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Animals: ideas and frameworks explained

A collection of ideas, frameworks and techniques related to Animals, explained clearly so they are easy to understand and share.

Night owls and early birds couple trying to sleep and get on with things at the same timeNight owls and early birdsWhat is a thermocline? The meaning of water temperature changing with depth with view of ocean layer and density of molecules and sea iceThermoclineWhat are collective nouns for animals? Illustration of African animals showing examples of collective nouns: a tower of giraffes, a crash of rhinos, a pride of lions, a dazzle of zebra, a murder of crows, a bask of crocodiles, and others.Collective Nouns: Examples, meanings, and the best ones for animalsThe Buttered Cat Paradox meme explained with the buttered toast phenomenon and the cat righting reflexThe Buttered Cat ParadoxThe difference between Science and Engineering: quote by Theodore von Kármán "Scientists discover the world that exists; Engineers create the world that never was."Science and Engineering: What’s the Difference?Calm like a duck quote showing a duck who's calm on the surface, but under the water, I'm paddling like hell. Also, a Michael Caine quoteCalm Like a DuckChinese zodiac calendar showing the 12 zodiac animals, their personality traits, and zodiac years from 2025 to 2036, with 2026 marked as the Year of the Horse and early-2026 births belonging to the Year of the SnakeChinese Zodiac 2026: Year of the Horse, Animals, Years, and MeaningsWhat is the Eat The Frog time management and productivity technique and its meaning with a person about to eat a frog and a to-do listEat the frogThe Village Venus effect example, a term from Edward De Bono, with a fish declaring that another fish in the fish bowl is the most beautiful fish in the whole worldThe Village Venus EffectChickens and pigs illustration: also known as the bacon and eggs principle, shows a bacon and fried egg breakfast with an egg for the chicken's involvement and a cleaver for the pig'sChickens and pigsThe frog boil metaphor illustration: showing a frog put into cool water that is slowly raised not complaining until it's too late. Poor frog. Don't try this.The frog boil metaphorA spider constructing a common orb spider webA common orb spider webTwo people walk through many white swans before bumping into a black swan. One claims it was obvious all along.Black swan eventsChaos monkey illustration: A monkey hangs from a girder in a room of servers cheekily pulling out wires to simulate the servers turning off at random and to build resilience, the Netflix principleChaos monkeyCorrelation is not causation illustration: A chart of the correlation between storks nesting on roofs and children in a household is shown above a street of progressively larger family houses with more and more storks and someone wondering if the storks are bringing the babiesCorrelation is not causationFor want of a nail poem: from the shoe, to the rider, the battle and the kingdom it's all lost because that fellow dropped the nailFor want of a nailContent drift illustration: A cat-lover is seen on their mobile device, delighted at having linked to an online article containing pictures of cute cats. When they check the same link at a later date, they are confused / annoyed that it now navigates to an article with pictures of cute dogs! Content driftWhat is yak shaving and what does it mean example: someone looks on confused as another explains the convoluted story which led to them sitting there shaving a yak, just like solving problems in software developmentYak shavingThe Blind and the Elephant illustration: a large elephant is joined by three blindfolded individuals; one reaching out to touch the elephant's trunk, one feels along the elephant's side and the other has hold of its tail. Each individual seeks to identify what's in front of them, but with the limited information they have, none of them guess correctly. The blind and the elephantJohn Muir quote illustration with a Sierra Nevada lake and distant mountains with a mountain chickadee bird on a branch in the foreground and the quote "As soon as we take one thing by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."Hitched to everything else in the universeWhat is the difference between a Bactrian or Dromedary Camel: how many humps do each have and how to remember it with letters B and DBactrian or dromedary camel? Never be confused againWhat is the Cobra Effect? A visual explanation showing how a plan to pay for dead cobras in India backfired when people began breeding cobras to claim the reward.The Cobra EffectMammals share 1.5 billion heartbeats in a lifetime from a mouse to an elephant. From Kleiber's Law and Geoffrey West's book Scale1.5 billion heartbeats in a lifetimeThe continental axis hypothesis: from Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, illustrating how the llama didn't manage to travel North-SouthThe continental axis hypothesisTwit-twoo illustration: showing how the classic owl sound is actually a duet with a female and male tawny owl doing a "kewick" and "whoo"The classic twit-twoo is actually a duetSquare cube law illustration with volume increasing faster than length and an elephant, an ant carrying a giant leaf and a child on the monkey bars as examplesThe Square-Cube lawHow owls' necks turn so far round illustration: showing the amazing neck vertebrae they haveHow owls’ necks turn so far roundWhat is the windscreen phenomenon explanation: showing a 1970 truck with bugs splattered on the windscreen and a 2017 with very few, reflecting, most likely a general decline in flying insectsThe Windscreen PhenomenonBrowse line illustration with a deer reaching up to eat the leaves off a tree and creating a tidy line at the height they can reachThe browse lineSea horse, sea jelly rather than jellyfish or jelly fish, sea star rather than starfish or star fishSea jelly, sea starWhat is ghost fishing showing a discarded fishing net catching fish and other predatorsGhost fishingTypical gastropod anatomy: identifying the main parts of the shell of a common whelkTypical gastropod anatomyA cheetah vs a horse showing the legs leaving the ground in the tucked position from famous photos by Eadweard MuybridgeDo horses' legs leave the ground at a gallop?Venomous vs Poisonous the difference explained: Venomous animals inject venom through bites, stings and the like. Poisonous animals poison you if you absorb, consume, or inhale.Venomous, poisonous - what’s the difference?Animals that regenerate - flatworm head, axolotl legs, lizard tail, sea star, moose, deer...Animals that regenerateBycatch: a sea turtle caught in a net as bycatchBycatchApe indexHow do barnacles moveHow do barnacles move anyway?Camel identification: 1 hump dromedary, 2 humps bactrianHow to tell a centipede from a millipedeCounter-shadingVultures have bald heads to…The difference between a dolphin and a porpoise illustratedWhat’s the difference between a dolphin and a porpoiseBull market, bear marketWhat’s the difference between a crocodile and an alligatorKnow your poles: Arctic polar bears, frozen sea, and Antarctic, penguins, frozen landKnow your polesHow to know the difference between a tortoise and turtleWhat’s the difference between a tortoise and a turtleWatch out for barnacles illustration: One barnacle on the left seems like nothing, but if you have enough of them coating the back of a ship and its propeller then the cost of prevention, drag and removal will cost youWatch out for barnaclesCore insect anatomyWhy do birds migrate sooooo far?Draw a grey nurse sharkSonar or echolocation explainedSonar + EcholocationPulling rabbits out of hats

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