The Fears and Phobias of Famous People
It seems celebrities are just like you and I, who would have
known right? I just wanted to share my favourites from a list of some of the
weirdest and surprising phobias that some celebrities and famous people in time
have. Before that though, comment and tell me what phobias you have. I for one
have coulrophobia, arachnophobia, and necrophobia.
The designer of the famed Eiffel Tower
Megan Fox has papyrophobia, meaning she hates paper. She
says it is more of like a person’s dislike from the sound of scratching
fingernails on a blackboard and that it is not a full phobia. Megan also
explains that while reading a script or book, she has to have a paper cup so
she can wet her fingers when she needs to turn the page because she hates dry
paper.
Matthew McConaughey has two phobias, as he has
orbitagoraphobia and a variation of claustrophobia. Orbitagoraphobia means he
is afraid of revolving doors, as he will not get near one. The variation of
claustrophobia comes from his fear of tunnels. He is not afraid of being in a
tunnel, but more so a fear of entering them.
Johnny Depp, surprisingly in my opinion, shares a similar
phobia as me since he has coulrophobia and is afraid of clowns. He explains: “There's
something about the painted face, the fake smile. There always seems to be a
darkness lurking under the surface, a potential for real evil.”
Christina Ricci is afraid of houseplants, so I guess you
could call that house botanophobia. Ricci is also reasonably afraid of swimming
alone in pools, but her reasoning is quite hilarious as she imagines “a magic
door is going to open and a shark is going to come out.” Who knows, it may be a
shark but it could be an alligator or maybe even a killer whale.
James Bond, Agent 007, or more commonly known as Roger Moore
blinks uncontrollably when he picks up a gun.
Both Fredric Chopin, the composer, and Hans Christian
Anderson, the storyteller, have taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive. In
a unique way to make sure his fear didn’t happen to him, Andersen left a sign
near him wherever he fell asleep. It read that he was not dead, but that he
just looked as if he was and he was sleeping.
Woody Allen is afraid of many things and this list includes:
spiders (arachnophobia), showering in a shower where the drain is in the middle
of the tub, stage fright (topophobia), sunshine (phengophobia), children
(pedophobia), hotel bathrooms, cancer (carcinophobia) and other diseases,
heights (hypsiphobia), crowds, and small rooms.
Last but certainly not least, I’m not entirely sure how
anyone could hate cats but many leaders and conquerors did as Julius Caesar,
Napolean Bonaparte, Alexander the Great, and Benito Mussolini all had ailurophobia.
Birds Abide By Speed Limits Of Roads
Apparently, in a new study found in the latest issue of
Biology Letters, scientists have discovered that birds might in fact pay
attention to the speed limits of roads. The scientists have found that some
birds of Europe determine when they should
take off by factoring in the average speed of the traffic. It was tested by
seeing whether the birds changed their escape distances based on the
approaching car’s speed or the speed limits of that road. Pierre Legagneux, the
study co-author and biologist of the Rimouski based Canada’s University of
Quebec, said that he thought of the idea for this experiment while driving to
his France based lab. He stated: “I found [the commute] very boring so I had to
do something while driving, so I started to record birds flying away.”
The way he conducted the experiment only used a stopwatch
and a note, as he started measured the time it took for the birds to react on
the edge of the road. He did this in regions where the speed limit of that road
was between 20 to 110 kilometers per hour or 12 to 70 miles per hour for
‘Muricans. Legagneux goes on to explain: “When the birds flew away, I started
my timer and I fixed the point where the birds [were standing]. And when I
passed over this point, I stopped my timer. So I had the time elapsed, and
because I also recorded our vehicle speed, I also had the distance.”
Along with his colleague from McGill University
There is speculation, by the scientists, that a combination
of two things that happen during their experiment. It begins with the face that
this might just be natural selection where birds that can’t take off with
enough haste then they are killed. This way, birds that make their flight and
manoeuvre away from the oncoming traffic must has traits strong enough to
reproduce. Legagneux says the other possibility is that from trial and error,
if they’re lucky, the birds will learn to adapt to the speeds of traffic.
At the Los Angeles based University of California
Legagneux believes that his findings may be able to
implicate safer roads for wildlife to live around and he states: “If you have
different speed limits for similar roads in similar landscapes, it could be
dangerous for birds because they hardly have any cues of those changes.”
Now for some interesting and weird things I thought you should know about as well. Here is an interesting infographic for musicians. It shows how much you have to sell to make monthly minimum wage.
Let's get the weird out of the way. Enjoy these pictures of dogs crossed with babies. Would you own a petchild?
Let's get the weird out of the way. Enjoy these pictures of dogs crossed with babies. Would you own a petchild?
This next picture is of orbits of every possibly hazardous asteroid to Earth, all 1400 of them. Luckily, they shouldn't be a threat in our lifetime (next 100 years) and NASA is working towards tracking them to find a more precise prediction of when they will be.
Enjoy these beautiful pictures of the Titanic in colour. If you want to view the rest, go here.
Here is a video comparing the speed of a cheetah against that of a greyhound in slow motion.
Here is another video of animals fitting themselves in small objects.
