Ostriches bury their heads in the sand when they're scared or threatened, the myth goes. But in reality, it's an optical illusion, according to National Geographic Kids.
These largest living birds with very small heads do dig holes in the dirt to use as nests for their eggs. The mother bird puts her head in the hole and turns the eggs several times a day so it really does look like the birds are burying their heads in the sand.
Despite the explanation, the myth remains intact.
And despite repeated calls in this column, the ruling regime has chosen the "see no evil, hear no evil" tactic, shooting the messenger, shutting up critics and cracking down on dissent, without addressing the fundamental cause of the problem that has hurt its image.
Nopporn Wong-Anan is deputy editor, Bangkok Post.
The two anecdotes this week lie with the threat to ban the Hong Kong-Chinese film, Operation Mekong, from screening in Thailand and the coerced cancellation of a press conference by London-based rights group Amnesty International to launch its report on torture.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said he had ordered authorities to check on the content of the action movie, re-enacting the murder of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River in 2011 by a notorious Myanmar drug kingpin and, allegedly, Thai soldiers.
"If it is damaging, it will be banned."
The film, directed by Dante Lam and due to open Friday in Hong Kong, concerns the massacre in the Golden Triangle area of the river on Oct 5, 2011 when 13 Chinese crew members from two cargo ships were brutally killed by a Myanmar drug-trafficking ring.
In real life: All 13 crewmen of these two Chinese river tramps were tied, killed and dumped in the Mekong River in Chiang Saen district in Chiang Rai province. The drug lord Naw Kham, later abducted by China and executed, was the mastermind, but the murders were allegedly carried out by nine rogue members of an elite Thai army anti-drug force.
Their bodies were found blindfolded, handcuffed and dumped in the river off Chiang Saen district.
With the help of Thai and Lao authorities, Chinese police brought the prime suspect from Myanmar, Naw Kham, to justice, along with his accomplices.
Naw Kham, an alleged drug kingpin in the Golden Triangle, and his gang were found guilty of attacking the two Chinese cargo ships in collusion with Thai soldiers in the Chiang Rai section of the river, after kidnapping other Chinese sailors and holding their ships for ransom earlier the same year, the court said.
During his trial, Naw Kham blamed Thai soldiers for the murders. He later pleaded guilty to the charges, before changing his plea again at the appeal hearing, Chinese state media reports said.
He was executed in March 2013 in China along with three accomplices, including a Thai national, for murder.
But five years after the murder, we have heard nothing about the progress of the trial against the nine soldiers with ranks from major to corporal, who were detained on suspicion of killing the 13 sailors. Some reports suggest they have returned to their previous roles and some have been promoted to higher ranks. The military remains tight-lipped about the case and wants little publicity.
But it is a high-profile, gruesome murder case that involved citizens of our neighbour with whom bilateral ties have strengthened during this regime.
Rather than banning the Thailand screening of the film, which Thai viewers may eventually see online, Gen Prayut, who always speaks about law and order, should order his subordinates to find out about the case, ensuring that those who have committed the crime be punished accordingly.
Thailand can't afford to sweep this case under the carpet and just pretend nothing happened.
Another head-in-the-sand case happened on Wednesday when police and Labour Ministry officials blocked Amnesty International from releasing its report, titled Make Him Speak by Tomorrow: Torture and Other Ill-Treatment in Thailand, threatening legal action against any speakers under Thailand's labour laws.
The authorities insisted they did not shut down the forum, but asked foreign speakers -- whom they claimed did not have valid work permits -- to keep quiet.
Minar Pimple, Amnesty International's senior director of global operations, condemned the move as "an appalling state of affairs when speaking up for human rights can be criminalised but torture continues with impunity".
The report details 74 instances of torture and other ill-treatment at the hands of soldiers and the police against suspected insurgents, government opponents and other individuals from vulnerable backgrounds.
I could not agree more with Ms Pimple's remarks who said authorities should be addressing torture, not human rights activists doing legitimate work. Instead of threatening rights defenders with arrest, police and labour officials should be "holding the perpetrators of torture accountable", she added.
Though Gen Prayut has been praised by the business community for restoring political stability to the country, he must prove his word on upholding the rule of law in this country.
By letting the perpetrators walk free and giving people in uniform impunity, this junta chief, who wants to create a developed Thailand in 20 years, is not delivering what he promises.