence of pigs. They can also give even the cleanest human beings a run for their money. Our misconception about their cleanliness occurs because we see most pigs on farms where they are forced to live in the middle of their feces and urine. In the wild, pigs refuse to pass waste around the area in which they live. Some wild boars even go as far as washing their food before eating, something most of us don’t even do. 5 Earwigs As this creature’s name has “ear” in it, many people believe that earwigs crawl inside human ears to lay eggs. In reality, there are no known cases of an earwig hanging around a human ear. Their wings don’t help them to fly well, and human ears can often be difficult to reach without wings. Earwigs also take better maternal care of their newborns than other species. This requires the mama earwig to be around her babies during their early days, something that would be hard to do if the babies were located high above in the ears of a random human. Some scientists have suggested that the myth is due to the shape of the earwigs’ hind wings, which resemble that of a human ear when folded in a specific manner. However, most scientists don’t agree with that theory. 4 Praying Mantises As far as sexual habits go, there’s probably no other creature as repulsive as the praying mantis. As the Discovery Channel clearly told us, the mating ritual of a praying mantis isn’t complete until the female devours the head of the male with which she’s mating. But when biologists tested that popular belief, they found that it largely wasn’t true. The praying mantises that had eaten the heads of their mates had done so in captivity. This environment was completely different from the creature’s preference for an enclosed private space in which to have sex. Instead, they had people in white coats standing over them, eagerly watching their every move. The praying mantis couples used in the early experiments were also starving. So the males were as likely to eat their partners as the females were. However, when scientists created conditions that were similar to how praying mantises naturally mate, they got a different result. Out of 69 experiments, only one female praying mantis ate the male after intercourse. In the wild, too, the female praying mantis has rarely been observed to consume the male during or after intercourse. It does happen, but it’s an exception to the rule. 3 Cockroaches The belief that cockroaches are the only creatures able to survive a nuclear annihilation of the world has been floating around the Internet, casual dinner conversations, and movie dialogue for years. The myth probably originates from the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki where some cockroaches survived the effects of radiation. However, they were far from the only creatures to have done so. While it is true that cockroaches have a higher resistance to radiation and extinction than other creatures, more recent studies have indicated that they would be the first bugs to be wiped out when big bombs hit the ground. As it turns out, flour beetles were the creatures most likely to survive. Many species of microbes would probably also live through a nuclear holocaust. 2 Dogs When it comes to training dogs, most of us have heard about the alpha dog technique. Assert your dominance and let the pooch know who’s boss because that’s how it works in the wild. This technique is based on a belief that every wolf pack has an alpha wolf, a dominant leader that calls the shots. So it should be possible to train your pet in a similar manner. As you may have guessed, it’s a cruel way to train your pet. But it also illustrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how wolf packs actually work. The alpha male theory is based on early research about pack behavior in unnatural conditions. Later research on packs in the wild has debunked these earlier conclusions. Wolf packs don’t have a dictatorial male leader because their social structure works more like a biological family than like North Korea. Even with wild dogs—which some may argue are different animals than wolves—research has shown that pack leaders are more experienced elders rather than a static alpha male. 1 Sloths In many cultures throughout the world, sloths are synonymous with laziness. “Sleep like a sloth” is a simile that’s even mentioned in the seven deadly sins. This belief was confirmed when researchers found that these animals sleep about 16 hours per day. However, the study was done on captive animals rather than those in the wild. When another research team studied three-toed sloths in their natural environment, they discovered that sloths actually slept for 9.5 hours a day. The reason for the discrepancy was obvious: Captive animals don’t have the everyday struggle to survive that wild animals do. Sloths are still excruciatingly slow when moving from one place to another, but speed has nothing to do with laziness. Many other animals are even slower than sloths, and no one associates laziness with them. You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked, get in touch with him for writing gigs, or just say hello to him on Twitter. Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

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10 Offspring Of Evil Dictators Who Were Seriously Messed Up Mar 16th 2016, 07:00, by Micah Duke History Nicollette B March 16, 2016 Imagine growing up in a world where money is no object, power is absolute, murder and death are the norm, and tyranny reigns supreme. Such was the “charmed” life of the children of some of the most malevolent and maniacal dictators to have ever graced the planet. Given their totalitarian parents, it’s easy to see how the offspring, raised in turmoil and instability, turned out to be tainted, corrupt, or unstable themselves. 10 Mao Anqing Son Of Mao Tse-tung Chinese communist leader Mao Tse-tung is best known for establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The head of the Chinese Communist Party initiated campaigns such as The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution, which not only caused the death of 40 million people, but also brought economic and social ruin to China. Before Mao became head of the Communist Party, he fathered three sons, one of whom was Mao Anqing. As a child, Anqing rarely saw his father and spent most of his time with his suicidal mother. After his father’s party suffered a major loss during the Chinese Civil War, Anqing’s mother was captured and executed. Mao Tse-tung made no attempt to rescue his wife and children. Later, Anqing would watch his younger brother die of dysentery before ending up on the streets, hungry and homeless. He would eventually find his way back to China after stints in Moscow and Paris, only to fall victim to mental illness. Mao Tse-tung saw very little of his son afterward. If anyone knew the meaning of abandonment issues, it was Mao Anqing. 9 Yakov Dzhugashvili Son Of Joseph Stalin By far, Joseph Stalin was one of the most feared leaders to have ever risen to power. Reigning with an iron fist, Stalin placed the USSR front and center on the world stage through forced and rapid industrialization, major agricultural collectivization, and swift and brutal elimination of potential enemies. Ultimately, scores of people suffered and died under his tyrannical rule. Yakov Dzhugashvili, whom Stalin was said to have despised, was the dictator’s eldest son. Lack of affection coupled with fleeting love once drove Yakov to attempt suicide by shooting himself in the face. The cold-blooded Stalin was alleged to have commented on his ailing son saying, “He couldn’t even shoot straight.” The second time was certainly the charm; after surrendering to the Nazis in 1941 and being abandoned by his “loving” father, Yakov committed suicide by throwing himself onto an electrical fence in 1943. 8 Edda Mussolini Daughter Of Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, had aligned his country with Nazi Germany and Japan during World War II. Not only did Mussolini disassemble Italy’s democratic government, but he adopted Hitler’s policy of a Jew-free world and declared war against Britain and France in June 1940. He wasn’t exactly a model father figure. Edda Mussolini (center in the picture above), who was known to be strong-willed and self-determining, was forced to grapple with having a fascist dictator for a father and the fact that her husband did not agree with her love of Hitler. Edda’s husband, Count Galeazzo Ciano, was considered to be a traitor by the Germans due to his disapproval of Mussolini’s war policies. After the fall of Mussolini’s regime in 1943, Edda and her family fled to Germany, only for her husband to be denied entry. He was subsequently arrested and accused of treason. Despite Edda’s pleas to her father, Ciano was shot by a firing squad in Verona in January 1944. Afterward, Edda wanted to be referred to as the wife of a victim of fascism rather than the daughter of Mussolini. Talk about tough love. 7 Faisal Wangita Son Of Idi Amin Faisal Wangita, one of 40 confirmed children of the tyrannical Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, was fathered by a man who quickly rose to military prominence and eventually the post of president by way of a coup in 1971. Soon after, Amin’s reign of terror began. He dissolved the Ugandan parliament, canceled general elections, exploited the country’s resources, and created a team of secret police that abused power and authority (often killing at will). Amin ultimately left a legacy of genocide in Uganda, where it is estimated that at least 300,000 people were murdered. The saying “the apple does not fall far from the tree” could not be any more true than in the case of Faisal Wangita. After racking up a handful of criminal offenses (including fraud, possession of a dangerous weapon, theft, and threatening behavior), Faisal found himself in the center of the mob-style killing of a young man in which hammers, knives, and bats were used during a clash between rival gangs. Wangita, after being charged with the crime, was jailed for five years and ultimately deported back to his native Uganda. 6 Nicu Ceausescu Son Of Nicolae Ceausescu Former Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu attempted to increase the country’s economic growth through agricultural and industrial development. Instead, Ceausescu’s mismanagement of resources plunged Romania into debt in the 1980s, eventually severely lowering the standard of living. Ceausescu, who was also known for surveillance of his people as well as violently thwarting any disapproval of his rule, was finally brought down in a revolution in 1989. He was shot by a firing squad along with his wife that same year. Before his death, Nicolae hand-picked his son, Nicu Ceausescu, to take his place as leader of Romania. Like his father before him, Nicu was irresponsible and reckless with money and power, not to mention alcohol. He was infamous for squandering large sums of money on palatial parties and gambling. Nicu’s insensitivity to the poverty that ravaged his own country was a glaring representation of his father’s corruption and made the Romanian people’s disdain for him grow. In 1990, Nicu was sentenced to 20 years in prison for ordering troops to fire on a crowd of protesters, killing 91 of them. He was a regular chip off the old Ceausescu block. 5 Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue Son Of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leader of the small African nation of Equatorial New Guinea, boasts the title of the continent’s longest-serving leader at an estimated 30 years. Mbasago began his rule by ousting and replacing his own uncle as president. The uncle was tried and executed. During his rule, Mbasago has been accused of embezzlement of public money, fraud, and theft. Even more horrid are reports that the president has engaged in the cannibalism of his opponents, acts of torture against anyone accused of rising up against him, and other bloody crimes. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Mbasago’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, has certainly been corrupted in the same way as his father. Teodoro lives the lavish playboy lifestyle of a young underprivileged man’s dreams. He reportedly possesses assets valued in excess of $71 million, money that is believed to have been stolen from his impoverished country. Among the extravagant possessions are a $500,000 Ferrari, a $30 million Malibu mansion, and a $38.5 million Grumman Gulfstream jet. The apple certainly didn’t fall far from the (stolen) money tree. 4 Uday Hussein Son Of Saddam Hussein Without a doubt, Saddam Hussein was one of the most murderous dictators to have ever lived. Iraq’s fifth president rose to power in 1979 and quickly ordered the execution of all opposing officers soon after. Hussein’s presidency was riddled with murder, corruption, war, and allegations of possessing chemical and nuclear weapons. Saddam, who praised the 9/11 terror attacks by calling them “heroic,” became a prime focus of George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism efforts. Even though Saddam left a legacy of terror behind him, the exploits of his son, Uday, nearly put him to shame. From a young age, Uday Hussein exhibited lethal tendencies that would permeate throughout his life. He was so malicious that his own father disapproved of his antics. Uday reportedly clubbed Saddam’s food tester and bodyguard to death in a fit of anger in 1988 because the man had introduced Saddam to his (eventual) second wife. Uday was jailed for the murder, only to be released 40 days later by his father. In the following years, Uday‘s reputation as a playboy, rapist, murderer, and sadist grew in the shadow of his father’s presidency. He was addicted to cars, expensive clothes, money, and sex. He also had very creative ways of intimidating and eliminating his enemies, too many to mention and too gruesome to elaborate. 3 Marko Milosevic Son Of Slobodan Milosevic For 13 years, Slobodan Milosevic ruled as the president of Serbia. Milosevic usurped (and possibly abducted and killed) the former leader of the Serbian Communist Party, which he was part of. Milosevic’s real claim to infamy comes from his involvement in genocide and crimes against humanity. Thousands of people were forced from their homes and killed. Milosevic’s son, Marko, was involved in a large number of businesses, including a perfume shop, a bakery, and a disco. However, not all of his ventures were legal; it’s alleged that Marko’s main dealings were in the smuggling of fuel, drugs, and cigarettes. In addition to being a businessman, Marko was a playboy and was quoted as saying that he “had to have a girl, music, a car, and a gun.” Marko’s life of organized crime was bolstered by allegations that the police and local authorities were firmly under his influence. Influence or not, he couldn’t avoid being named in the assassination of a business opponent, a Serbian guerrilla named Arkan. After a life of underhanded dealings, Marko fled to Moscow, leaving the sins of his past behind him. 2 Kim Jong Il Son Of Kim Il Sung Kim Il Sung, the oppressive North Korean dictator who single-handedly triggered the Korean War in 1950, which led to the deaths of nearly one million civilians, became known as “The Great Leader.” Before being elected president in 1972, Kim Il Sung was infamous for fostering a tumultuous relationship with South Korea and forbidding civilians from having any form of contact with the Western world. Kim Jong Il certainly took a page out of his father’s political book, studying Marxist political economics and minoring in philosophy and military science at Kim Il Sung University. Soon after he graduation, his father began to prepare his son for leadership. The propaganda machine behind Kim Jong Il hailed him as “Dear Leader,” continuing his father’s trend of brainwashing the people and controlling all aspects of the government. In 1994, Kim Jong Il took full control of North Korea following the death of Kim Il Sung. Not long after his ascent, he managed to thrust North Korea into severe famine due to misuse of resources, leaving an estimated two million people to die. Furthermore, Kim’s regime fell under continued scrutiny for talks of nuclear weapons and the fact that so much of its finances were channeled to the military, leaving the overall economy to suffer. 1 Jean-Claude ‘Baby Doc’ Duvalier Son Of Francois ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier The impoverished and embattled country of Haiti struggles to move forward thanks to one of the most vicious dictators to have ever emerged out of the Western world, Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier. After the Haitian people elected him president in 1957, Papa Doc promised to better the lives of the country’s poor blacks. Instead, the dictator ruled through fear, using secret police (the Tontons Macoutes, Creole for “bogeymen”) to intimidate and murder any opposition. It is estimated that Duvalier was responsible for the murder of 60,000 people. After leaving a trail of theft, hunger, disease, national debt, and severed heads in his wake, Papa Doc passed in 1971. Enter Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, then a teenager. Having led an exceptionally spoiled life growing up, Jean-Claude adopted the same ideologies as his father, as he had no regard for the suffering of his people or even life itself. As a young boy, Jean-Claude would reportedly fire guns wildly, once hitting and killing his limousine chauffeur and two bodyguards. For years after becoming Haiti’s president, Baby Doc would continue to rule in the same way his father had before him, pillaging the country’s money and resources, living in superfluous extravagance, and ignoring the health and welfare of the economy and the people. It wasn’t until 1986 that the people finally revolted against Baby Doc and removed him from power. The Duvalier regimes left Haiti as one of the poorest countries in the world and the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. If this was the outcome that Francois had envisioned for his country, then he would certainly be proud of his son. Hi! I consider myself a college grad and amateur writer who loves doing it from time to time . . . and by it, I mean writing (of course)! Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed

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