BITS ‘N’ PIECES
Going viral on social media and becoming a star overnight can happen in the most unpredictable manner. With an interesting photo or video, catchy phrase and a cell phone, you can easily get yourself out there.
In the times of instant celebrities, whose rise to fame is quicker than making instant coffee, aspirants for this “star” status often ignore the hassles that come along with it as a package.
Fame has completely changed in the last 20 or 30 years, primarily because of reality TV and also the internet and social media.
In the past, fame was tied to developing a skill, such as dancing, but today, there are so many different pathways for getting your name out there.
In particular, social media fame creates an illusion, making it difficult to see any of the work behind what goes viral. In today’s world, you can measure fame by how many likes and how many followers and retweets you get.
What children who aspire to become famous often don’t understand is that you may become a social media sensation by posting, but once you start posting, you have to keep posting. And it often happens at the expense of privacy
How do you tell an alligator from a crocodile? And no, dad joke enthusiasts, the answer isn’t that you see one later and the other after a while.
The most obvious way to discern the two reptiles is to stare down their sinister snouts. Alligators have U-shaped faces that are wide and short, while crocodiles have slender, almost V-shaped muzzles. And if you’re daring enough, take a gander at their chompers. When an alligator closes its mouth, you tend to see only its upper teeth. Crocodiles, on the other hand, flash a toothy grin with their top and bottom teeth interlacing.
Alligators tend to have shorter humerus bones in their forelimbs and shorter femurs in their hind limbs than crocodiles.
Though they look remarkably similar, alligators and crocodiles diverged evolutionarily during the Late Cretaceous period some 80 million years ago. To put that into context, humans and chimpanzees split ways about 7 million years ago. Both reptiles also survived the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, and since then have remained relatively unchanged. That includes the differences seen in their limb proportions.
Compiled by Usama Rasheed
