I haven’t felt much like posting

But I’ve been feeling a lot lately – it’s been an emotional rollercoaster ride this week. Ups and downs at work, same in my personal life. It’s like I’m trying to rub a shark the wrong way – I’m slightly confused as to what I’m doing, and sometimes it just hurts like hell (see science lesson below).

Science Lesson of the day on my favourite animal:
Did you know a shark’s skin is really quite rough? It’s made up a of a s a matrix of tiny, hard, tooth-like structures called dermal denticles or placoid scales. These denticles have a plate-like base supporting a main body composed of dentine with an enameloid capping and a central pulp cavity. Thing of them like curved, grooved teeth and make the skin a very tough armor with a texture like sandpaper. The apex of the denticles points toward the tail which is why a shark feels relatively smooth when stroked from head to tail, but rough when stroked in the opposite direction. These scales also help the shark swim more quickly because their streamlined shapes helps decrease the friction of the water flowing along the shark’s body, by channeling it through grooves. Also, the shark’s skin is so rough that contact with it can injure prey. Some people have been known to sustain cuts and injuries from being “bumped” by sharks. (Yes, I know this because I love sharks!)

Disturbing fact of the day

Did you know…the average woman’s thighs are one and a half times larger in circumference than the average man’s.

Weird.

My fours

I’ve been tagged via email, and well, I don’t want to do a forward, so here is some information about me:

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Usher
2. Children’s Nanny
3. Camp Counselor
4. Retail Associate a.k.a. Sales Babe (it’s more glam than the former title)

Four movies I would watch over and over:
1. Spaceballs
2. Bridget Jones’ Diary
3. Best In Show
4. Spinal Tap

Four places I have lived:
1. Wabush, NL
2. Kingston, ON
3. Kitchener, ON
4. Toronto, ON

Four tv shows I love to watch:
1. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
2. Gilmore Girls
3. Miami Ink
4. Mythbusters

Four places I have been on Vacation:
1. Cape Town, SA
2. Bay of Fundy, NB
3. Tour of Europe – Contiki European Panorama – 12 countries, 28 days
4. New York City, NY

Four websites I vist daily:
1. Gmail
2. Blogger.com/My Blog
3. F-Net
4. Apple.ca (at least lately)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. My mother’s roast lamb
2. Steak
3. Cool Ranch Doritos
4. Stir-fry

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Cape Town, SA
2. Paris, France
3. Anywhere in Australia
4. Sitting in a cafe on Queen W, reading

A golden nugget forward – Thanks Ryan!

The Washington Post’s Style Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are this year’s winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you’re eating. And the pick of the literature.

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who’s both stupid and an asshole

The Book of Lists

Ok, I swear this books was written for me! hehehe. It’s great. Love it! Where else can you find a compiled bunch of lists of crazy random facts?

You can get your own on Amazon!

Oh the things you do…

Today, from my friend Anthony I got a new website to check out – it’s called FactMonster. So much fun – it’s got all sorts of neat quizzes and games (I’ve done most of the quizzes about Harry Potter already) and it’s perfect for a little information junkie like myself. So, once again, I’m inspired to write out some fact that I’ve found.

Guess who else was born on my birthday? Fanny Brice – yup, the very person that the musical Funny Girl was based on. You can read some neat facts on the true Fanny Brice here, and if you haven’t seen the movie, I suggest you do because it’s a Barbara Streisand classic. I also share the same birthday as Richard Dreyfuss, everyone’s favorite star from What About Bob? and Mr. Holland’s Opus, as well as cleptomaniac Winona Ryder (nee Winona Horowitz, who’s dad produced the original Batman series).

Guess what happened on my birthday in years past? In 1787, Mozart’s Opera Don Giovanni debuted in Prague. In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashed on Black Tuesday, precipitating the Great Depression. And in 1998, John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, returned to space at age 77.

Guess what happened the year I was born? The year of 1981 was full of adventure as it was the year that AIDS was first identified, the year that Pope John Paul II wounded by gunman and the year that Ronald Reagan became the 40th US President and then went on to nominate Judge Sandra Day O’Connor, 51, of Arizona, as first woman on the US Supreme Court.

Very random. Check out your birthday.

Learning a new word is fun

Today as I was commuting to work, I did my daily routine of reading the Metro, and I noticed one of the little blurbs at the top. I, being a renowned collector of useless knowledge, found it rather interesting. It was as follows:

“Even kissing has a scientific name: philematology, which has been defined as the art or science of kissing”.

It allowed me to probe the internet for a few more interesting facts about this lovely phenomenon that we all enjoy (oh, come on, admit it!):

• Scientists believe that kissing is a learned action as opposed to an instinctive one. Some scientists have theorised that it was originally inspired by mothers passing food to their babies with their mouths, and subsequently affection became associated with touching lips.
• Kissing comes down to pheromones. Pheromones are an organisms’ unique scent. They reveal the mood, health, disposition, and recent exploits of the particular individual. Thus, pheromones could be used as evaluation of compatibility as a mate. When we are close to another’s face we get an olfactory cocktail that tells us a lot about each other; women find out if a man is a good candidate for a father, and men find out if a woman is fertile and strong and thus if she’s a good candidate for a wife.
• Kissing feels good (duh!). The lips and tongue are packed with nerve endings and are incredibly sensitive to this sort of stimulation. In fact, the lips and the area around the mouth happen to have the highest concentration of sensory nerves endings of all the tactile senses. To seal the deal, the lips are also outfitted with a very thin layer of skin making them the most sensitive part of the body.
• Can you believe there are even motoneurons that are designed to let you work in the dark to maintain your relative position to this soft feeling of goodness?
• The warm and tingly feelings associated with pleasure of kissing are the outcome of a potent surge of dopamine, norepinephrine, and phenylethylamine in the brain. This “cocktail” of neurotransmitters, triggered by electrical signals from the lips, is received by the emotional portions of the brain.
• Studies have shown that kisses assist in the prevention of tooth decay, stress relief, weight loss, and can raise self confidence – but some of these effects might fall under the category of the Placebo Effect – I mean, we’ve all got faith in kissing.
• Kissing might help you tell if a person is in good health. Consider the act of kissing as a way of testing someone’s spit – body fluids are a pretty intimate aspect of a person after all. In addition to bacteria, saliva contains immunoglobulin (a compound that binds to bacteria to signal disposal by the immune system). Stress and anxiety levels can also be measured in saliva by monitoring the breakdown of noradrenaline. In other words, a person can make a pretty educated guess about a potential mates’ health just by swapping spit.
• Scientists have found that the size of a person’s lips can make a big difference to how attractive other people find them. Basically, big lips are considered to be attractive, however it is possible for lips to be too big. Men consider a full pout on a woman to be a turn-on, however Mick Jagger-style lips may not necessarily be perfect on a man. Men’s lips should be full yet virile-looking, according to the women surveyed. Thin or pursed lips on a woman were seen as signaling a lack of desire, while full, red lips were seen as a reflection of warmth and sensitivity.
• The Christmas tradition for lovers to kiss under the mistletoe is meant as both a sign of romantic love, and as a sign of good luck and future prosperity. The practice has its roots in acient Celtic mythology, when the Druids considered mistletoe to be magical and used it to make various magic concoctions. Tradition also held that if two enemies met under mistletoe they would have to lay down their arms and treat with each other. The kissing part comes from the Norse mythology. The goddess Freya’s son was killed by a spear made from mistletoe, thereby bringing winter into the world. Freya declared that mistletoe become a sacred plant thenceforth, and that it be a token of love rather than death.
• Most people turn their heads to the right when kissing, according to German researchers who spied on 124 courting couples in the interests of science. It is believed that right-kissing may be a reflection of behaviour in the womb – unborn babies tend to lean to the right. Researchers observed kissing couples in airports, railway stations, parks and benches in the US, Germany, and Turkey. Only the first kiss, if more kisses followed, was counted. To qualify a kiss the act had to include lip contact, face-to -face positioning and an obvious head turning. They found that 80% of the kissing pairs turned their heads to the right, and 44 to the left – a ratio of about two to one in favour of right-kissing.

Now that you have some facts, think about what kissing means to you. I like this quote by Ingrid Bergman: “a kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.” Maybe there is something more to kissing – being a girl we tend to add in the emotion. Sigh. But isn’t it amazing how this (relatively) simple act ties in so much – biological, emotional and mental aspects are all covered. Maybe I should start somes philematological experiments.

FYI, notes taken from:

 

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro04/web2/gkelly.html

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s498838.htm

http://www.kissingsite.com/kissingfacts.htm