Palaeontologists answer many tricky questions about dinosaurs - but perhaps the most interesting is how did 30-ton animals larger than four-storey buildings have sex.

A surprising amount of research has been devoted to the subject - and most researchers have concluded that dinosaurs made love like dogs.

'All dinosaurs used the same basic position to mate,' said Dr Beverly Halstead, an English researcher who was one of the first to tackle the subject. 'Mounting from the rear, he put his forelimbs on her shoulders, lifting one hind limb across her back and twisting his tail under hers.'

Scientific illustrators have also attempted to capture the intriguing rituals of the huge beasts - including an illustrator who worked with Dr Halstead on a magazine article in 1988.

The physical challenges involved must have been formidable.

The penis of a tyrannosaur is estimated to be around 12 feet long. 

Kristi Curry Rogers, Assistant Professor of Biology and Geology at Macalester College in Minnesota, told the Discovery Channel.

'The most likely position to have intercourse is for the male behind the female, and on top of her, and from behind, any other position is unfathomable.’

'I don't think there's much doubt about that,' Dr. Gregory M. Erickson, an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University, told The Huffington Post 'It must have been a hell of a thing to see.'

Some experts have questioned this line of thinking and suggested that dinosaurs romped in water.

Biologist Stuart Landry believes that big dinosaurs would just fall over on land and would have needed water to provide support.

via dailymail.co.uk

The old adage goes: "Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins." But, according to researchers, you may not have to walk at all to judge a person by his or her shoes.

In a study conducted at the University of Kansas, people were able to accurately judge demographic and personality traits of complete strangers simply by looking at their most frequently worn shoes. It turns out 90 percent of a person's characteristics can be determined just by examining the style, cost, color and condition of their footwear.

As expected, extroverts wore flashy shoes (Ashanti's sex shoes come to mind...), wealthy people wore more expensive shoes and conscientious people kept their footgear cleaner. And if you've ever thought a girl in ankle boots was aggressive, you'd probably be right.

We were surprised to see that those who wore uncomfortable looking shoes tended to be calm people. The last time we wore 6-inch heels, we weren't in the most serene mood (but perhaps that's why they wouldn't be our most frequently worn pair). Mad respect goes to Jessica Simpson who teetered in stilettos during her third trimester of pregnancy.

The one demographic that participants in the study had a hard time judging? Those with boring shoes. Apparently, those shoe owners described themselves as "aloof and repressive," had a hard time forming relationships and weren't able to communicate many of their traits in real-life. (We wonder what this says about Kate Middleton's nude pumps.)

 Whether or not it's our intention, our shoes are doing much of the talking for us. So if you want to appear more attractive, maybe it's time you invest in a pair of Kanye's Nike Air Yeezy II sneakers. Or you can just keep the shoes you already have clean.

via stylelist.com

Plenty of guys will be hitting the weight room this summer before heading to the beach, but new research suggests that when it comes to winning over women, big muscles aren't always necessary. A new analysis by researchers at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville suggests that long ago, women started turning down strong, confident Alpha males in favor of Beta men who were more devoted. Here, a concise guide to the study: 

Why do researchers think that geeks rule?
The team of evolutionary biologists wanted to determine exactly when it was that humankind began settling into monogamous relationships. Using a computer model, they found that when early humans began congregating in large social groups to up their chances of survival, physically dominant Alpha men had their pick from multiple women. For lower-ranking Beta men (think "scrawny geeks") to obtain mates, they needed to devise a different approach to circumvent the pecking order.

What did Betas do?
The researchers posit that out of necessity, a Beta man would devote himself to a single woman at a time, providing her with necessities like food and protection. Showering her with affection "led women to value a generous and devoted partner over a promiscuous stronger man," says Nick Collins at Britain's Telegraph. Monogamy persevered because it meant less infighting between competing males and better survival rates for offspring who had two parents watching over them.

Why does this matter?
Experts have long struggled to explain how the modern family arose out of tribal networks, study author Sergey Gavrilets tells the Daily Mail. As it turns out, the critical factor in this model was female choice, which sparked a "sexual revolution" and laid the groundwork for the modern two-parent family society is predicated on today.

theweek.com

So, just how popular is IKEA? It’s estimated that 10% of living Europeans were conceived on an IKEA-produced bed. It’s time you learned a little more about the company, its reclusive owner Ingvar Kamprad (who may or may not be worth more than Bill Gates), and his continuing quest to install flat pack, streamlined fixtures across the seven continents.

1. It All Started With a Car
The inspiration for IKEA’s design philosophy came when taking the legs off of a chair to fit it into a car. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was so irritated by the experience that he developed the concept of flat pack design. The novel packing method had a twofold appeal: it allowed easier shopping for urban Europeans who depended on public transportation, and it also lowered the company’s shipping costs dramatically. But the store wasn’t an immediate success. IKEA floundered in Sweden for thirty years (THIRTY YEARS!) before finding an international audience.

2. The Company Had Some Dark Secrets
While we’ve written about IKEA cloaking itself as a charitable institution, that isn’t the blue and yellow über-store’s only dirty secret. While Kamprad today is known as a frugal billionaire who drives a ’93 Volvo, eats at middle-class restaurants, and outfits his home entirely in affordable IKEA products, his legacy is tainted by his past involvement with pro-Nazi organizations. Between 1942 and 1945, Kamprad joined, fund-raised, and recruited members for a fascist, Nazi-sympathizing group in Sweden. The news only came out in 1994, when his personal correspondence with fascist Per Engdahl was released to the public. Kamprad immediately apologized for his involvement and claimed it was the biggest regret of his young life. He also wrote to every Jewish employee on his staff to issue a personal apology.

Of course, none of this stopped the information from being a point of controversy when the store first arrived in Israel, but the world seems to have forgiven him. Today IKEA is one of the only international companies to spread to both Israel and Arab countries. In fact, the store is so popular in the Middle East that three people were trampled to death at the store’s 2004 grand opening in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

3. The Dining Tables Were Too Small for a Turkey
The beginnings of IKEA in America were inauspicious, with European compact efficiency conflicting with America’s “bigger is better” creed. In the 1980s, for example, many customers bought vases, mistaking them for water glasses. They were also wary of a dining room table that couldn’t hold the girth of a full size Thanksgiving turkey. IKEA’s designers only changed their mindset in how they approached American design after the head of US operations made a stunt of it: He handed out t-shirts to Swedish designers that declared “size matters.” They apparently got the message.

4. The IKEA Catalogue Is Bigger Than the Bible
The IKEA catalogue was and is the company’s greatest weapon in its arsenal. A 300-page missionary text, it goes out to over 180 million people in 27 different languages. Each year, there are more copies of the IKEA catalogue printed than the Bible. A bit of a cult following has also developed around the catalogues, with earnest readers on the lookout for hidden messages in the pictures, such as running references to Mickey Mouse and weird, obscure books on the bookshelves.

5. It’s a Hipster Hangout
Despite early stumbles in America, twenty years later, the store has so ingrained itself into our society that a trend amongst urban hipsters is to host dinner parties at the stores. A meal of lingonberry jam and meatballs at the cafeteria for the host and guests, and the living room displays make perfect venues for a round of Taboo and Pictionary. A blog posting chronicling the first party in Sacramento led to a string of copycats across the country. So far, IKEA management doesn’t seem to be complaining.

via mentalfloss.com

Sleep is absolutely essential for every human being. Despite scientists still not figuring out the process entirely, we still know a lot about this daily activity. Every mammal, bird and most reptiles, amphibians and fish require sleep to function. Here are some cool stuffs you probably never knew about sleep.

What goes on while you sleep:
Your brain recharges.
Your cells repair themselves.
Your body released important hormones.

Need for sleep depending upon age
Babies - 16 hours
3 year to 18 yearl old – 10 hours
19year old to 55 year old – 8 hours
over 55 year old – 6 hours.

Fact: Men have dreams about other men 70% of the time. But women dream about women and men equally.

Fact: Parasomnia is atype of sleep disorder that makes you do unnatural movements despite being asleep.

Crimes committed on parasomnia include:
sleep driving.
writing bad checks
murder
child molesting
rape.

Fact: 12% of people dream only in black and white.

Fact: Dreaming is normal. People who do not dream regularly have personality disorders.

Fact: Sleep positions may determine your personality.

The most common Sleep positions:

Fact: 1 in 4 married couples sleep in seperate beds.

Fact: British soldiers were the 1st to develop a method in staying up 36 hours without sleep.
When fatigued, they put on specialvisors that emulated the brightness on a sunrise and it woke them up.

Fact: When dolphins sleep, only half their brains shuts down. The other half stays awake to help with breathing cycles.

Fact: Blind people can still see images in their dreams. But in the case of born blind people, they experiance dreams involving, emotion, sound, smell, & touch instead of sight.

Fact: You will die from sleep deprevation, before food deprevation. It takes 2 or more weeks to starve. But 10 days without sleep can kill lots of people.

Fact: Within 5 mins of waking up, 50% of your dream is forgotten. Within 10 mins 90% is gone.

Fact: 1 out of 50 teenagers still wet their beds.

coolfacts.in

"The fascination with twins is as old as time," says Susan Kohl in her book Twin Stories. "Twins share a strong and powerful bond that neither time nor distance seems to shake." Because of their unique relationship, twins are often the focus of research. Here's a look at five recent studies that shine new light on these linked individuals, and what they can teach the rest of us.

1. Mothers of twins live longer
Twins have been greeted as everything from an unwanted burden to "a sign of their father's superior virility," says The Economist. But a new study from the University of Utah shows that twins "have more to do with their mother’s sturdy constitution than their father's sexual power." Looking at the birth records for 59,000 women between 1800 and 1970, researchers found that women who give birth to twins live longer, have healthier kids, and "appear to be healthier" themselves, says lead author Ken R. Smith. That's probably because sturdier women have twins, not because having twins is good for you, the study notes.

2. But they get divorced more often
It seems that twins can help unravel a marriage, say Dr. Anupam Jena and his colleagues at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital. When a couple's only children are twins, parents are only about 1 percent more likely to get divorced than parents of singletons. But add in more kids (or less income), and the risk of divorce shoots up. The reason is probably the added stress, both financial and emotional.

3. Twin fetuses start playing at 14 weeks
Examining 3D ultrasound images of five pairs of in-utero twins, a team at the University of Padova, Italy, found that fetuses started deliberately interacting at 14 weeks, reaching out and touching each other through the uterine wall. By 18 weeks, they spent more time stroking each other than themselves, and were equally careful when touching their co-twin's sensitive eye areas. The results are "astonishing," says Jean-Philippe Rivière at Doctissimo. At 14 weeks, "they were already socializing with their sibling in the womb."

4. If you separate identical twins, they still end up similar
Surveying decades of twin research, George Mason University economist Bryan Caplan found the "most prominent conclusion" to be that "practically everything — health, intelligence, happiness, success, personality, values, interests — is partly genetic." We may latch on to the parenting-centric ideas of "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua, says Helen Rumbelow in The Australian. But the dozens of rigorous studies on separated-at-birth twins is much more persuasive than "Chua's sample of one": As adults, even separated twins are "very similar on almost every count."

5. But identical twins can get sick very differently
In 1983, two identical twin infant boys were given a blood transfusion contaminated by HIV; decades later, one has an almost-normal immune system while the other is faring much worse. Brigham Young University researchers recently tried to explain the different reactions. What they found, says Amanda Carpenter at Virology, is that once identical twins leave the womb and are "exposed to different pathogens, bacteria, and microbes," their immune systems are not identical at all.

via theweek.com

1. Toy Story 3 is the only Toy Story film not to receive a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It still however received a relatively high score of 99%.

2. The Pizza Planet delivery truck, which has appeared in every Pixar film except The Incredibles, also appeared in all three Toy Story films.



3. Pizza Planet was originally supposed to be called Pizza Putt, a combination pizzeria/mini-golf course.

4. In their most productive week during production, Pixar completed 3.5 minutes of animation.

5. Tim Allen and Pixar originally wanted Jim Carrey to voice Buzz Lightyear, but they couldn't due to the low budget they were given for the film.

6. Billy Crystal was originally offered the chance to voice Buzz Lightyear, but declined. After seeing the finished film, he said the decision was the biggest mistake of his career.

7. The movie was originally supposed to be called “You Are A Toy.”

8. Originally, the main character was going to be Tinny, the title character in Tin Toy (1988). In the movie he would have gotten lost during a family trip and joined up with a sarcastic ventriloquist dummy in a search of a home.

9. Buzz Lightyear's original name was Lunar Larry.

10. Mattel originally didn't want Barbie in the film because they thought the film would be a failure. They also didn't want Barbie to have a defined personality, preferring to let children imagine Barbie's personality traits on their own. When the film proved a huge success, Mattel allowed Barbie to appear in Toy Story 2.

11. Hasbro denied Pixar the use of the name GI Joe when it was informed that a GI Joe doll was going to be blown up by Sid. Pixar used army men instead.

12. For the original Toy Story, Tom Hanks recorded his dialog during the breaks of Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and A League of Their Own (1992). He didn't want to record his dialog during the breaks of Philadelphia (1993) or Forrest Gump (1994) because he felt he shouldn't do comedic roles in between minutes of playing serious roles.

13. The number “95” appears frequently throughout all 3 films. This is in reference to the year the original Toy Story was released, 1995.



14. Toy Story 2 was initially planned as an hour long sequel that would have premiered on home video.

15. The only Toy Story film to have full opening credits is Toy Story 1.

16. Many of the books on the shelf in Andy's room are names of Pixar's short films (Adventures of Andre and Wally B., Knick Knack, etc.) and some of the book author's are named after Pixar staff.

17. Pixar presented an early draft of the film to Disney on November 19, 1993. The result was disastrous. The film was deemed unwatchable. It presented Woody as a “sarcastic jerk” who was constantly insulting the other toys. Disney immediately shut down production pending a new script. The story team spent a week on a new script to make Woody a more likable character, instead of the “sarcastic jerk” he had been.

18. Little Bo Peep was originally supposed to be a Barbie doll.

19. The character of Andy is named for Andries “Andy” Van Dam, a Brown University Professor and computer science and animation pioneer who taught many of makers of this film.

20. Toy Story 3 is the first sequel to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar without any of its predecessors being nominated.

21. Toy Story 3 is also the first animated movie to make over $1 billion at the box office worldwide. It's the #5 highest grossing movie of all-time.

22. The license plate on Andy's mother's car reads “A 111” on the front and “A 113” on the rear. A111 and A113 are two rooms used by the animation department at CalArts - alma mater of a large number of Pixarians.



23. Toy Story was completed on a $30 million budget using a staff of 110. In comparison, The Lion King, released in 1994, required a budget of $45 million and a staff of 800.

24. Toy Story 2 was the first sequel for Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.

25. Toy Story 2 is the best reviewed movie of all time on Rotten Tomatoes. Toy Story 1 is number 4.

26. Toy Story 2 is one of three Disney movies to win a Golden Globe for Best Picture. The other two are Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King.

27. The green three eyed aliens have a circled pizza (pepperoni and mushroom) on their fronts.


28. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen both confessed to crying at the part of Jessie's flashback sequence that shows her being rejected, and abandoned by her owner, set to “When She Loved Me” by Sarah McLachlan.

29. Barbie's blue workout outfit from Toy Story 3 is based on the 1984 “Great Shape” Barbie Doll. The Ken doll in the movie is modeled after “Animal Lovin” Ken from 1988.



30. The entire animation team shaved their heads prior to working on Toy Story 3.

31. The plot of the Toy Story 3 is loosely based on the original treatment for Toy Story, which had Tinny getting lost at a rest stop and being found by a junk man, who throws him into back of his truck. Tinny meets a ventriloquist dummy and they both decide to stick together. But in the end they end up in a preschool where they'll never get lost or outgrown. Tinny can be seen on the cover of a magazine in one scene in Toy Story 3.

32. Blake Clark became the new voice of Slinky Dog, replacing Jim Varney, who died in 2000. Clark was good friends with Varney prior to his death.

33. The original Toy Story is the first fully computer-generated full-length feature film.

Steve Jobs biography preliminary review indicates this book is very interesting. Jobs biography was said to be a rich portrait of one person with the best minds of his era. Here are some startling facts about Steve Jobs in the biography.

1. Where did the name Apple originate?

Executek, Matrix, to Personal Computers Inc. are the names that had considered Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak for technology companies that will they founded. Jobs express the name Apple after returning from an apple farm and eventually the name was used. "This name sounds fun, vibrant and not intimidating," said Jobs.

2. Bill Clinton asked for advice to Jobs about Monica Lewinski scandal

Bill Clinton's scandalous affair with Monica Lewinski had horrendous United States in the decade of the 1990s. Clinton who looked confuse, asked Jobs for advice. "I do not know you had an affair, but if it is true, you must tell that thing to (citizens) this country," advices of Jobs to Clinton.

3. Why Jobs is always wearing a black sweater?

Jobs appearance identically with a black sweater, it started when Jobs visited the Sony factory in Japan and meet employees there in uniform. He loved it and had thought that Apple employees were in uniform too. Although it was not so accomplished, Jobs decided to create a unique outfit for himself. So he always wore a black sweater, designed by Japanese designer Issey Miyake.

4. Jobs disillusioned with Barack Obama

Jobs is a supporter of President Barack Obama. But he was disappointed with some of Obama's policies and at the time the two met, Jobs are expecting Obama will serve only one period. Jobs argued the government should be more friendly to business circles and reforming education.

5. Jobs initially refusing cancer surgery

At first Jobs refused a cancer operation that could potentially save his life. Jobs apparently did not like if someone ‘open’ his body . "He really not ready to 'open' his body," said Jobs's wife, Laurene Powell.

6. Jobs had rejected the idea of ​​an application for Apple devices

Application services are Apple's key success factors. But who would have thought at first Jobs does not like the idea of ​​a third party may make application for Apple devices due to various reasons such as the possibility of virus attacks. But finally, Jobs was convinced to allow the application on the Apple device.

7. Jobs felt depressed during the launch of the iPad first generation

Various criticisms lunged at the launch of the Apple iPad though ultimately this gadget is successful. This device was considered lack features. "'I seem to get depressed today," Jobs said in Isaacson, night after Jobs introduced the iPad.

8. Jobs wrath on Google

"I'll spend my last breath if necessary and I would spend all the Apple money of USD 40 billion in the bank, to correct this error. I will destroy the Android because it is a stolen product," said Jobs on Android. He did not accept Google's stealing iPhone ideas on Android.

It has been ten years since 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger planes and ploughed them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. A fourth plane allegedly heading straight for Capitol Hill or the White House crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing all onboard. An estimated 3,000 were killed and thousands injured in the co-ordinated attacks.

The day marked one of the biggest news events in modern history and almost everyone will remember where they were when the story broke. Amid all the tragedy and the horror that took place in the days, weeks and months after, here are nine surprising things you may not have known about 9/11.

1. 20 people were pulled from the rubble alive

According to 9/11 research on World Trade Center survivors, 20 people were pulled from the rubble alive. Among the survivors were John McLoughlin and William Jimeno, two Port Authority policemen, who were rescued after being buried in debris around a freight elevator for about 13 and 21 hours. They were the subject of the 2006 Oliver Stone film ‘World Trade Center.’

Pasquale Buzzelli, a structural engineer for the Port Authority, and Genelle Guzman, a secretary, were in offices on the 64th floor of the North Tower when the building was hit. Buzzelli was knocked unconscious for three hours, and awoke on a hill of rubble, looking at the sky. Suffering from a broken foot, cuts and a concussion, he was removed by rescue workers and evacuated on a stretcher. Guzman, who was just below the surface, was rescued more than 27 hours after the Tower fell. Her leg was crushed but she fully recovered within four months.

2. Second biggest loss of life were of British nationality

It wasn’t just Americans who fell victim to the attacks at both the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. More than 80 nationalities suffered at least one loss from the day’s horrific events, including Japanese, Irish, British, Australian, New Zealanders, Swiss, Indian, Mexican, Brazilian, South African and Canadian. Out of 372 foreign fatalities, 67 people of British nationality died.

3. Ron DiFrancesco managed to escape from collapsing South Tower

37-year-old Canadian DiFrancesco was escaping the World Trade Center South Tower as the second plane hit between the 77th and 85th floors, immediately throwing him against the wall on impact. After making a difficult descent to the ground floor, DiFrancesco managed to exit the building – which then collapsed behind him.

Engulfed in a fireball, DiFrancesco woke in hospital days later with lacerations on his head, burns all over his body and a broken bone in his back. After his miraculous escape he was one of only four people to escape from above the South Tower 81st floor.

4. Fires raged for 99 days

It took 99 days for the fires at Ground Zero to be extinguished completely. At 8.46am on 11 September the fires started as the first plane hit the North Tower. The remaining fires were eventually put out on 19 December.

5. A third skyscraper fell down

A third skyscraper World Trade Center (WTC) Building 7 – a 47-story building and one of the largest in downtown Manhattan fell during the attacks. It went largely unnoticed in the media because it hadn’t been hit by a plane. It is commonly believed that ‘ancillary damage’ from the collapses of the Twin Towers led to the collapse of WTC Building 7.

The 9/11 Commission Report states: “The total collapse of the third huge skyscraper late in the afternoon September 11th was reported as if it were an insignificant footnote... most people never saw video of Building 7’s collapse… Incredibly, it is virtually impossible to find any mention of Building 7 in newspapers, magazines, or broadcast media reports after September 11th.”

6. Code messages were sent out online by 9/11 conspirators
It is claimed that one of the 9/11 conspirators - Abu Abdul Rahman - sent a coded love post on an Internet chat room to his “German girlfriend” weeks before the attack, who turned out to be fellow 9/11 conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh.

The message allegedly read: “The first semester commences in three weeks. Two high schools [Twin Towers] and two universities [Washington DC targets] ... This summer will surely be hot ...19 [the eventual number of hijackers] certificates for private education and four exams [the number of planes used]. Regards to the professor. Goodbye.”

CNN reports that about three weeks before 9/11, targets were assigned to four teams, with three of them bearing a code name. The US Capitol building was called ‘The Faculty of Law;’ the Pentagon became ‘The Faculty of Fine Arts;’ and the North Tower of the World Trade Center was code-named as ‘The Faculty of Town Planning.’

7. One company lost two thirds of its workforce

Global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald was the worst business affected by the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, its New York headquarters based on the 101st and 105th floors at One World Trade Center lost 658 out its 960-strong workforce – which amounted to two third of its total NYC staff.

After the tragedy hit, CEO Howard Lutnick called a colleague and said: “We could shut the firm and attend our friends' funerals, or we're going to work harder than we've ever worked before to help their families.” And that’s exactly what they did. Ten years later, Cantor Fitzgerald has handed out more than $180 million (£109 million) to the families of the deceased staff and has fulfilled its promise to pay their health care.

8. World Trade Center steel was sold on

What did the US authorities do with the 185,101 tons of steel left at Ground Zero? They recycled it. The American public was outraged because authorities removed the steel before it was properly tested for evidence. Mayor Bloomberg responded by saying: “If you want to take a look at the construction methods and the design, that's in this day and age what computers do. Just looking at a piece of metal generally doesn't tell you anything.”

According to the ‘9/11 Research’ Website, the bulk of the steel was shipped to China and India. The Chinese firm Baosteel purchased 50,000 tons at a rate of $120 (£73) per ton. The rest of the steel was used for memorial material across all 50 states.

9. Plane engine survives crash
In the wake of the attacks, engineers volunteered to investigate the structural responses of the WTC buildings. According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a single engine from one of the planes that struck the Twin Towers miraculously survived the plane crash and the explosion and collapse of the Towers.

If you’ve always dreamed of having a dentist for a child, then make sure you give birth in December. But if you are hoping for a debt collector, then January is definitely your month.

That is the conclusion of researchers who have analysed the birth months of people in 19 separate occupations using information from the last census.

The results appear to indicate that a person’s month of birth could make them statistically more likely to end up as a footballer – or a bricklayer.

In January, GPs and debt collectors were found to be the professions with the greatest percentage above the monthly average. At the opposite end of the scale, it is a bad month for sheet-metal workers.

A February birth appears to increase the chances of being an artist, and March is good for pilots, according to the study by the Office for National Statistics. April and May are said to have a fairly even spread of professions.

Meanwhile, births in the summer months mean a much lower chance of becoming a high-earning football player, doctor or dentist.

For those born in September the two occupations with the greatest percentage above average were sports players and physicists.

The two jobs least likely to be taken up by September babies were found to be bricklayers and hairdressers, while December is said to be rich with dentists.


Although these trends may be difficult to explain, correlations between birth months and specific health problems have a scientific basis. Researchers believe the month in which babies are born could affect everything from intelligence to length of life.

Spring babies are at greater risk of a host of ills, including asthma, autism, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. They may also be less clever than classmates born in other seasons.

Full story at DailyMail

*Sext (that is, for those who don't know, send sexy pictures of themselves via text)

The New York Times recently reported on a new study that finds women are more likely to send sexy text messages than men. Two university researchers arrived at their results after they surveyed over 5,000 adult visitors to the infidelity web site, AshleyMadison.com. This website targets married men and women, and it attracts people who are or are looking to cheat.

The survey asked users questions about their internet use, sexual behaviors and demographics, where two-thirds of women surveyed were found to have sent sexy text messages in comparison to half of men.

These results came as no surprise Dr. Kholos Wysocki, one of the researchers, because she knows a lot of young men "who are constantly getting naked pictures from women on their phones." To her, sexting is on the rise and in a post-Weiner era, we know this to be true.

Yet, the results of this study are a little skewed as the adult visitors to AshleyMadison.com aren't a national representation of everyone who may or may not sext today.

Even so, sexting is still prevalent in society today and if you're going to send someone your naughty pictures, we suggest you take a look over our rules for sending lewd pictures first. Inspired by the Weiner and Favre scandals, we give you a list of do's and don'ts for sending sexts. After all, you wouldn't want your mother to get that close-up shot of your crotch, would you?

1. Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world's largest zipper manufacturer.

2. 40 percent of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

3. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

4. On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

5. Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog's heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

6. Ketchup was sold in the 1830's as a medicine.

7. Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

8. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

9. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

10. Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa's lips.

11. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.

12. The original name for the butterfly was "flutterby"!

13. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

14. Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

15. Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

16. The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

17. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

18. Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

19. Adolf Hitler's mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.

20. The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

21. To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

22. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

23. The "pound" (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

24. The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

25. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

26. The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.

27. Dreamt" is the only word in the English language that ends in "mt".

28. It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

29. In Chinese, the KFC slogan "finger lickin' good" comes out as "eat your fingers off".

30. A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

31. We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

32. Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

33. Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

34. Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

35. Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

36. When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying "yes" in Sri Lanka.

37. There are more chickens than people in the world.

38. The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

39. There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

40. The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.

41. The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each morning.

42. The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

43. The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.

44. Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

45. The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

46. Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.

47. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

48. A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.

49. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

50. The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

51. When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

52. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.

53. A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded

54. "I am." is the shortest complete sentence in the English language

55. Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command "go hang Yourself."

56. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.

57. "Bookkeeper" is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.

58. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.

59. The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every Letter in the English language.

60. If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction

61. China has more English speakers than the United States.

62. Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

63. Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

64. An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.

65. Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.

66. Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.

67. According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

68. The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu - a New Zealand hill.

69. If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.

70. Scientists in Australia's Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.

71. Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

72. More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.

73. Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.

74. Coca-Cola was originally green.

75. The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

76. The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

77. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

78. TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

79. Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

80. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath.

81. It is impossible to lick your elbow.

82. People say "Bless you" when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

83. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

84. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

85. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

86. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades - King David, Clubs - Alexander the Great, Hearts - Charlemagne, Diamonds - Julius Caesar.

87. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

88. If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

89. If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

90. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

91. Question - This is the only food that doesn't spoil. What is this? Ans. - Honey

92. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

93. A snail can sleep for three years.

94. All polar bears are left handed.

95. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

96. Butterflies taste with their feet.

97. Elephants are the only animals that can't jump.

98. In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

99. On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

100. Shakespeare invented the word 'assassination' and 'bump'.

101. Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

102. The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

103. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

104. The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

105. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

106. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

107. Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Prince Williams married Kate Middleton on 29 April 2011. Celebration comes in British Royal Family after 30 years.It was a big event and everybody in the world was eager to know about what's happening in the wedding.

Royal Wedding of Kate and Prince Williams was live broadcast on many tv channels and websites.Biggest video site YouTube was contracted to live the event.Twitter was also prepared for the live coverage of Royal Wedding.Many TV channels like TLC CNN, BBC, Fox and CBS etc. was doing the live broadcast of Royal Wedding.


The interesting facts:

1. Some 40 foreign royals have been invited, including the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the sultan of Brunei, the emperor of Japan, and kings of Malaysia, Tonga, and Thailand.

2. President Obama was snubbed from the guest list due to the expensive costs associated with added security to protect him at the wedding. But don't worry. Obama will return in May for an official UK state visit with a royal dinner, ball and all the other bells/whistles. French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni were also not invited due to security costs.

3. Kanye West got an invite. I can only pray he does not bring an open bottle of Hennessy or should he?

4. Male guests with a military record have been asked to don their armed-forces dress uniform, while women are expected to wear elegant afternoon dresses with or without a coat, or an elegant matching ensemble with a hat.

5. After the formal ceremony, 600 chosen guests will attend a lunchtime buffet--an extravaganza to dwarf the sit-down breakfast for 120 hosted by the queen for Charles and Diana in 1981. Buckingham Palace chef Darren McGrady told People magazine, "Guests will be invited back to Buckingham Palace for a wedding breakfast of Champagne, canapés, and heavy hors d'oeuvres, such as smoked salmon, paté, and mini sausage rolls." This list will also likely include petit fours, mini éclairs, trifle, and chocolate and lemon mousse. A multitiered centerpiece wedding cake will be beautifully decorated, perhaps with William's coat of arms, the top adorned with flowers.

6. When Prince William and Kate finally walk down the aisle on April 29th. Kate will be 29, making her the oldest royal bride EVER. (Most royal brides in history have typically been teenagers. Even William's mother, Princess Di, was barely 20 years old when she married his father, Prince Charles.) Although, according to statistics, this actually gives her a better chance at a longer future with William. Studies have shown that couple who marry closer to age 30 tend to divorce less than their younger counterparts.

7. Some homeless people got an invite as well. Prince William invited some guests who personally affected him in one way or another, including members of the homeless community and soldiers injured in Afghanistan and Iraq.

8. The future Princess Catherine (Kate wants to be called by her given name, Catherine, and not by her nickname, Kate) may have scored her late mother-in-law's 18-carat sapphire and diamond engagement ring, but that doesn't mean that her brother-in-law, Prince Harry, will have to go to Zales to pick something out for his future wife. He reportedly inherited Princess Diana's Cartier watch, reports Celebitchy.com. Funny enough, although the sapphire ring is "very special" to Prince William, neither Princess Diana nor Prince Charles picked it out! The Queen did.

9. When asked what they love about each other, William mentioned that (I still call her by her nickname) Kate had "plenty of habits" that he loved to tease her about. I think most people are happy to know that the soon-to-be British princess has just a touch of neurotic tendencies. She also reportedly can drink William under the table, which makes her a girl after my own heart.

10. After the messy divorces of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and Prince Andrew and Fergie, it's being speculated that Prince William and Kate will be the first royal couple to sign a pre-nup.

11. On Facebook nearly 2.8 million people in the UK and US updated their status about the Royal Wedding. While on Twitter users were posting 237 tweets every second about the Royal Wedding.

12. Wedding ring of Kate is made of gold from the Clogau Gold Mine in the Welsh mountains. The estimated cost of this ring is around 85,000 pounds

13. Total expanditure on Royal Wedding was 4500 crore Rs.

14. The cost of cake for Royal Wedding was 50 lacs(Rs)

15. Royal Wedding was viewed by 2 Billion people in the World.

16. The Royal Wedding is the first ever wedding that was live broadcast on YouTube.

You Could Be Pregnant For Over A Year
Most pregnancies last for about 9 months and doctors are likely to induce labor if pregnancy goes on too long. That being said, it is possible to be pregnant for a whole year. The world's longest pregnancy lasted 375 days, strangely, the baby was only a little under seven pounds.
It certainly puts a whole new perspective on being a few weeks late, doesn't it?

A Male Fetus Can Get Erections In The Womb
Most mothers don't like to think about their baby boys getting erections, even when they are teenagers, but the fact is that many baby boys get boners while they're still in the womb. In fact, babies of both sexes are known to masturbate in utero, but boys are the only ones who can be caught while aroused on the sonogram.

Your Entire Undercarriage Might Need Stitches
The last place any woman wants stitches is in her taint, but many mothers have to get that area closed up surgically. Nine out of ten women have some type of vaginal tearing after birth, but there are many degrees of tearing. Some tears only require a little care or a few stitches, but the really bad cases go from the vagina all the way to the anus. Some can even affect the muscles beyond your anus. On the upside, tearing that reaches the anus is somewhat rare and only affects one in one hundred mothers.
Massaging the area prior to child birth can reduce tearing, but even then, it won't completely stop tearing in most people.
Suddenly, getting a C-section started sounding a whole lot more appealing, huh?

You May Just Poop Yourself
During childbirth, it is extremely common for a woman to accidentally expel the contents of her bowels. There is a good reason for this –the muscles you use to push the baby out are the same ones you ordinarily use during a bowel movement. As if that weren't enough to get your sphincter ready to go, the baby directly pushes on the rectum as it makes its exit, helping to squeeze out anything near the exit.

In olden times, it was common for nurses to give enemas prior to labor, but this practice didn't end up stopping the mess from happening and often caused dehydration. These days, your doctors and nurses will be ready to help clean up the mess. In most cases, they won't even say anything about it so you won't know the difference.

You Really Will Glow
Saying a pregnant woman is glowing is a common expression, but most people chalk it up to the woman's excitement about becoming a mommy. As it turns out though, glowing skin is a very real thing for pregnant women. While you're pregnant, the amount of blood in your body will increase by 50%. The extra blood ends up showing through the skin in many areas, particularly the cheeks.

On top of this, hormones cause the oil glands to become more active, resulting in a softer, shinier appearance. When the increased blood flow combines with shine, the result is a noticeable glow.

Your Sense of Smell Gets Better
During pregnancy, your sense of smell increases drastically, as does your sense of taste. Scientists hypothesize that this is to help pregnant mothers avoid eating small levels of toxins that might not be dangerous to an adult, but could be deadly to a fetus. As smoke, alcohol and coffee are all particularly noticeable to pregnant women, this theory certainly seems to be on the right path.

Contractions Don't Stop After Birth
Most mothers will have contractions for the first few days after birth. The muscle cramps are the body's way of stopping excess blood loss. On the upside, if you give birth at the hospital, you'll still be pretty drugged up and will probably barely even notice.

You Don't Really Need To Eat For Two
Despite the widespread rumors that say pregnant women need to gain all the weight they can in order to birth a healthy baby, the truth is that most women will only need an extra 300 calories per day. That's equivalent to about one serving of yogurt and half a bagel. Most women only need to gain about 25 pounds throughout their entire pregnancy.

Of course, if you happen to be at the buffet and are having a tough time resisting the desserts section, go ahead and sneak a little extra. No one will give a pregnant woman a hard time if she pigs out.

Your Feet Can Grow Up To One Full Shoe Size
If you're wondering why your feet will get so big when you only gain 25 pounds, it has to do with the excess pressure on your feet paired with relaxed ligaments in your body. As your pregnancy wears on, your body starts to release the tightness of its ligaments to help with the birthing process. Unfortunately for your shoes, this also means your feet start to lose their arch and stretch out on the sides. The flatter, wider shape of your feet will probably be temporary, but if they grew too much, the change could end up being permanent. If your feet do stay a bit larger, it certainly will serve as a great excuse to buy more shoes.

The Father Might Show Symptoms of Pregnancy

It's surprisingly common for a father-to-be to start gaining weight, getting morning sickness and even feel cramps in his lower abdomen. The condition is known as a sympathetic pregnancy or the Couvade Syndrome, which comes from the french word couvee meaning "to hatch".

According to actual scientific studies, certain smells, sights, and even sounds can trigger a woman’s sex drive and make you seem more attractive. And it’s not all that hard to create them with everyday stuff. You may have one of these things in your garage (or your Xbox). You probably have a couple in your kitchen. And you assuredly have one in your pants (nope, it’s not what you think).

None of this stuff is as mysterious as pheromones or as complicated as becoming a motorcycle-riding, puppy-rescuing, poetry-writing male model. In fact, harnessing the power of most of these commonplace sensory sex-starters is as easy as reading on. For example, did you know that, according to science, women are turned on by…

YOUR RIGHT KNEE
As anyone who’s seen the movie Hitch knows, women go for guys who can dance. But it turns out that specific kinds of dance moves — rather than the random spasms you use to spank the planks — have been shown to arouse women more than others. So concentrate on large, varied movements of the neck and trunk, along with rapid movements of the right knee — yes, the right knee. The medical journal Biology Letters confirms that females favor those particular movements, as those areas are where women focus to determine the attractiveness of a dancing male.

FERRARI ENGINES
The powerful purr of Ferraris and other ridiculously powerful cars have been proven to elevate testosterone levels in women’s saliva, indicating an increase in sexual arousal. Don’t own a Ferrari? You’ve got a few options. You could find a luxury rental car operation, such as Gotham Dream Cars http://www.gothamdreamcars.com/, and sacrifice a month’s salary (or the black market cash equivalent for one of your less popular internal organs) for a few hours of horsepower. Alternatively, buy a $100 set of great speakers and invite her over to play Gran Turismo 5.

LESBIANS
No, seriously. Scientists at Northwestern University concluded that heterosexual women become sexually aroused by both male and female erotica. This arousal pattern stems from the fact that the sexual orientation of some women doesn’t necessarily dictate their turn ons. The study also suggests that heterosexual women may be more “flexible” than men when it comes to sexual arousal — meaning they respond to a wider range of sexual stimulants — and that, as a result, the sexual minds of men and women differ significantly. Though they certainly agree about lesbians.

DARTH VADER
While the ability to telekenetically crush a skeptical general’s larynx is bound to make chicks tingle in the nether regions, the post-pubescent voice of evil Anakin Skywalker is what launches them into hyperspace. A 2007 study by American and Canadian scientists confirmed that men with deep voices are believed to be more dominant, healthier, and masculine than their Beiber-toned brethren. According to a sample of 100 Tanzanian tribesmen and women — with no access to contraceptives, or other influential variables — there is a link between a deep voice and a large family; dudes with deep voices fathered the most children. Case-in-point, the late Barry White, whose timbre helped him father eight children. His poor sons; can you imagine having to seduce women by playing songs sung by your dad?

CUCUMBERS
Sorry, pervert — this phallic vegetable’s power to arouse women has nothing to do with it’s shape — instead, it’s all about the way it smells. The sense of smell is strongly tied to sexual arousal, and the crisp, fresh-with-a-hint-of-sweet-and-bitter smell of cucumbers has been scientifically proven to trigger increased blood flow to a woman’s clitoris*. So, while hiding an actual cucumber in your boxers is ill-advised (she’ll invariably be disappointed come harvest time), you’ve got another reason to give cucumber body wash a fair shot.

* Nope, it’s not a myth.

THE COLOR RED
Women who wear shades of scarlet and crimson are proven to attract more attention from men. Turns out, the reverse is also true — men garbed in red stand a better chance of attracting women. That’s because prolonged viewing of the color causes the body to increase adrenaline secretion and raise blood pressure. Red is also viewed as a dominant color in the wild, indicating power and masculinity, which explains why cardinals and lobsters get all kinds of action.

POTASSIUM
To signal her readiness to mate, a female rat will arch her back, raise her tail, and stand firm so the male can mount. (We hope to god you didn’t already know that.) Using this ratsex principle, researchers at Rockefeller University isolated the chemical and physical mechanism responsible for the female’s behavior and, long story short, showed a strong connection between sexual arousal and the flow of potassium ions in the brain.

SWEAT
Let those pit faucets flow, because Androstadienone, a chemical compound found in male sweat, boosts hormone levels, increases blood pressure, and raises the rate of breathing in women. Specifically, according to studies conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, male pit sweat has been shown to improve women’s moods and stimulate the secretion of “luteinizing hormone” — a chemical involved in triggering ovulation. So, next time you hit the gym, don’t bother doing laundry — just wring your tank top into a humidifier and prepare to be attacked.

Will the world end in 2012? Well let’s break down 5 possible reasons why 2012 will not be the end of the World as we know it. Hold on to your seats as you’re taken through a scientific journey into 2012.

Remember the Y2K scare? Everyone and their momma’s were bracing for a worldwide computer crash that could’ve set off nuclear missiles, ending life on earth, but nothing happened. Why? Because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation?

NASA scientists have studied Earth long enough to know this. The world will not end on Dec. 21, 2012 despite what the Mayan calendar shows us.

Here’s 5 reasons why:

1. Just like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed as well and the science of the end of the Earth has been studied thoroughly. So when asked if the Mayan calendar is true, here’s what scientists at NASA have to say:

“Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then, just as your calendar begins again on January 1, another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.”

2. When asked could some kind of phenomena occur where planets align in a way that could impact Earth, Nasa says no, not in the next few decades anyway.

“There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.”

3. Will Planet X or Eris approach the Earth and threaten our planet with destruction?

“Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.”

4. When asked if the Earth is in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012? It is unlikely.

“The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.”

5. Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012? Uhh uhh.

“Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.

Convinced yet?

NASA says, “Where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.”

There you have it. Five reasons why the world will not end in 2012!

Kisses have a right to take an honorable position on the list of functions of the human brain. Every human being living on planet Earth enables this function throughout their lives: women kiss men, men kiss women, Fidel Castro kisses Kim Jong-Il, etc. It is generally believed that one does not have to be smart to learn how to kiss. However, the issue is worth being analyzed from the scientific point of view.

A lot of scientists dedicated their numerous works to the matter of people's desire to kiss each other. Below you can find ten facts about the art of kissing.

1.About 30 muscles work very actively during the renowned French kiss: twelve of them control the movements of lips and eleven muscles are responsible for the tongue. The "French experience" accelerates the pulse from 70 to 150 beats per minute.

2. Young people start kissing two or three years before they launch their sex lives. Fifty percent of males experience the excitement of the first kiss at 13 or 14 years of age.

3. The longest kiss ever lasted for 17 days, 10 hours and 30 minutes. The record can be found in the Guinness Book of World Records, although the kissing couple had to be hospitalized with severe exhaustion. When they recovered, they never met each other again.

4. Kissing on the lips is the most popular way of kissing among men – over 67 percent of men expressed their approval. Fifty-six percent of men said they had nothing against kissing on the cheeks and 26 percent highly appreciated intimate kisses of the genitals (don't tell anyone). Toe kissing enjoys the smallest popularity – only one percent of male respondents approved it.

5. Fifteen percent of women said they would be ready to break apart with their boyfriend just because of his bad kissing capabilities. Women hate it, when the man's tongue is weak at kissing.

6. There are 278 types of germs living in the mouth of a human being. Those germs are harmless: when two people kiss, thousands of germs flow from one mouth to another. In such cases they produce enzymes and natural antibiotics for self-defense. As a result, the bodies of the two kissing individuals develop resistibility against all other pathogenic bacteria.

7. Lipstick commercials deliberately falsify the truth. Sixty-three percent of male respondents said that they prefer to kiss women's lips without lipstick on. They said that it was more natural and did not leave any traces all over the face. Forty-nine percent of men said that they liked to kiss slightly moisturized and soft lips. Only 35 percent said that they adored full, erotic lips aka Pamela Anderson. Monica Belucci, Julia Roberts and Sharon Stone are most popular celebrities, whose lips are considered very attractive for kisses.

8. Fifty-five percent of respondents said that the kiss of Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable was the most outstanding in "Gone with the Wind." Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas rank second with their "Basic Instinct" kiss. Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell finish the top three of best cinema kisses with their romantic kiss in heavy rainfall in "Four Weddings and a Funeral".

9. Scientists say that humans started kissing each other in the Age of Reptiles. However, the fact was acknowledged only in the XVI century. Earlier documentation and literature do not contain any description of kisses between man and woman. On the other hand, the characters of antiquity and ancient East greeted each other with kisses, even if they were kisses between two men - it was considered absolutely normal.

10. Forty-four percent of male and 48 percent of female respondents said they could not stand bites in the exquisite process of kissing. Women (39 percent) do not like to kiss slobbery men, although only 23 percent of men said that they were against the wet kissing. The most important kind of kiss, as 54 percent of men said, is to kiss a woman that you do not like.

Dreaming is one of the most mysterious experiences in our lives but what do we actually know about dreams? Here are some interesting facts that you probably didn't know.

You Forget 90% of Your Dreams
Within 5 minutes of waking, half of your dream if forgotten. Within 10 minutes, 90% is gone. The famous poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, woke one morning having had a fantastic dream, he put pen to paper and began to describe his “vision in a dream” in what has become one of English's most famous poems: Kubla Khan.

Blind People also Dream
People who become blind after birth can see images in their dreams. People who are born blind do not see any images, but have dreams equally vivid involving their other senses of sound, smell, touch and emotion. It is hard for a seeing person to imagine, but the body's need for sleep is so strong that it is able to handle virtually all physical situations to make it happen.

Men and Women Dream Differently
Every human being dreams but men and women have different dreams and different physical reactions. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women tend to dream equally about men and women. In addition, both men and women experience sexually related physical reactions to their dreams regardless of whether the dream is sexual in nature; males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow.

You Can Experience an 0rgasm in Your Dream
You can not only have s e x as pleasurable as in your real life while dreaming, but also experience an o r g a s m as strong as a real one without any wet results. The sensations felt while lucid dreaming can be as pleasurable and strong as the sensations experienced in the real world.

We Only Dream of What We Know
Our dreams are frequently full of strangers who play out certain parts – did you know that your mind is not inventing those faces – they are real faces of real people that you have seen during your life but may not know or remember? We have all seen hundreds of thousands of faces through our lives, so we have an endless supply of characters for our brain to utilize during our dreams.

Not Everybody Dreams in Color
Full 12% of sighted people dream exclusively in black and white. The remaining number dream in full color. Studies from 1915 through to the 1950s maintained that the majority of dreams were in black and white, but these results began to change in the 1960s. Today only 4.4% of the dreams of under-25 year-olds are in black and white. Recent research has suggested that those changing results may be linked to the switch from black-and-white film and TV to color media.

Dreams Prevent Psychosis
In a recent sleep study, students who were awakened at the beginning of each dream, but still allowed their 8 hours of sleep, all experienced difficulty in concentration, irritability, hallucinations, and signs of psychosis after only 3 days. When finally allowed their REM sleep the student's brains made up for lost time by greatly increasing the percentage of sleep spent in the REM stage.

Animals Dream Too
Studies have been done on many different animals, and they all show the same brain waves during dreaming sleep as humans. Watch a dog sleeping sometime. The paws move like they are running and they make yipping sounds as if they are chasing something in a dream.

Body Paralysis
During REM sleep the body is paralyzed by a mechanism in the brain in order to prevent the movements which occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, it is possible for this mechanism to be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens.

Dream Incorporation
Our mind interprets the external stimuli that our senses are bombarded with when we are asleep and make them a part of our dreams. This means that sometimes in our dreams we hear a sound from reality and incorporate it in a way. For example you may be dreaming that you are in a concert while your brother is playing a guitar during your sleep.

Precognitive Dreams
Results of several surveys across large population sets indicate that between 18% and 38% of people have experienced at least one precognitive dream and 70% have experienced déjà vu. The percentage of persons that believe precognitive dreaming is possible is even higher – ranging from 63% to 98%.

If You Are Snoring, Then You Can Not be Dreaming
This fact is repeated all over the Internet, but I'm a bit suspicious whether it's really true as I haven't found any scientific evidence to support it.

Note: Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a normal stage of sleep characterized by rapid movements of the eyes. REM sleep in adult humans typically occupies 20-25% of total sleep, about 90-120 minutes of a night's sleep)