उपशीर्षक (78)
0:048) Lets talk about Lemmings
0:06When you hear the word “lemmings” you
might think of two things:
0:08This video game and some sort of small creature
that suicidally leap off cliffs when its population
0:13In case you didn’t know lemmings are real
and adorable and not suicidal.
0:17The origin of this myth is a bit unclear but
the video game lemmings may have done a lot
0:20more to convince a younger generation that
lemmings are willfully suicidal – and extremely
0:23frustrating to micromanage thus deserving
of mass extermination.
0:27These wispy-looking things have earned the
reputation as the most poisonous of any spider.
0:31But they’re also pretty common so, you might
wonder why more people don’t die from daddy
0:33longlegs bites every year.
0:35Like a good conspiracy theory, this myth,
covers its own tracks by also saying that
0:38their fangs are too small to penetrate human
skin.
0:40You could score one for team human except
that this misconception is a triple whammy
0:441) Daddy Longlegs don’t have fangs because
0:462) They don’t produce venom because
0:473) They aren’t even spiders
0:51Let’s review the properties of these flightless
birds, shall we?
0:53They’re up to nine feet tall, up to 340
pounds, aggressive, with sharp beaks and long
0:58Essentially an ostrich is the closest thing
to a living raptor you’re ever going to
1:01(That is our genetic engineering technology
gets better – common dinopocapolipse!).
1:04Anyway, keeping these facts in mind, if you
decide to threaten an ostrich do you really
1:08think it’s going to stick it’s head in
the sand and wait to die?
1:10No, of course not, if you’re lucky it will
run away at 40 miles an hour and if you’re
1:14not, it’s fatality time for you.
1:16Ostriches have no reason to hide and especially
not in the stupidest way ever.
1:20If they did they would have survived about
as long and another species of flightless
1:24While we’re talking about flightless birds,
1:26A mother bird won’t abandon her baby because
you’ve touched it any more than a human
1:29mother would abandon her baby if a bird touched
it.
1:32If you find a baby bird and can easily reach
the nest, it’s perfectly fine to put it
1:37Goldfish do have memories longer than three
seconds or seven seconds or whatever other
1:41made up number always accompanies this fact.
1:43They can actually be trained and will remember
what they learned for months.
1:45Which is more than can be said for many humans.
1:47On an unrelated note, Goldfish are also delicious.
1:51Poor dogs, forever living in their sad, monochrome
worlds.
1:55Dogs do see color, but not quite like us.
1:57Most humans see three primary colors, red
blue and green, but dogs are limited to two:
2:01they can see blues, but the rest of the color
spectrum they can’t tell apart.
2:05Which they don’t mind, until you buy them
a red toy and throw it into the green grass
2:08and act like they’re stupid for not finding
it.
2:10It’s easy for you to see because your ancestors
spent several million years foraging for red
2:13objects on a green background and so got quite
good at it – unless they didn’t which
2:16in that case they died – but canine eyes
are not monkey eyes and to your dog, if it
2:20isn’t blue it’s all the same color.
2:21So next time you’re at the pet store, get
rover a blue toy.
2:24And, while we’re talking about vision lets
talk about
2:27Which, if you’ve ever looked at one, it
should be immediately obvious they’re not
2:29blind because they look right back and you
– with their eyes – that they use to see
2:34But they do one better by having an additional
sense called echolocation that allows them
2:37to navigate the world in complete darkness,
something you can’t do.
2:40So from the bat’s perspective you’re the
blind one.
2:431) You Can Boil a Frog to Death if you do
it very slowly
2:46This one is true… sort of.
2:48Friedrich Goltz, demonstrated that a frog
will remain blithely in a pot of water brought
2:51to boil if the temperature is raised slowly
enough.
2:54However, the rather salient fact that is often
left out of the retelling is that Goltz cut
2:57out the frogs’ brains before placing them
in the pot.
3:00Which rather puts them at a disadvantage.
3:03Goltz also showed that if you don’t lobotomize
the frog first then – surprise – it jumps
3:07It seems likely – but please don’t try
this at home – that removing the brain of
3:10any animal would rather hinder their instinct
of self preservation.
3:13And also make them more gullible about common
misconceptions.
