Facts & Funny !

When Were Vaccinations Invented ?

2012-08-22T11:43:00.002-07:00

Most historians document the first vaccination to be around 1796 when English doctor Edward Jenner observed that people working in close proximity to cows were completely immune to the smallpox virus.

For those that don’t know much about the virus or its severity then imagine chicken pox or the measles but much worse. The picture above is of a young Bangladeshi girl taken in 1973 and demonstrates how severe the outbreak on the body was.

Not something you’d want to pick up, and with death from infection being as high as 80% in children it wasn’t a surprise why this virus was so feared.

The Cowpox Connection

Going back to Dr Jenner’s original observations he quickly came to the conclusion that some how the workers were picking up the less dangerous cowpox virus which in turn left them completely immune to the far more dangerous smallpox.

After some experimentation he injected an 8 year old boy with a small amount of cowpox and confirmed his original hypothesis.

Smallpox Eradicated

Within 3 years 100,000 British people were vaccinated and saved from the potentially fatal virus. By 1979 the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared smallpox to be the first infectious disease to have been eradicated from the face of the earth.

Now a days this killer virus exists only in a few select laboratories throughout the world!

Via : Science-facts

Ancient cave art could be Neanderthal's

2012-06-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

Researchers have found cave paintings in Spain that are up to 40,000 years old, suggesting they might have been created by Neanderthals.

Dr Alistair Pike, of the University of Bristol, and colleagues, publish their research in the journal Science.

The practice of art is considered an important stage in the development of human cognition, along with the use of symbols, and possibly language.

But determining the age of cave art has often been difficult, especially using radiocarbon dating.

Pike and colleagues instead used a technique called uranium-thorium dating to find out the minimum age of calcite deposits overlying art in 11 different caves in northern Spain.

Among the 50 paintings studied, the researchers found a 40,800-year-old disc, a 37,000-year-old hand stencil and a 35,600-year-old club-shaped symbol.

As well as giving insight into how painting styles changed over time, the findings suggest cave painting in Europe started 5000 to 10,000 years earlier than previously thought.

This is at the same time that modern humans were arriving in Europe and Neanderthals were dying out.

Pike says either modern humans arrived already painting or they developed the skill once they arrived - as part of cultural innovation triggered by competition with Neanderthals.

"Alternatively, cave painting started before the arrival of modern humans, and was done by Neanderthals," says Pike.

"That would be a fantastic find as it would mean the hand stencils on the walls of the caves are outlines of Neanderthals' hands, but we will need to date more examples to see if this is the case."

The artwork was found in an area that includes the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo and Tito Bustillo.

"Useful contribution"
Australian archaeologist Dr Iain Davidson who has also dated cave art in Spain welcomes the new research.

"It's a really useful contribution," says Davidson, an emeritus professor at the University of New England.

He points to two other findings since this paper was accepted for publication that push back the date for art in caves in Europe.

Earlier this year publications reported the engraving of female genitalia dated at around 37,000 years and the discovery of flutes made from bone and ivory dated at around 40,000 years.

"We now have dates of around 40,000 in three parts of Europe for things that would be called 'art' in general," says Davidson.

He says the lack of good skeletal remains from around that time in Europe mean it is difficult to know who is actually responsible for the artwork found there.

But, Davidson says the latest evidence calls for a rethink of the traditional view that Neanderthals could not possibly have had the cognitive abilities of modern humans - a view that he himself has held for a long time.

"I think I was wrong," says Davidson.

"There does seem to be tenuous evidence that Neanderthals were experimenting with pigment. There is slightly plausible evidence that they were creating objects out of bone. All of this suggests they had something like the abilities that modern humans have."

Davidson says the question of whether Neanderthals had similar cognitive abilities raises the difficult question of how that came about.

Genetic evidence suggests the ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals diverged 400,000 years ago and didn't interbreed, he says.

So, how would Neanderthals and modern humans both have developed the same cognitive abilities?

Either they evolved independently the same abilities under different selective pressures, says Davidson, or they did in fact interbred with each other to transfer genetically-determined traits.

- Facebook -

Fitness is simple..! Total Body Blitz Workout!

2012-06-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Fitness is simple..it really is. Most trainers, websites, exercise DVD makers, etc, want to make it seem like there’s some exact, and hard to comprehend, scientific formula to getting in shape. They all claim to have figured it out, and purport that THEIR method is the best, and likely, only way to get in shape. The whole game is designed to confuse you, so you become reliant on them for their advice and/or workouts. The game is up; this simply isn’t the way fitness works.

Certainly, there are some elements of any successful workout program that must be followed. We aren’t saying you can just go out, casually lift some weights, run a few miles a week, and develop a killer bod. It’s not quite that simple. Problem with so many exercise programs out there today is they take bits and pieces of the three basic elements of a great workout. P90x, for example, is great at utilizing muscle confusion techniques…but only for a limited period of time. These workouts aren’t geared for a lifelong body transformation..rather, a 90 day change, at which point, your body has gotten so used to the workout cycle, it stops making progress.

I’ve been in the exercise biz many a year now, and have created Share It Fitness to bring top quality exercise programming to the masses. I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. I know women don’t want to look like men, they simply want to develop that lean, mean, athletic look. Being fit and sexy isn’t about being deathly skinny and starving yourself. It’s about having a lean, toned upper body, a strong core, and a powerful and explosive lower body. Developing this is very simple. All it takes is self-discipline and a well-crafted plan. If you stick to the plan below, to a T, I guarantee you will discover the body you’ve always wanted (provided you are eating a healthy diet as well).

It’s time to stop messing around with trends and fads, and start training to change your body and life, permanently.

For each week, each bullet point corresponds to one day. It is best to do these in order (first bullet point = Monday, second bullet point = Tuesday, etc.) as the routine has been carefully designed to allow your muscles to rest effectively.

Week 1

    Monday – 60 minutes HIIT cycling (30 seconds 100% intensity, 1:30 60% intensity, repeat for an hour)
    Tuesday – 5 sets of 8: squats, barbell deadlifts, sumo squats, walking lunges, reverse lunges. 100 box jumps.
    Wednesday – 30 minutes HIIT jump rope (45 seconds jump, 30 seconds rest. repeat for half-hour)/15 minutes row machine
    Thursday – 5 sets of 8: bench press, military press, barbell curls, skull crushers, snatch, lat pulldowns. 250 ab reps ( you pick the type of exercises)
    Friday – 60 minute jog

Tips: Try to complete this Mon-Fri, allowing yourself a full two days off on the weekend. On weight days, make sure the weight is heavy enough that the 7th and 8th rep are VERY tough to complete. Training heavy at the beginning of this program is key for establishing your base.

Week 2:

    Monday – 5 sets of 8: deadlifts, bulgarian squats, lunges. 5 sets of 50: squat jumps, calve raises. Plank for 3 minutes, 60 reverse crunches, 60 hanging knee raises.
    Tuesday – 60 minutes HIIT cycling (:30/1:30 format)
    Wednesday – 5 sets of 8: incline bench press, clean and press, overhead tricep extension, bent over barbell row, concentration curls, upright row.
    Thursday – 60 minutes HIIT running (sprint for 30 seconds/jog for 1:30 minutes)
    Friday – 5 sets of 8: deadlifts, bulgarian squats, lunges. 50 squat jumps, 50 calve raises. Plank for 3 minutes, 60 reverse crunches, 60 hanging knee raises

Tips: When there aren’t any sets listed for squat jumps, calve raises, planks, and any ab exercises, complete the number of reps/time in as few sets as possible. i.e. 50 squats as fast as possible, before moving on to the 50 calve raises. Continue to go heavy on the weight during resistance training.

Week 3:

    Monday – Super Sets: jump rope 45 seconds/12 box jumps/rest 1 minute. Repeat 20 times.
    Tuesday – 5 sets of 8: close grip lat pulldowns, single arm dumbbell rows, dumbbell bench press, dumbbell flys, incline dumbbell curls, standing barbell curls, lat pulldown burnout (100 reps on light weight).
    Wednesday – Super Sets: jump rope 45 seconds/12 box jumps/rest 1 minute. Repeat 20 times.
    Thursday – 100 body weight squats, 60 crunches, 100 alternating lunges, 60 bicycle crunches, 100 knee tucks, 100 flutter kicks, 3 minutes plank.
    Friday – 30 minutes HIIT cycling (:20/1:00 format), 30 minutes HIIT running (sprint every other .2 miles, i.e. 0-.2 jog, .2-.4 sprint, .4-.6 jog, .6-.8 sprint, .8-1 mile sprint)

Tips: Super sets involve no rest between exercises; only rest when indicated. Last week of heavy resistance, go hard and heavy. Make sure you’ve increased the weight on each exercise from Week 1, if only slightly.

Week 4

    Monday – 3 sets of 20: leg press machine, squats, deadlifts, calve raises, hamstring curl machine, box jumps
    Tuesday – 20 minutes HIIT cycling (:20/1 min), 20 minutes HIIT rowing (:20/1 min), 20 minutes HIIT jump rope (:30 jump/:30 rest)
    Wednesday – 3 sets of 20: lat pulldowns, bench press, incline bench press, tricep pushdown, concentration curls, upright rows, bicycle crunches, decline sit ups, hanging leg raises
    Thursday – 60 minutes casual jog
    Friday – 3 sets of 20: leg press machine, squats, deadlifts, calve raises, hamstring curl machine, box jumps

Tips: Use light weight on resistance training days. Do these exercises slow. Count to a full 4 seconds on the lift, and a full 2 seconds on the lower.

The above routine is part one, of a 12-week total body makeover. You should already be seeing results after only 4 weeks of training. As we previewed in week 4, part 2 focuses on increasing total time under tension (TUT) resistance training, which is a departure from the high sets/low rep heavy training that made up weeks 1-3. Cardio training begins to include more cross-training principles and explosive movements to really develop your lower body while maximizing fat loss at the same time. Part 3 will introduce complex lift formats such as step sets, drop sets, etc. while combining short, intense bouts of cardio to give you a couple more extreme workouts each week.

Part II of this workout found here.

After 12-weeks, we break down how to continue to push your body over the remaining 40 weeks of the year, to ensure you are continually making progress and avoiding burnout. Stay connected to the Share It Fitness launch and ensure a free membership by signing up here, and be sure to subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss the rest of this Total Body Blitz workout.

Source : shareitfitness.com

1:3 Girls and 1:8 Boys will be Sexually abused! (+facts)

2012-05-30T01:36:00.004-07:00

One out of every three girls and one out of every eight boys will be sexually abused by age 18.
Eighty to ninety percent of offenders are family members or someone close to the family.
When sexual abuse occurs within a family, it is likely to continue for a period of time, even years, until it is discovered and stopped.
Both males and females sexually offend, however males represent a higher percentage of known sex offenders.
The media reports information on the highest risk offenders; however the majority of sex offenders are unknown to the general public either because information isn’t publicized or because they haven’t been caught yet.
While most other criminals decrease their criminal activity as they age, sex offenders typically do not. Most sex offenders continue to offend until they are physically incapable. Successful completion of sex offender treatment can interrupt this behavior; however extreme caution around children will continue to be necessary.
Child sexual abuse usually begins with a sex offender gaining both the parent’s and the child’s trust and friendship. Once a relationship has been established, the offender will begin to test the child’s knowledge and ability to protect themselves. Sexual jokes, back rubs, “accidental” sexual touching, and hugging, often done in the presence of the parent, are utilized to “test the waters”. If the offender isn’t given the message that these behaviors are inappropriate he/she will increase the amount and type of sexual exposure. To adjust the child to sexual activity, offenders commonly utilize casual or “accidental” exposure to pornography. This entire process is known as grooming.
Children who are well informed and empowered to act, and who have someone who will listen to them can, in many cases, prevent or stop sexual abuse. Offenders do not usually choose victims who are likely to resist or tell.
Sexual abuse can cause long-lasting problems well into adulthood. It is important to get your child into counseling after abuse has been disclosed. It is also often necessary and healthy for adult survivors of child sexual abuse to re-enter counseling at various periods of their life to assist in working through issues that resurface.

-MultiCare-

your name is Mary? if it is illegal to be a prostitute! (+24facts!)

2012-05-29T12:47:00.003-07:00

1. 80% of the 50 million people around the world who are affected by violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and children

2. In 2004, 48.8% of the seats held in parliament in Rwanda were held by women. Contrast that to Cuba where 36% of the seats were held by women, and the USA, where 14.3 % of the seats were held by women. Saudi Arabia and the Solomon Islands are just two countries where there are no women in parliament (UNDP, Human Development Report 2004)

3. In 76 countries, less than half the eligible girls are enrolled in secondary school

4. Women own only 1% of the world’s land

5. Approximately three million women in the USA sport tattoos

6. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee

7. 43% of Australian marriages end in divorce. of those who remarry, 65% of them will divorce again. By the time you try for marriage number 3, your chance of getting divorced is about 75%

8. The women of the Tiwi tribe in the South Pacific are married at birth

9. It is illegal to be a prostitute in Siena, Italy, if your name is Mary

10. In parts of Malaya, the women keep harems of men

11. The two highest IQ’s ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women

12. In Kenya where 38% of the farms are run by women, those women manage to harvest the same amount per hectare (2.47 acres) as men, despite men having greater access to loans, advice, fertilizers, hybrid seeds, insecticides. And when women were given the same level of help, they were found to be more efficient than men, and produced bigger harvests

13. Over half a million women die in childbirth every year in Africa and Asia

14. Nearly 1/2 of all Indonesian women have had their first child by the time they are 17

15. In the USA, unintended pregnancies account for almost half of all pregnancies

16. According to The World Health Org., 40 per cent of girls aged 17 or under in South Africa are reported to have been the victim of rape or attempted rape

17. In Sweden, 76% of mothers work, the highest percentage in the developed world

18. Australia, New Zealand and the US are among a handful of governments that do not require women to be paid some form of maternity leave. In countries as diverse as Russia, Colombia, Laos and Morocco, the government foots the entire bill for three to six months of maternity leave

19. By age 55, 95% of all U.S. women have married

20. In 2007 the world’s richest self-made woman was Ms Zhang Yin, a Chinese paper recycling entrepreneur

21. Only 5% of Hollywood feature films are directed by women

22. Today, Japan leads the world in condom use. Like cosmetics, they’re sold door to door, by women

23. Seventy percent of women would rather have chocolate than sex (Poll taken in a 1995 women’s magazine)

24. Australian women have sex on the first date more than women the same age in the USA and Canada

25. China is considered the next big marketing opportunity for the tobacco industry because only 3.8% of Chinese women smoke, compared with 63 % of adult males

Interesting Facts about Boys!

2012-04-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

• 17 weeks into a pregnancy, baby boys can have erections.
• When boys are 8 or 9 years old, their testicles begin to make sperm for practice.
• Males have several erections while they are asleep.
• The epididymis is a coiled tube that is 6 metres long (tube that stores sperm)
• Ejaculate is only one spoonful of fluid.
• Between the ages of twelve and fourteen the scrotum grows bigger and turns a darkish red and the
testicles start to produce testosterone, the male sex hormone, which makes the penis grow.
• Once puberty starts, testicles produce one million sperm per minute, 24 hours/day.
• Testicles are kept 4-5 degrees cooler than body temperature.
• The scrotum is made of special skin that is stretchable and shrinkable.
• Average size penis is about two inches long when it’s limp and six inches long when erect.
• Many boys develop breasts during puberty. They need to know that this is normal and that, when their
rib cage grows to adult size, those little breasts will spread out and not be so noticeable.
• It takes boys about three years after the onset of puberty to grow their testicles to adult size.
• It takes eight to ten years after the onset of puberty to grow their penises to adult size.
• When an erection occurs, a valve at the mouth of the bladder closes off so no urine can escape.
• Adam’s apple – growth of the larynx.

funny and amazing photographers! :D (18 pix)

2012-04-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

Interesting Facts about Girls !!

2012-04-17T06:38:00.003-07:00

• The vagina is only as deep as your middle finger.
• The vagina keeps itself clean and healthy by constantly producing mucus which turns white when it’s
exposed to the air.Discharge also prevents the vagina from drying out. Discharge will begin to appear
some time before your first period begins.
• Females can ovulate before they have their period.
• Cramps and painful periods may be caused by low calcium and magnesium levels.
• The usual amount of blood lost during a period is between one and six tablespoons. (120 ml blood and
tissue)
• Menstrual fluid is mostly made up of water.
• A lot of girls’ hymen are broken through using a tampon or during active sports such as horse back
riding or cycling. Masturbation, too, can break the hymen. There is an opening in the hymen that lets
menstrual fluid flow out.
• The fallopian tubes are about 10 cm long. The egg travels from the ovary to the uterus along these
tubes.
• Girls are born with about 300,000 eggs.
• Ovary is about the size of a walnut/olive. The uterus is about the size of a pear/clenched fist.
• The average woman has about 500 periods in her lifetime.
• If a tampon has absorbed as much as it can and has to be changed within 4 hours, try a tampon with a
higher absorbency. If a tampon still has lots of white patches showing when you take it out after about
four hours, try a tampon with lower absorbency. Change your tampon every 4-8 hours.
• PMS symptoms: breast tenderness, feeling swollen or bloated, change in appetite, headaches, acne or
skin rash, constipation or diarrhea, abdominal cramps, feeling sad/tired/irritable or clumsy.
• You get cramps when your uterus contracts (squeezes) slightly to help get rid of most of its lining.
• If you are taking the birth control pill these five drugs may interfere with its effectiveness:
antihistamines, alcohol, analgesics, antacids, antibiotics.
• A pregnancy test only works 2 weeks after a suspected conception.

life is an emotion! ( 10 funny interesting pix )

2012-04-16T03:41:00.000-07:00

Public Love cheating! - ( 10 pix )

2012-04-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

Mars on Earth! - Atacama (+VIDEO)

2012-04-12T01:47:00.000-07:00

We all know that deserts are one of the driest places in the world but did you know that the Atacama desert in Chile is the driest. To understand what that really means let’s take as an example the Sahara desert (the worlds largest hot desert) and note that it receives a meager 2mm of rain each year.

Now if you think that’s nothing then just imagine how dry the Atacama is when it receives just 0.1mm per year. In fact some parts of the desert have not seen rainfall for over 400 years making it in most estimations the driest place on the planet earth.

Looks Like Mars
Located west of the Andes and sprawling across a stretch of almost 600 miles a small region of the Atacama is so unlike anything else on the planet that it’s been compared to Mars. In fact due to it’s strange appearance not only have movies been filmed there e.g. Space Odyssey but NASA have continued to use it as their testing grounds for equipment, projects and instruments when preparing for Mars space missions.

Do People Live There ?
For an extremely harsh environment you’d be surprised if anything could survive there, however there are small communities located near the various natural oases that exist within the desert. In fact some of these settlements have been populated for thousands of years going back as far as the earliest of ancient civilisations.

Sodium Nitrate
As well as being extremely rich in copper it also carries the largest natural supply of sodium nitrate. This was mined heavily in the early 20th century for use in fertilizers and gun powder. However after the discovery of the Haber process (early-mid 20th century) sodium nitrate could now be synthetically produced and most of these mines were closed.

According to estimates the desert is still littered with up to 170 of these old mining towns which lie completely abandoned like ghost towns.

Astronomy
The Atacama is also one of the best places in the world for astronomy. Thanks to its location (i.e. high altitude), dry weather (i.e. very little cloud cover) and non existant light pollution it’s home to two of the worlds top observatories. Namely the La Silla and Paranal observatories owned and operated by the European Southern Observatory.

In addition to these on the 3rd October 2011 it also officially became home to the most expensive ground telescope in the world, otherwise known as ALMA. The telescope consists of an array of 66 radio telescopes all using radio waves to peer deep into space helping us learn more about star formations especially during the early years of the universe.

- Science-Facts -

cloning! - photoshop funny pix (9pix)

2012-04-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

- CP -

' fruits and eggs ' Funny and creative pics! (23 PIX)

2012-04-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

-- CP --

funny toilet signs collection :P ( 24 Pix! )

2012-04-06T02:21:00.001-07:00

Let's go... :P
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Male vs Female !

2012-04-05T02:12:00.001-07:00

The differences between women and men are not only well-documented, but frequently at the heart of jokes, anecdotes, and good-natured (and not so good-natured) ribbing. Experts have discovered that there are actually differences in the way women’s and men’s brains are structured and in the way they react to events and stimuli. So the next time your wife, boyfriend, or parent starts telling you how you should have done something differently, then refer back to these big differences between men’s and women’s brains.

1. Human relationships.

Women tend to communicate more effectively than men, focusing on how to create a solution that works for the group, talking through issues, and utilizes non-verbal cues such as tone, emotion, and empathy whereas men tend to be more task-oriented, less talkative, and more isolated. Men have a more difficult time understanding emotions that are not explicitly verbalized, while women tend to intuit emotions and emotional cues. These differences explain why men and women sometimes have difficulty communicating and why men-to-men friendships look different from friendships among women.

2. Left brain vs. both hemispheres.

Men tend to process better in the left hemisphere of the brain while women tend to process equally well between the two hemispheres. This difference explains why men are generally stronger with left-brain activities and approach problem-solving from a task-oriented perspective while women typically solve problems more creatively and are more aware of feelings while communicating.

3. Mathematical abilities.

An area of the brain called the inferior-parietal lobule (IPL) is typically significantly larger in men, especially on the left side, than in women. This section of the brain is thought to control mental mathematical ability, and probably explains why men frequently perform higher in mathematical tasks than do women. Interestingly, this is the same area of Einstein’s brain that was discovered to be abnormally large. The IPL also processes sensory information, and the larger right side in women allows them to focus on, "specific stimuli, such as a baby crying in the night."

4. Reaction to stress.

Men tend to have a "fight or flight" response to stress situations while women seem to approach these situations with a "tend and befriend" strategy. Psychologist Shelley E. Taylor coined the phrase "tend and befriend" after recognizing that during times of stress women take care of themselves and their children (tending) and form strong group bonds (befriending). The reason for these different reactions to stress is rooted in hormones. The hormone oxytocin is released during stress in everyone. However, estrogen tends to enhance oxytocin resulting in calming and nurturing feelings whereas testosterone, which men produce in high levels during stress, reduces the effects of oxytocin.

5. Language.

Two sections of the brain responsible for language were found to be larger in women than in men, indicating one reason that women typically excel in language-based subjects and in language-associated thinking. Additionally, men typically only process language in their dominant hemisphere, whereas women process language in both hemispheres. This difference offers a bit of protection in case of a stroke. Women may be able to recover more fully from a stroke affecting the language areas in the brain while men may not have this same advantage.

6. Emotions.

Women typically have a larger deep limbic system than men, which allows them to be more in touch with their feelings and better able to express them, which promotes bonding with others. Because of this ability to connect, more women serve as caregivers for children. The down side to this larger deep limbic system is that it also opens women up to depression, especially during times of hormonal shifts such as after childbirth or during a woman’s menstrual cycle.

7.Brain size.

Typically, men’s brains are 11-12% bigger than women’s brains. This size difference has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence, but is explained by the difference in physical size between men and women. Men need more neurons to control their greater muscle mass and larger body size, thus generally have a larger brain.

8. Pain.

Men and women perceive pain differently. In studies, women require more morphine than men to reach the same level of pain reduction. Women are also more likely to vocalize their pain and to seek treatment for their pain than are men. The area of the brain that is activated during pain is the amygdala, and researchers have discovered that in men, the right amygdala is activated and in women, the left amygdala is activated. The right amygdala has more connections with areas of the brain that control external functions while the right amygdala has more connections with internal functions. This difference probably explains why women perceive pain more intensely than do men.

9. Spatial ability.

Men typically have stronger spatial abilities, or being able to mentally represent a shape and its dynamics, whereas women typically struggle in this area. Medical experts have discovered that women have a thicker parietal region of the brain, which hinders the ability to mentally rotate objects–an aspect of spatial ability. Research has shown this ability in babies as young as 5 months old, negating any ideas that these abilities were strengthened by environmental influences.

10. Susceptibility to disorders.

Because of the way men and women use the two hemispheres of the brain differently, there are some disorders that men and women are susceptible to in different ways. Men are more apt to have dyslexia or other language problems. If women have dyslexia, they are more likely to compensate for it. Women, on the other hand, are more susceptible to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. While handedness is not a disorder, these brain tendencies also explain why more men are left-handed than are women. Men are also more likely to be diagnosed with autism, ADHD, and Tourette’s Syndrome.

-- By : Amber Hensley --

6 interesting kissing facts!

2012-03-26T04:15:00.001-07:00

1. According to anthropologists, 90 percent of people kiss. But that doesn’t mean that kissing is the same for everyone. Kissing customs vary across the world.

For instance, certain African tribes literally kiss the ground of their leaders, while in many parts of Europe, it is not unusual for men to kiss each other. Kissing people on both cheeks as a form of greeting is another popular custom in many parts of the world, and both Eskimos and Egyptians "kiss" by rubbing noses, hence an "Eskimo kiss." How To Kiss Well

2. PDA was strictly forbidden in old-school Italy. In 16th century Naples, the punishment for kissing was the death penalty. We bet there were a lot of unhappy women. And a lot of hangings.

3. Be careful where you kiss. Though the punishment's not quite as harsh as our Italian predecessors, kissing is still illegal in some parts of the United States.

Those in Cedar Rapids, Iowa are not allowed to kiss strangers and women in Hartford, Conn. are not legally allowed to lock lips with their husbands on Sundays. And mustached Indiana men can forget about ever becoming "players." According to Indiana law, it is illegal for men who have a mustache to "habitually kiss human beings."

3. Let's talk science. Kissing generally uses one muscle, called the orbicularis oris, that is responsible for puckering your lips when you kiss. The science of kissing itself is called philematology.

4. Making out can be healthy for you. Kissing for one minute burns 26 calories. So enjoy that chocolate cake, and make up for it later with an extended make-out sesh with your partner.Read: How To Kiss Well

6. It is considered good luck to kiss the Blarney Stone, but you may die trying. Kissing the Blarney Stone located in Cork, Ireland, is no easy feat. One poor pilgrim even fell to his death trying to accomplish the task.

-- yourtango --

Do you like her waist? (VIDEO)

2012-03-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

Cathie Jung’s tiny waist really does measure just 15in. But the super-thin 70-year-old insists there is no, ahem, corset for concern. Grandmother Cathie is perfectly healthy despite having a midriff that can be reduced to the size of a large mayonnaise jar. And having the smallest living person’s waistline has got her into the new edition of the Guinness Book Of Records.

Cathie’s astonishing 39-15-39 figure is the result of spending the last 25 years laced into tight corsets, which only come off when she showers.Cathie, from Manteo, North Carolina, reckons that while her corsets restrict her waist they don’t hold her back from everyday tasks.
She said: “I do everything that I want to do. I eat fairly small meals but I prefer that at my age anyway. I find it tricky sitting in low chairs and sometimes in restaurants I have to sit on the high chairs at the bar.
“I even have a special swimming costume with a corset sewn in it, so I can still go to the beach. And I am still able to do housework — unfortunately!”
Cathie’s husband Bob is an orthopaedic surgeon and he reckons his wife’s unique look does her no harm.
She said: “Bob has carried out X-rays on me and says the corset actually helps support my spine. Everything in the midriff is flexible.”

"THE ELEPHANT MAN" Joseph Merrick Life and Disease (VIDEO)

2012-03-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

The times and tribulations of Joseph Carey Merrick have long been the subject of books, films and theatre. As a result, ‘The Elephant Man’ is without a doubt the most famous human prodigy of all time. His story garnered the sympathy of Victorian England and after the span of one hundred years, his plight remains no less heart wrenching or inspiring.

Joseph Merrick was born on August 5, 1862 in Leicester to Mary Jane and Joseph Rockley Merrick. He had a younger brother and sister and was completely normal until the age of three.In an autobiographical note which appeared on the reverse side of his freak show pamphlet, Merrick noted that his deformity first manifested with small bumps appearing on the left side of his body. By the time he was 12, and his mother passed away, Joseph’s deformities were severe. When his father remarried, his stepmother expelled him from the house and young Joseph began struggling not only against his deformity, but starvation and homelessness as well.

For a time, Joseph Merrick attempted to earn a living by selling door-to-door and on the street. Despite hiding his face behind a burlap mask, Merrick still endured the constant harassment of local children and many adults. His sales attempts were futile and he eventually ended up in the Leicester Union workhouse.

Victorian workhouses were not friendly places. They were akin to prisons, where the unemployed and unemployable toiled in the most unwanted laborious tasks of the era. Due to his progressing deformity, Joseph was soon unable to manually work at all and on August 29, 1884 he took a job as a curiosity attraction.

Contrary to film accounts, Merrick was well treated as an exhibit and well paid for his time. While on exhibit on Mile End Road in London, now the London Sari Centre, his path first crossed with Dr. Fredrick Treves. Treves, who would later chronicle and befriend Merrick, gave him one of his business cards after Merrick politely declined an examination. When human curiosity exhibits were outlawed in the United Kingdome in 1886, Merrick travelled to Belgium for work. There he was indeed mistreated and ultimatly robbed and abandoned by his promoter. He also contracted a severe bronchial infection further complicated by his deformities.

Upon his return to London, Merrick was the involved in a disturbance at Liverpool Street train station when his masked appearance and twisted body caused hysteria. Merrick was unable to speak due to his bronchial infection but had retained the business card of Dr. Treves, which he presented to authorities. Treves was quickly summoned from the London Hospital and soon arranged for Merrick to be given permanent quarters in the hospital.

It was during this time that Joseph Merrick thrived.

Despite a living in constant physical and emotional pain, Merrick possessed an indomitable spirit. He quickly became the subject of much public sympathy and something of a celebrity in Victorian high society. Alexandra, then Princess of Wales and later Queen Consort, demonstrated a kindly interest in Merrick, leading other members of the upper class to embrace him. He eventually became a favourite of Queen Victoria. However, Treves later commented that Merrick always wanted, even after living at the hospital, to go to a hospital for the blind where he might find a woman who would not be repelled by his appearance and love him. In his later years, he found some solace in writing, composing remarkable heartfelt prose and poetry.

In the summer of 1887, Merrick spent time vacationing at the Fawsley Hall estate, Northamptonshire. Special measures were taken for his journey there as he was forced to travel in a carriage with blinds drawn. Merrick enjoyed his time away from urban London greatly and collected wildflowers to take back with him to London. He visited Fawsley Hall again in 1888 and 1889.

Merrick was cared for at the hospital until his death at the age of 27 on April 11, 1890. He died from the accidental dislocation of his neck due to its inability to support the weight of his massive head in sleep. Merrick, unable to sleep reclining due to the weight of his head, may have tried to do so in this instance, in an attempt to imitate normal behaviour.

Joseph Merrick was originally thought to be suffering from elephantiasis. In 1971, Ashley Montagu suggested in his book The Elephant Man: A Study in Human Dignity that Merrick suffered from neurofibromatosis type I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen’s disease. NF1 is still strongly associated with Merrick in the mind of the public; however, it was postulated in 1986 that Merrick actually suffered from Proteus syndrome, a condition which had only been identified in 1979.

In July 2003, Dr. Charis Eng announced that as a result of DNA tests on samples of Merrick’s hair and bone, she had determined that Merrick certainly suffered Proteus syndrome, and may have had neurofibromatosis type I as well. As it stands, many people still mistakenly refer to his condition as elephantiasis.

Merrick’s preserved skeleton was previously on display at the Royal London Hospital. While his remains can no longer be viewed by the public, there is a small museum focused on his life, which houses some of his personal effects and period Merrick memorabilia.

Note: While Joseph Merrick is better known as John Merrick, it is not his birth name. Sir Fredrick Treves recalled the name as such in his memoirs. It is unclear if Treves recalled details incorrectly or if Joseph Merrick went by John.

HUMAN storage! - Unbelievable woman.

2012-03-23T02:37:00.001-07:00

what did you have for lunch yesterday? How about two days ago? If you remember, then you have a pretty good memory – but how about remembering everything you have seen and experienced throughout your life in vivid detail as if it was happening right now?

Meet Jill Price, the woman who simply could not forget:

The three UC Irvine scientists who studied her decided that her case deserved its own name—hyperthymestic syndrome, academic Greek for "exceptional memory"—and it’s not hard to see why.

I come prepared with a stack of questionnaires, and when we return to her house, Price is kind enough to let me administer my tests, easily blowing through the first few. I ask, for example, if she can tell me some dates of famous accidents and airline crashes; she’s all but unstoppable. She instantly retrieves from memory the exact dates of the explosions of space shuttle Challenger and Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. She remembers not just that September 25, 1978, was when a PSA flight crashed in San Diego but also that the jet collided with a Cessna. She can go in either direction, disaster to date or date to disaster. When I say "January 13, 1982," Price has no trouble recalling the Air Florida flight that plummeted into the Potomac.

According to McGaugh’s Neurocase article, Price is even more astounding on the events of her own life. At the scientists’ behest, for example, she recalled—without warning and in just 10 minutes—what she’d done on every Easter since 1980. "April 6, 1980: 9th grade, Easter vacation ends. April 19, 1981: 10th grade, new boyfriend, H. April 11, 1982: 11th grade, grandparents visiting for Passover ..

And before you think it’s a wonderful thing to have such a prodigious memory, imagine this: Jill Price remembers all the sad and bad things in her life – the death of loved ones, for instance, like it’s happening right now. Time heals all wounds, but not for Jill Price.

ICE MAN! - The power of yoga!

2012-03-22T14:47:00.001-07:00

Dutchman Wim Hof, also known as the Iceman, is the man that swam under ice, and stood in bins filled with ice. He climbed the Mt. Blanc in shorts in the icy cold, harvested world records and always stands for new challenges. Scientists can’t really explain it, but the 48-year-old Dutchman is able to withstand, and even thrive, in temperatures that could be fatal to the average person.

Dutchman Wim Hof set a Guinness World Record by swam 57.5 m. (188.6 ft.) under three feet of an ice lake near the Finnish village of Kolari, deep inside the Arctic Circle on March 16, 2000. Using no special equipment, he wore only swim shorts and a pair of goggles! It's enough to make

UFO Footage picture discription! - Part -01-

2012-02-18T10:09:00.000-08:00

Ilkley Moor Alien Picture

One of the most famous pics is the "Ilkley Moor Alien" taken in 1987 by Philip Spencer.

The Parque Forestal Alien Photograph

And here we have the The Parque Forestal Alien Photograph From Chile.
This little guy is just walking around in broad daylight with no one noticing him.
Not even the mounted officers he's walking between.

Just taking a stroll

Cumberland Spaceman / Solway Firth Photograph

The next one is just so weird I had to include it
"As an amateur photographer on a day-trip with my family, I took the photograph on Burgh Marsh on May 23, 1964. I took three pictures of my daughter Elizabeth in a similar pose - and was shocked when the middle picture came back from Kodak displaying what looks like a spaceman in the background."

Ummm...okay

The Filiberto Caponi Pictures - 1993

Here is a picture taken by house painter Filiberto Caponi in 1993.
It may be fake as can be, I don't know.
But for some reason it has always creeped me out.
You can read the whole story here: http://www.ufocasebook.com/caponi.html
It's one of the more unusual alien contact stories I've read.
--- Source : hubpages ---

Alien visit to Italy!

2012-02-17T10:31:00.000-08:00

The news of a approx 13 Feet high ET walking along the road in Italy is making big news in Italy.Eyewitness Leonard D'Andrea, on February 11 at 22:30 was driving his car when, while visiting the Napoleon of the new roundabout at Mortlake, was forced to stop.

He said : "I noticed the cars stopped, I queued - says D'Andrea - I thought at the time of an accident. But when I fell, I noticed that there were three cars in front of a strange creature that walked along the road. It was about 4 meters / 13 Feet high and was silent. "

D'Andrea wanted to tell his father about what he was witnessing, but the phone was not working.

He added : I took the torch and lit the gray creature, noting that her legs were slightly bent forward with the back formed by a sort of very large tendons. "While illuminated, i noted that the head had a round shape and ending in a conical shape.

This creature "walked" on the road, not caring at all the cars stopped and people - reminiscent of Andrea - In front of me was a Mazda with a family.

The mother took the two children hiding behind the seats, while two girls behind me wanted to call 113 but the phone did not go. "

Then the silhouette has fled in the direction of Lestizza, Leonard tried to follow her but without success. Other people who live in the area confirmed that they have seen something "strange".

--- Tnx : gazzettino.it ---