Are We Still In Trivial Pursuit?

U.S. presidents don't age faster than we do. According to a 2011 study published

in the Journal of the American Medical Association, stress ages them outside with gray hair and wrinkles - but not inside. Presidents don't have higher risks of heart disease or cancer. The healthy egos of national politicians enable them to handle stress better. The first 8 presidents lived an average of 79.8 years - which is longer than the average U.S. male lives in 2012 - 76.2 years. In fact, 68% of presidents have lived longer than the expected lifespan of their time. For them stress didn't take "precedence".

"GIF" was the Oxford Dictionary's American word for 2012. In case I'm not the only one who doesn't know what "graphic interchange format" is, it's a compressed file format for images that can be used to create animations. "YOLO" (You only live once) was the runner-up word. Other words on the short list were Eurogeddon (the potential financial collapse of the European Union countries that adopted the euro), nomophobia (anxiety caused by being without one's mobile phone) and MOOC (massive open online course; university course offered free via Internet). Considering none of these words are in my vocabulary, I'm "speechless".

Humans can smell emotions. Although it was previously thought we'd lost this ability long ago, a study published in the journal Psychological Science suggests we haven't. Sweat was collected from the armpits of 10 men while they watched frightening scenes from the movie "The Shining" or repulsive clips from MTV's "Jackass". When 36 women smelled "fear sweat", they opened their eyes wide in a scared expression. When they smelled "repulsed sweat", they scrunched their faces into a repulsed grimace. Supposedly, women are more sensitive to men's scent than vice versa. I wonder if women can "smell a rat" better too.

Itchiness is contagious - like yawning and laughing. In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, 51 adults took personality tests. Then their brains were scanned while they watched a video of a woman scratching herself or tapping her arm on her chest. Thirty-three percent of those watching the scratching video scratched themselves. Watching someone scratch activates the same areas of the brain as an actual itch. As for the personality tests, they showed that neurotic people were more susceptible to contagious itching. However, if you are scratching your head now, maybe you're just perplexed.

by: Knight Pierce Hirst

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