Awesome Facts About Owls

Owls are awesome. It's an undeniable fact. They are expressive, they are diverse, they are stealthy and their heads are on a swivel. Below you will find 10 interesting facts and a collection of photographs that capture these beautiful creatures. Enjoy!

Owls belong to the Order Strigiformes. The Order Strigiformes is further divided into two families, the barn owls (Family Tytonidae) and the typical owls (Family Strigidae). Owls are a diverse group of birds, with over 220 species of owls belonging to the Order Strigiformes.

Owls are birds of prey. Owls feed on a wide variety of prey including mammals, other birds, insects, and reptiles. There are even some species of owls that live in Africa and Asia that feed on birds. Owls cannot chew their prey since, like all birds, they do not have teeth. Instead, they swallow small prey whole and must tear larger prey into smaller pieces before swallowing. They later regurgitate pellets of indigestible material such as bone, fur, and feathers.

The structure of an owl's foot is referred to as zygodactyl. This means that two of the toes face forward while two face backward. This arrangement enables the owls to capture and grasp prey with greater ease. Sometimes, the third toe can be rotated forward into a position occasionally used for perching.

Most owls are nocturnal. Most owls are active at night. A few species (such as the pygmy owls) are active in the early morning or at dusk while some (such as the burrowing owl and the short-eared owl) are active during the day.

Owls' eyes are fixed in their sockets. Owls are unable to move their eyes within their sockets to a great extent, which means they must turn their entire head to see in a different direction. Because owls have forward-facing eyes, they have well-developed binocular vision. Contrary to popular myth, an owl cannot turn its head completely backwards. It can turn its head 135 degrees in either direction; it can thus look behind its own shoulders, with a total 270-degree field of view.

Many species of owls have special flight feathers adapted for silent flight. Owls have developed special feather adaptations that enable them to minimize the sound made when flapping their wings. For instance, the leading edges of their primary feathers have a stiff fringes that reduces noise while the trailing edge of their primaries have soft fringes that helps to reduce turbulence. Downy feathers cover the surfaces of the wing to further reduce sound.

Owls create a variety of vocalizations. Owls create a wide variety of sounds or vocalizations. The familiar hoot is usually a territorial declaration, though not all species are able to hoot. Other sounds owls might make include screeches, hisses, and screams.

Owls are found in all regions of the Earth except Antarctica, most of Greenland and some remote islands.

Though owls are typically solitary, the literary collective noun for a group of owls is a parliament.

Owls are farsighted and are unable to see anything clearly within a few centimeters of their eyes. Caught prey can be felt by owls with the use of filoplumes, which are small hair-like feathers on the beak and feet that act as "feelers". Their far vision, particularly in low light, is exceptionally good.

And how could I not include the greatest Owl picture of them all!

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Underwater Ice Formations in Lake Sassolo

These stunning shots show the beautiful and eerie underwater world of a Swiss ice-filled Alpine lake named Lake Sassolo located  in Sambuco Valley, Ticino, Switzerland. These pictures were taken by photographer Franco Banfi.







 
 

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International Left Hander’s Day

August 13th every year is celebrated as the world’s International Left Hander’s Day. Here are the famous personalities who are left hander’s. The top of the list is Barack Obama and my favorite Scarlet Johansson is also a left hander.

1. Barack Obama

The world celebrates the International Left-Hander’s Day on August 13. Barack Obama is probably the most famous left-hander in the USA. Photo Link
 More images after the break...

2. Marilyn Monroe

International Left-Hander’s Day was started by a US group in 1976 and is marked with informal events around the world. Marilyn Monroe was a left-hander too.

3. Tom Cruise

There have been negative connotations that are associated with left-handedness throughout history in many different cultures. According to the Collins Dictionary, left-handed has come to mean awkward or clumsy, and an insult or put-down is known as a left-handed compliment. Photo Link
4. Angelina Jolie

In ancient Rome, the word meaning left was sinister, highlighting the less than positive associations the condition has. The Italian words for left and left-handed are mancino and mancini, which translate to defective and deceitful. Photo Link

5. Demi Moore

Lefties in the United States are called southpaws, wrong-way drivers and portsides. The German­ word for left is link, which means awkward. The word for right is recht, which means true, good and just.

6. Milla Jovovich

In Japan­, there was a time when a wife being left-handed was grounds for a divorce. Today the prejudice against lefties has lessened.

7. Scarlett Johansson

As Wikipedia notes, being a left-hander living in a right-handed world is inconvenient. The design and placement of everyday objects such as ticket dispensers in underground stations, door handles, hot water taps, can openers, pens chained down in banks and post offices, ringbound notebooks and even the printing on promotional pens is created for right-handers.

8. Robert De Niro

Lefties often struggle to use equipment or utensils designed for righties, giving rise to a thriving industry of stuff for lefties. For example­, lefties who are serious about playing golf or the guitar have to get specially designed clubs and instruments.

9. Mickey Rourke

Left-handedness is the preference for the left hand over the right for everyday activities such as writing. Seven to ten percent of the adult population is left-handed

10. Amitabh Bachchan

11. Sachin Tendulkar

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Bizarre facts-Premature aging

There is such a rare and terrible disease Progeria - premature aging at an early age.

One gene mutates and affects the whole organism. Those born with Progeria typically live about thirteen years, although many have been known to live into their late teens and early twenties and rare individuals may even reach their forties.

The disorder has a very low incidence and occurs in one per eight million live births. Here’s Leon Botha, a guy who has Progeria and who’s already 24 years old. No one knows how many years he will live. It’s not funny, but he really has this alien look.

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Mike Tyson’s Honesty

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Interesting facts-219,000 Cigarettes to Help Smokers Quit

In an attempt to raise public awareness to the dangers of smoking, an Australian pharmaceutical company has set up an installation, featuring 219,000 cigarette imitations, in the middle of Sydney.

This unusual display, located in central Sydney, is supposed to convince smokers to seek professional help, and give up smoking. The cigarettes are covered by transparent panels, and in case you’re wondering why there are 219,000 of them, that’s how many a smoker goes through, in a period of 30 years, at a rate of 20 cigarettes per day.

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Welcome to Miami

7 Mafia Badasses You Probably Haven’t Heard Of [Guyism]

Conan’s First Followee Cleans Up From Twitter Love [Asylum]

The Secret Of How Beckham Makes Women Swoon [COED Magazine]

Parkour + Beer Pong = WIN Video [Fork Party]

25 Animals Playing Sports [Holy Taco]

15 “Funny Old People” Moments [Uncoached]

Stop Eating Animals Except Bacon [Knuckles United]

A Gorgeous Gallery of the Best Princess Zelda  [Unreality]

The Case Against Capn’ Crunch Berries [SF Weekly]

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Strangest Graveyards Around the World

Strangest Graveyards Around the World

The Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, within sight of Interstate 10, contains a storage facility known to many locals as the “boneyard.” The facility functions as a holding place to store planes until their ultimate fate has been determined.
It’s mostly military Aircraft, from the Air Force and Navy. It’s homes to F-16s, F-15, F-4s, F-18s, F-14s, A-10s, C-130s, C-141s, B-52s, just to name a few. More recently, too recently to be seen here, they added four B1-B bombers
Want to see all the airplanes?

Heavy Duty Machine Graveyard

The Consolidated Diamond Mine, owned by De Beers, is reputed to have the largest private earthmoving fleet in the world.
It has been a virtually secret operation since the early 1900’s. There are enough antique machines to stock a museum.
Once a vehicle or piece of equipment enters De Beers diamond mining area, it is never allowed to leave. Since its not practical to search for an object as small as a diamond, De Beers simply assigns all these outmoded vehiclesand machines to this eerie graveyard. It was an amazing sight, but I was most frightened of seeing a snake hiding amongst the rust.
Here you can see Sherman tanks, a train of turn-of-the-century railroad cars with German markings and an ominous looking World War 11 battle tank with a British insignia on it had a huge steel blade welded in front of the gun turret as De Beers converted these tanks to bulldozers after the war!

The biggest ship cemeteries in the world

The Bay of Nouadhibou, seven miles south from the Mauritanian city, hides one the biggest ship cemeteries in the world. There are more than 300 wrecks around the harbour, resting for yearsand coming from all nations.
A brief walk through Google Maps will show you hundreds of skeletons piled here and there, at the biggest collection of rusty giant ships you could ever imagine.

Phone booth graveyard

This is at a place called (IIRC) Carlton Miniott, between Ripon and Thirsk (United Kingdom).

Vending machine graveyard

Vending machine graveyard in Tamamura, Gunma-ken. Vending machines are very environmentally bad because of the amount of power devoted to keeping them brightly litand cold/hot 24 hours a day.

Anchor graveyard

Among the dunes of Tavira island, in Portugal, there’s an impressive anchor graveyard called the Cemitério das Âncoras. It was built in remembrence of the glorious tradition of tuna fishing with large nets (“armações de atum”) fixed with these anchors, a fishing technique already invented by the Phoenicians.
Tavira used to be a place devoted to the tuna fishing. They built up this anchor graveyard to remember those who had to quit their occupation when the big fish abandoned the coasts.

Train graveyard

A weird place outside Uyuni in Bolivia, full of old, dead trains from the USA and UK, rusting away in the sun and the salty winds from nearby Salar de Uyuni.

Coke machine graveyard

Coke machine graveyard in Guntersville, Alabama.

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