Jackdaw. Systematics[edit] Etymology[edit] The original Old English word cēo (pronounced with initial ch) gave modern English "chough"; Chaucer sometimes used this word to refer to the Western Jackdaw,[7] as did Shakespeare in Hamlet although there has been debate about which species he was referring to.[8] This onomatopoeic name, based on the Western Jackdaw's call, now refers to corvids of the genus Pyrrhocorax; the Red-billed Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), formerly particularly common in Cornwall, became known initially as the "Cornish Chough" and then just the "Chough", the name transferring from one species to the other.[9] The common name jackdaw first appeared in the 16th century, and is thought to be a compound of the forename Jack, used in animal names to signify a small form (e.g. Jack Snipe), and the archaic native English word daw. An archaic collective noun for a group of jackdaws is a "clattering".[16] Another name for a flock is a "train".[17] Taxonomy[edit] Subspecies[edit]
Omayra Sánchez. Omayra Sánchez Garzón (August 28, 1972 – November 16, 1985) was a Colombian girl killed in Armero, department of Tolima, by the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, when she was 13 years old. Volcanic debris mixed with ice to form massive lahars (volcanically induced mudslides, landslides, and debris flows) that rushed into the river valleys below the mountain, killing nearly 25,000 people and destroying Armero and 13 other villages. After a lahar demolished her home, Sánchez became pinned beneath the debris of her house; she remained trapped in water for three days. Her plight was documented as she descended from calmness into agony. Her courage and dignity touched journalists and relief workers, who put great efforts into comforting her.
After 55 hours of struggling, she died, likely as a result of either gangrene or hypothermia. Sánchez became internationally famous through a photograph of her taken by the photojournalist Frank Fournier shortly before she died. Life[edit] Baby Animals Which Kills Its Own Siblings for Survival. Life in the wild can be so brutal, that sometimes animals are forced to do terrible things to ensure survival. Cannibalism and infanticide are well known in many species, but perhaps the most disturbing cases are those of baby animals killing their siblings, sometimes moments after they are born! This is a list of ten species that start their lives as ruthless fratricides.
Golden Eagle Like most large birds of prey, Golden Eagles breed rarely, and usually lay only two eggs per nest. Often, one of the eggs hatches with a few days of advantage, and the firstborn chick starts being fed before its sibling is even born. Due to this, the firstborn grows bigger and stronger than the younger chick, and usually wins most squabbles for food. If food is very scarce, the younger chick can eventually become weak and is likely to die because of malnutrition. Spotted Hyena Most large predatory mammals, such as big cats, are born with eyes closed and toothless, in other words, completely harmless.
The 9 Most Mind-blowing Disguises in the Animal Kingdom. There are few things freakier than animals or insects who learn to imitate their surroundings in such a way that one of them could be on your damned pillow before you'd notice it. So let's look at a bunch of them right now. NOTE: Many of the below pictures look fake as hell. Unfortunately, these are real photos of disguises so weird and utterly convincing, you won't believe you're looking at real animals until they're right behind you. We swear we are not making this up. Hailing from Spider Capital of the World, Australia, this critter has found a clever method of hiding from predatory birds. Well, as clever as "looking like poop" can be.
Birds are adept enough at finding fresh food that they don't have to scrounge around in their own droppings, so this is actually one of the best places to hide in plain sight. The Clam's Fish Decoy Count the fish in the above photo. We have to say, we feel sorry for everything that lives in the ocean. ...is not a fish.
Source: Unio Gallery. Source. The 5 Most Mind-Blowing Things That Can Be Found Underwater. #2. Forests Complete With a Logging Industry Some underwater kelp forests are so tall and dense that they resemble tree cover. These kelp forests exist all over the world and host a vast array of life. They can grow at depths up to 150 feet and still reach the surface. This giant kelp can grow up to two feet in a day, which would be the most terrifying thing in the world if it happened on land. Timothy G. Carindale Research Lab But kelp forests are still just underwater plants doing what underwater plants do.
Triton LoggingNot pictured: Fish chaining themselves to tree trunks. But, sometimes when hydroelectric dams are built, entire forests are plunged underwater. TreehuggerAnd it thinks you look a lot like a fir tree. #1. There are a few birds that decided flying up and snatching their prey out of the air was too easy, and began dining on fish and other aquatic creatures. Hauke Steinberg, Trek Nature"Cannonball! " But you knew that. Paul OsmondWrong. 5 UFO Sightings That Even Non-Crazy People Find Creepy. The Washington D.C. UFO Incident Between July 13 and 29, 1952, a series of UFO sightings were reported over Washington D.C. Witnesses would include an Air Force pilot, people on the ground and, in case you're the type to never trusts the testimony of fallible human beings, we have readings from two separate radar stations.
The Unsettling Evidence: The first substantiated report came on July 19, when air traffic controller Edward Nugent, of Washington National Airport... or "Ted" to his friends. ... noticed seven unidentifiable objects on his radar. Even more interesting is that almost the exact same thing happened on July 26, only a week later. "Should I kill this? " That was enough to attract the attention of President Harry Truman.
The Official Explanation: "Problem solved. " - Project Blue Book We find that it's a lot easier to cover things up when you ignore the eyewitnesses. It didn't matter. It worked like a charm! The Valentich Disappearance OK, so there were a few thousand after that. 5 UFO Sightings That Even Non-Crazy People Find Creepy. If you want to research UFO sightings, we hope you like bullshit. Because you're about to be drowned in sensationalist books and blogs from UFO enthusiasts who declare every blinking light in the sky to be the opening scenes of Independence Day. It's no coincidence that so many people who encounter UFOs also really want to believe in them. However, buried deep within the U.S. military's own records are some very bizarre, and very well-documented sightings that have to give even a skeptic second thoughts.
Are they aliens? We're not saying that. We're just saying they're really, really weird. The Chiles-Whitted UFO Encounter It's not all that uncommon for airline pilots to spot UFOs. Named after commercial airline pilots and World War II veterans Clarence Chiles and Charles Whitted, this sighting occurred in the wee hours of July 24, 1948, when both Chiles and co-pilot Whitted reported having to evade, what could only be described as a giant, flying ... dildo. The Unsettling Evidence: ...yet. The 5 Creepiest Unsolved Crimes Nobody Can Explain.
The Glico Morinaga Case aka the Monster With 21 Faces In the 1980s, the Japanese food giant Ezaki Glico was blackmailed by a mysterious group of apparent super villains, calling itself the Monster with 21 faces. It started with two armed men who broke into the home of the president of Glico, kidnapping him in front of his family. The men held the executive in a warehouse, calling the company and demanding 100 million Yen and 100 kilos of gold bullion.
The victim escaped the warehouse before he could find out whether or not his company was willing to pay to ransom his ass. None of the bad guys were caught and that's too bad, because the "Monster" wasn't through. Artist's rendition. A couple of weeks later, several cars in the company parking lot were set on fire. "Dear Glico, How have you been? In the first letter (sent in a plastic container along with hydrochloric acid because why the hell not?) "We forgive you! " It Gets Weirder: Warning: Contains Bomb. We are bad guys. P.S. Raining animals. Rain of fish in Singapore, as described by local inhabitants Raining snakes, 1680. Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals "rain" from the sky. Such occurrences have been reported in many countries throughout history.
One hypothesis offered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds traveling over water sometimes pick up creatures such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles.[1] However, this primary aspect of the phenomenon has never been witnessed or scientifically tested. The English language idiom, "It is raining cats and dogs" (referring to a heavy downpour), is of uncertain etymology, and there is no evidence that it has any connection to the "raining animals" phenomenon. History[edit] Rain of flightless animals and objects has been reported throughout history. Explanations[edit] Tornadoes may lift up animals into the air and deposit them miles away.
Occurrences[edit] The following list is a selection of examples. Fish[edit] 7 Awesome Acts of Nature (That Science Can't Explain) We may look down on all the primitive peoples who are confused by lightning and think thunder is the voice of the gods, but the truth is to this very day there are natural phenomena that our scientists still don't being to understand. We're talking about events that are witnessed by thousands, photographed, well-documented and yet are utterly baffling. Such as... What would you do if you were walking along a tropical river at night and it suddenly began burping up egg-sized balls of red light?
It happens every year in October along the Mekong river (the same one featured in classic Vietnam movies like Rambo II and the flashbacks from Rambo III). "'Weird as shit,' I said, I don't understand what other questions you could have. " What happens is this: starting under water, tens to thousands of glowing red lights are seen rising out from the bottom of the river, then lifting hundreds of feet into the sky before disappearing. It literally appears that the river is spitting out flaming M&Ms. Star jelly. “Star jelly” (also called astromyxin, astral jelly, pwdr sêr, star rot, or star shot) is a gelatinous substance sometimes found on grass or even on branches of trees.[1] According to folklore, it is deposited on the earth during meteor showers. Star jelly is described as a translucent or grayish-white gelatin that tends to evaporate shortly after having “fallen.” Explanations have ranged from the material's being the remains of frogs, toads, or worms, to the byproducts of cyanobacteria, to the paranormal.[2][3][4][5] Reports of the substance date back to the 14th century and have continued to the present day.[5][6] History[edit] The Oxford English Dictionary lists a large number of other names for the substance, with references dating back to the circa-1440 English-Latin dictionary entry mentioned above: star-fallen, star-falling, star-jelly, star-shot, star-slime, star-slough, star-slubber, and star-slutch.[11] Scientific analysis and theories[edit] Fructification of a slime mold.
Www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/acoustics/sounds/bloop.wav. 6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain. The Giant Stone Balls of Costa Rica The Mystery: Costa Rica and a few surrounding areas are scattered with giant stone balls. They are smooth and perfectly spherical, or nearly so. Some of them are quite small, a few inches in diameter, but some of them are as large as eight feet in diameter weighing several tons. They have been chiseled to perfection by persons unknown, despite the fact that Costa Rica is still not scheduled to enter the Bronze Age until 2013. And God said, "It's nice, but could use some more purposeless balls.
" Some of the balls have been blasted apart by locals hoping to find gold, coffee beans, or even babies. Why Can't They Solve It? About the most useful information anyone has gotten is that there are not, under any circumstance, any quarries anywhere near the balls. Our Guess: In 1,000 years the eggs of the stone men will hatch, and their offspring will emerge to rule the Earth.
The Baghdad Batteries Source. Take them to Egypt. And then someone forms the head. 6 Insane Discoveries That Science Can't Explain. We like to feel superior to the people who lived centuries ago, what with their shitty mud huts and curing colds by drilling a hole in their skulls. But we have to give them credit: They left behind some artifacts that have left the smartest of modern scientists scratching their heads.
For instance, you have the following enigmas that we believe were created for no other purpose than to fuck with future generations. The Voynich Manuscript The Mystery: The Voynich manuscript is an ancient book that has thwarted all attempts at deciphering its contents. It appears to be a real language--just one that nobody has seen before. Translation: "...and when you get her to put the tennis racket in her mouth, have her stand in a fountain for a while. There is not even a consensus on who wrote it, or even when it was written. Why Can't They Solve It?
Could you? Don't even try. As you can imagine, proposed solutions have been all over the board, from reasonable to completely clownshit. Our Guess: Dancing Plague of 1518. Engraving of Hendrik Hondius portrays three women affected by the plague. Work based on original drawing by Peter Brueghel, who supposedly witnessed a subsequent outbreak in 1564 in Flanders The Dancing Plague (or Dance Epidemic) of 1518 was a case of dancing mania that occurred in Strasbourg, Alsace (then part of the Holy Roman Empire) in July 1518.
Numerous people took to dancing for days without rest, and, over the period of about one month, some of those affected died of heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion. Events[edit] The outbreak began in July 1518, when a woman, Frau Troffea, began to dance fervently in a street in Strasbourg.[1] This lasted somewhere between four to six days. Within a week, 34 others had joined, and within a month, there were around 400 dancers. Some of these people eventually died from heart attack, stroke, or exhaustion.[1] See also[edit] References[edit] Further reading[edit] Backman, Eugene Louis (1977) [1952]. External links[edit] "Dancing death" by John Waller. 6 Creepy Animal Behaviors That Science Can't Explain.
Animals do a lot of strange things: dogs will go after their own butts for hours, some fish fly and if some people are to be believed, sheep have the amazing ability to attract New Zealanders and Scotsmen. But there are some things about the animal world that leave the smartest of us scratching their heads in puzzlement saying, "Fucked if I know... " One of the major things that separate humans from animals is that most lower life forms have an intense will to live. Unless they are defending their babies or food, most animals will prefer to run off than fight, because life is precious. Plus, given the fact that most don't really appear to be all that self aware, the likelihood of goth hamsters and emo pigeons seems pretty thin. Then why do some animals just up and decide to off themselves sometimes? We've already shown you a bridge that seems to drive dogs into a suicidal frenzy, but that kind of thing doesn't happen often, does it?
How Long Has This Been Going On? That's a tough one. The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth. CALLIHOO Writing Idea Generators: The 37 Dramatic Situations. New 3-D technology creates exact replica of rare Stradivarius violin. 14 Punctuation Marks That You Never Knew Existed. Allonsy! | HERE'S ALL THE BENEDICT GIFS.