Lemmings don't actually herd themselves off cliffs in mass ritualistic suicide pacts. This idea was popularized by the Disney film White Wilderness, which did involve aforementioned lemmings falling from great heights, but – Disney fans look away now – they were pushed, albeit into a river off camera. The idea of suicidal animals surviving through natural selection doesn't have a lot of sense when you think about it...
Bulls are not programmed to run hell-bent towards the colour red. They are dichromats (they can effectively only see in two colours), so the actual colour isn't relevant – it's the motion of the rag that provokes them to charge those silly men in uniforms who enjoy killing so much. [Chickens, however, go crazy for red; when one cuts itself those around it will often peck it to start, sometimes starting a cannibalistic frenzy.]
Ostriches do not really hide their heads in the sand to hide. This is the equivalent of babies hiding behind their hands and assuming we can't see them; once again, it's hard to imagine evolution favouring this sort of thing as a defence mechanism. Incidentally, the ostrich lays the smallest egg of any bird by body mass at only 1 and a half %.
Sharks can get cancer. The idea that they are somehow immune – and thus might be a possible source of a cure – has been around for some time, and was included in the film Deep Blue Sea.
Chameleons don't change colour to camouflage themselves – or at least most don't. The majority will change their colour as a method of regulating body temperature, for communication or out of fear. Interestingly, the Bible forbids eating Chameleons.
Polar Bears don't hide themselves by covering their noses with their paws. Despite many hours of observation in the wild this behaviour has never been witnessed, though they have been observed to be very fond of toothpaste.
Dogs don't actually sweat through their mouths. Despite the popular myth, those lolling tongues don't actually help; it's their paws that provide most of the sweat glands and thus help regulate temperature.
Elephants don't have a special graveyard, nor do they sense when they are going to die and take themselves away from the herd. I know: Disney movies really shouldn't lie to us so often.
Goldfish do not have a 3 second memory. Research at Plymouth University showed that they not only have at least a 3 month memory but can be trained to respond to visual and audible stimuli.
St Bernard dogs do not carry, and have never carried miniature whisky barrels to those they rescue. Though they are trained as rescue dogs, the whisky was an invention of the painter Sir Edwin Landseer who added it to a composition as a 'point of interest'.
Of the 4 360 species of frogs in the world, only one says 'ribbit'. This is the Pacific Tree Frog, which happens to live in Hollywood and so has been endlessly recorded and played back throughout the world and thus associated with frogs everywhere.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Suicidal lemmings, stupid ostriches and sharks in chemotherapy: 7 enduring myths from the animal world
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Changing the Debate: Occupy and the 99%
For those who don't watch a lot of news: there has been a lot of urban camping recently. The Occupy movement, also known as the 99% or 'those hippies in tents' gained international interest when a group of activists took over Zuccotti Park in New York on September 17th and started a worldwide conversation about inequality and greed. Within weeks they had a library, power station (using bicycle-generators), medical tent, cleaning crews and a recycling program; clearly, this was not your average protest. Before long there were thousands of similar Occupy encampments in cities around the world.
Several months, many meetings and a lot of pepper spray later, Occupy is one of the most used words this year yet many are still scrabbling to understand what the movement is. Where are the leaders? What are their demands? Who exactly is in those tents, and when will they go home? The problem with these questions is that they assume Occupy is a single thing, a protest with a limited goal, and it is not. Since it means so many things to so many people I can only speak for myself, but the best way that occurs to me is that Occupy is an idea - a growing awareness that the world doesn't have to be so unequal. Or, in the words of the Spanish Indignados who occupied Madrid earlier this year: Ya Basta! Enough!
They have had their fill: enough of a world that presents few opportunities for the young, enough of inequality in money and resources, enough of profits over people, of banks that are bailed out while people are thrown from their homes, of corporations that hold more money and power than most countries, of governments who cut public services yet fail to collect tax from the wealthiest, who spend billions on wars abroad while poverty rises at home. They want money spent on social services instead of banking debts, affordable housing, job creation, tighter regulation of the banking industry, higher taxes on the rich (many support a so-called Robin Hood tax on financial transactions too) and an end to endless war. These are not vague ideas, and if the media continues to paint them as such it is because these ideas are not just a threat to the financial elite but extremely popular too. Many of those protesting have been thrust into the pigeon-hole of 'anti-capitalist' before, and remain patient while explaining what they are for, not against.
The cry from the tents is one of hope that the world can be changed, and so far they have resisted all attempts to be bought off with mere promises. They are outside the political system because they have seen what it has done to movements in the past; they do not want a leader because leaders and their acolytes can be bought, lobbied and swayed; their list of demands does not easily fit into a 10 second sound-bite, but they do not care. As they would say: you can't evict an idea whose time has come.
But just where did this idea come from? Forgive me for backtracking, but England in the 1640s seems to me a good place to begin. Frustrated with Cromwell's failure to ensure even basic wages for his New Model Army, soldiers – calling themselves Levellers - began to demand more than just a parliament, and started the long fight to secure voting rights for everyone. They saw that with the vote they could have some measure of power over those in charge. Interestingly enough, one principle of the Occupy movement is about the same in reverse - that if politicians are largely slaves to the economy and big money, our votes are next to useless. This is particularly true of the UK, where real democratic representation is corrupted by the ‘First Past the Post’ electoral system.
From these heady days of not-quite-revolution we can skip the pages any way we choose. Throw a dice at the intervening centuries and you'll likely land on a year of importance in this story, for the same battles have been fought many times over in every corner of every land. Those who have less fight for More, whether it be resources or wages or accountability, while those who hold the purse strings think of ever more ingenious ways of holding on to More. From the suffragette movement to civil rights marches, from anti-war Vietnam protests to poll-tax revolts, from the WTO protests in Seattle to protesters in tents outside St Paul's, the narrative is from the same book. Of course there are differences – huge differences, so great that those in one movement might disagree almost entirely with another, but what they agree on has changed the world – for the better - many times over. If you doubt this you need only look at the fact that we have the right to vote, to free speech, to gain an education and ride a bus no matter what the colour of our skin.
It is important to remember that we are not just debating ideas but reality, and that there is plenty of reality to go around. The soberly titled and well-respected Congressional Budget Office report in the US found that “deep economic inequality is corrupting politics, culture and American society as a whole” as reported by the Guardian in October. The equally sober-sounding Institute for Fiscal Studies recently arrived at a similar conclusion this side of the Atlantic: that income inequality has risen to the highest point since records began, along with relative poverty and child poverty. However we choose to label this system, it isn't working for most of the people, and never has.
I have described the world of Occupy from the outside, but in truth it's not 'they' but 'we'. I stand by those in the tents, and on the streets, and in universities and workplaces around the world because I really do believe it can make a difference. And here's the thing: if you've ever felt that the world isn't meant to be this unequal, that we should expect more than being glad to have a job, that cleaners work just as hard as bankers (and both should be paid relative to their efforts), that welfare is more important than weapons, then you are one of the 99% too. The anthropologist Margaret Mead famously said “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” The only certainty of history is change, and our world cannot remain as it is. The economy, wars, bankers' bonuses, capitalism and the price of haddock - all will shift in time. We are not at the endpoint of history, nor the beginning. We have the same opportunity as every other point in time to change our fortunes; the only difference is that there are more people than usual on their feet saying 'enough'. Whether you agree with everything we say or simply believe the world wasn't meant to belong to the few, the survival of this idea relies on one thing – how many of us will stand up and support it.
Devon is in the grip of a series of budget cuts – £30m is to be cut from local services in the next year alone, with Exeter's flagship support centre for domestic violence losing 100% of its budget and the budget for Children, schools and families being slashed by £1 million. It's not hard to see the effects of the recession in this area, as Barnstaple's growing population of empty shops and pawn brokers shows, but it is sometimes more difficult to know what we can do to reverse these anti-democratic changes. In fact there are many possibilities:
Since money talks (often loudly), speak to the banks in a language they understand – move your money to a credit union or building society. This has already had an effect in America, with several banks dropping unfair charges after thousands of customers closed accounts worth $4.5bn.
Change the conversation – a major achievement of the Occupy movement has been to shift the focus onto the financial institutions which caused the crisis. If people are constantly challenging the important issues – such as companies like Vodafone being let off billions in tax, or huge amounts being spent on wars while services are cut, or the influence of big money in politics – politicians must pay attention sooner or later.
Seek out independent news – you can often get a much more informed picture of the world than from the mainstream. A good start – though I encourage you to look for yourself – is Democracy Now, a daily news show online.
Make a start. Changes are small at first: buying locally, helping someone in need, investigating ideas and sharing what you find - but they add up.
Lastly, but most importantly - stand together. Join us on Facebook (search for 'Occupy Barnstaple') for more information on how you can join in. Or start your own initiative: get some folks together and grow your own veg; Occupy your house, invite some friends and screen a good documentary; bring some food and support to the folks at Occupy Exeter - use your imagination!
Groups such as the North Devon Anti-cuts Alliance, the Transition Town movement and the Green Party, all of whom have been campaigning on issues similar to this for years, will have many more ideas.
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