Why do cats meow?

Different Cat Meows And Their Meanings

1) Demanding, loud meows

It usually doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what Kitty means when she issues a loud meow. It can usually be translated as "I want my dinner / a treat / let outside etc. etc. NOW!" Her body language and where she's standing will confirm the verbal demand.

2) Quiet, almost inaudible or even silent meows

There's usually no mistaking this one, either. Kitty is either saying "I'm really cute, give me immediate attention," or she's asking for something that she knows she shouldn't get - like some of your dinner while you're still eating it, for example. And heck, it works. She knows that you'll become putty in her paws the instant she pulls this little stunt.

3) Howls

A really loud howl may indicate Kitty is in pain, injured or seriously upset. You should always investigate when she howls loudly, to make sure she's OK.

Some clever cats learn that howling like a banshee gets them attention, so they'll do it solely for this reason. If yours falls into this category, still check up on her when she howls, but if she's just doing it for attention, don't give her any at that point. For advice on curbing excessive cat meowing, click here.

4) Screeching associated with fighting

Cat fighting screeches are frightening and unmistakable. Why do cats meow before and during a fight? Sometimes, if a cat screeches loud enough, he will frighten the other cat off before a fight has even begun. If not, screeching usually continues through the fight as it's adding to the cat's general aggressive behavior.

5) Hissing

Cat hissing is also unmistakable. It may be associated with cat fighting, or it may be telling a human, dog or other animal to back off in no uncertain terms. It is best to back off if a cat is hissing at you, unless you're trying to set an unusual new fashion trend in cat bites and cat scratches. You're best to let her calm down, and approach her later when she's in a less aggressive frame of mind.

6) Other meows

There are lots of meows that don't fall into the above categories. They can mean all sorts of things. By listening to Kitty's meows in different circumstances, and watching her behavior at the same time, you'll eventually be able to work out what many of them mean.

The answer to the question "why do cats meow?" isn't at all straightforward. Kitty is an intelligent, complex little creature, and you can have a fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable time trying to figure her out.

Why do cats lick people?

When a cat licks you, it can serve several purposes. Grooming, affection (which grooming is a part of), tasting, and leaving their scent on you.

Especially kittens use licking to taste new things. Even if their sense of taste isn't as developed as that of humans, they still behave like human children and learn about new things by tasting them.

If you meet other cats while you're away, your cat will smell them on you -- even if you didn't really cuddle the other cat, since a cat's sense of smell is about ten times as acute as ours -- and will "mark" you as HER (or his) human, so the other cats don't think you're a stray and try to adopt you ;p If you did pet the other cats, your cat will cover their scent with her (or his) own, and at the same time learn as much as possible about the other cat.

Cats groom their kittens to care for them, to keep them healthy and to show them they are loved. A cat will do the same to you, of course, since she likes you and wants to show you that she cares about you. =)

I don't know that much about dogs and why they lick people though ^^ So I can't say if they have different reasons or not (well, slightly different, I guess).

Why do cats sleep so much?

There's no doubt about it: cats sure know how to sleep. Although the amount of time spent napping varies from cat to cat, and depends on the cat's age and personality, felines spend an average of 13 to 16 hours each day curled up in slumber. Only the opossum and the bat sleep more – napping away almost 20 hours a day.

Nobody is sure why cats sleep so much. Cats evolved from a long line of hunters and predators – and their sleep patterns reflect that. For one thing, they are crepuscular (most active at dawn and dusk), since most of their prey is active at these times. This gives them plenty of time to sleep during the middle of the day.

The cat's diet may play an important role in its sleep patterns. Large grazing herbivores must graze for hours to supply their bodies with enough food. But the protein-rich diet of the cat does not require such an investment of time, and allows him plenty of time for napping.

Of course, today's modern indoor cat sometimes sleeps out of boredom. You can help your kitty by providing plenty of stimulation during the day – this can be in the form of toys, a companion, or by spending quality playtime with you. If he has plenty to do during the day, he may prefer to stay awake then, and sleep more during the night when you do.

What Happens During Sleep

Sleep consists of two basic phases: Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, when dreams occur, and Non-REM (NREM) or deep sleep. If a cat is deprived of either sort of sleep, it becomes confused and irritable.

During NREM sleep, your cat's body repairs and regenerates itself. Kittens build their muscles and bones. The immune system strengthens and revitalizes. Kittens need more NREM sleep than adults and with advancing years the amount of NREM sleep diminishes.

During REM sleep, your cat's eyes move behind the eyelids, limbs twitch, and whiskers move around. Up to 60 percent of your cat's sleep is REM sleep, three times more than we have when we are asleep.

Cats Really Catnap

Newborn kittens sleep most of the time, but this keeps them safe in the nest and also keeps them quiet so that they don't attract predators. As they mature, young cats sleep patterns begin to conform to those of adults, with them tending to sleep in naps rather than having one long rest. Again this has to do with their predatory nature.

Cats in the wild must be on the alert in order to survive. When your domestic cat sleeps, his finely tuned senses are still active and ready to spring into action. Watch your cat while he's napping. His ears rotate as he stays in touch with his environment, and if he hears a noise or senses that someone is approaching, he will open his eyes to assess the situation before falling back to sleep. If you try to wake a sleeping cat, he can transform from deeply sleeping cat to one that's fully alert in a matter of seconds – and then back again.

*Cats Sleep...Anywhere

...any table...any chair...top of piano...window ledge...in the middle...on the edge...

Your cat looks for a place that feels comfortable and safe and has the right temperature. When the weather is warm, he seeks high shaded sleeping nooks, where he can stretch out. During the cool winter months he'll find a place bathed in the warm sunshine or sidle up to heat source, and there he'll curl up with face between paws to reduce body heat loss.

You can make a comfortable bed for your kitty or choose from the variety of plush feline beds at your pet store. However, if you are so inclined, you can let your cat sleep in his favorite place – your bed. In a recent poll, 60 percent of cat owners admitted that they share their beds with a cat. Advocates of this method say it strengthens the human-feline bond – not to mention the warmth and comfort your cat provides you.

Why do cookies have flour?

The flour creates gluten, which helps the cookies have structure. In some cases, it even adds to the flavor. Basically it holds it all together.

Why do cats purr?

When your cat climbs into your lap, tucks in his paws under himself, and begins to purr, all is right in his world. This is one of the things we love about our cats; that feeling of contentment they share with us. When cats become soft purring bundles of warm reassuring fur, we feel calmer and more peaceful ourselves. We may not always hear the purring – a soft vibrating rumble – but we can feel it. But why do cats purr? And what produces this characteristic sound?

According to veterinarian Bruce Fogle, author of The Cat's Mind, the original function of purring was to enable a kitten to communicate with his mother that things are well. A kitten is able to purr by the second day of life, and although he can't meow and nurse at the same time, he can purr and nurse. And the mother cat often purrs back, probably to reassure the kitty.

There are many theories to explain how the purr is generated. One study determined that purring involves activation of nerves within the voice box. These nerve signals cause vibration of the vocal cords while the diaphragm serves as a piston pump, pushing air in and out of the vibrating cords, thus creating a musical hum. Veterinarian Neils C. Pederson, author of Feline Husbandry, believes that purring is initiated from within the central nervous system and is a voluntary act. In other words, cats purr only when they want to.

Purring is an integral part of the feline communication system and occurs for a variety of reasons. It is classified with the "murmur vocalization" group, which involves sounds produced by a cat while the mouth is closed. In addition to purring, this group of sounds includes grunting, calling, and acknowledgment murmurs. Domestic cats and some wild cats, like pumas and mountain lions (almost any big cat that cannot roar), are all able to purr.

As the cat matures the meaning of the purr changes. Some cats purr to indicate contentment or pleasure, but badly frightened cats and severely ill cats also purr, and so do females while they are delivering their kittens. It is not uncommon for cats to purr when they are close to death. This final purring may indicate a state of anxiety or possibly euphoria, states that have also been described in terminally ill people.

Animal behaviorists believe that when cats purr under stressful circumstances, they are reassuring or comforting themselves, much as humans may sing to themselves or hum when they are nervous. Frightened cats may purr to communicate submissiveness or non-aggressive intentions. A feral cat may purr to signal that he will not attack and other cats need not feel threatened. Older cats may purr when they play or approach other cats, signaling that they are friendly and want to come closer.

A more recent theory about purring is that it is caused by the release of nature's own morphine-like substances (endorphins) in the brain. Since endorphins are released under circumstances of pain and pleasure, this would explain the seemingly ambiguous expression of purring. This theory jives with Pederson's reasoning, that purring is initiated in the brain, and is also compatible with the more mechanical explanations for purring, as endorphins activate one of the main action systems in the brain (so thought is translated into movement). Whatever the explanation for purring, it seems to indicate cats' contentment and is associated with improvement in their affect at times of stress. Purring is one of cats' most endearing qualities.

Why do black people have nappy hair?

People predominately from Western Africa (not the entire continent of people have extra kinky hair - Eastern Africans like Ethiopians for example) have extra kinky hair as a defense mechanism against the sun. Same reason our skin is so dark.

Darker skin has more melanin (sp. sorry) and more concentrated this is, the more protection you have against the sun. That's not to say you are immune, but if you are living in an extremely hot climate like West Africa, and you're living before sunscreen was invented, you have way more of an advantage if your skin contains high levels of melanin.

Hair on the top of the head that coils and coils and is very dense and close to the scalp protects your scalp/head from the sun as well. So when you're out gathering food and water all day and/or hunting, the sun won't fry your brain. So the original man, because of where he was located, evolved to have extremely dark skin and extremely coily/kinky hair to protect him from the sun's exposure.

Thousands of years ago, as people started to migrate and populate the world, they evolved or changed, just like any other animal, to adapt to their environment. Those who moved to much colder climates needed more vitamin D in their skin and did not require or need so much melanin so they paled. Their hair got less kinky so it could help warm them as it was easier for the hair to show length the straighter it is.

If you look at the planet, you can pretty much see that people look the way they look in response to their environment. It's not perfect (because of other nations conquering other nations, producing different looking people than the original people that were there) because the adaption takes thousands of years, but that's why people look different in a nutshell. Once you know this it really makes racism look even more ridiculous.

Why do atoms bond?

Atoms bond because they have an inherent need to have their outermost level of electrons be "full".

Some lose their electrons to eliminate a level of energy, at which point the new outer most level (the one underneath the one that removed) electrons do not occupy a level until the levels closes to the nucleus is are full.

At This point they are ionic. The other bonding element gains the losing atoms electrons.

This results in one atom being positively charged and the other negatively charged resulting in attraction between the two. (cations and anions, respectively).

Why do animals have tails?

Animals have tails for assisting in balance and steering, propulsion,
grasping, grooming (swatting flies is one example) and for display. One of
the gaudiest tail displays I can think of is the male peacock's tail. Believe
it or not, we still have remnants of tails because or ancestors did. This is
a good example of a useful characteristic (the tail) evolving in our ancestors
but not being retained in the descendants (us!) because of a loss of evolutionary
selective pressure. Because we can modify our environment, it is unlikely that
we will evolve to regain tails! What other uses for tails can you think of?

Why do animals hibernate?

Grizzly black bears, hummingbirds and squirrels hibernate in the winter because a long, chilly season of little food and warmth is no picnic for these animals.

Unlike the warm seasons of spring and summer that provide an unlimited amount of food for these critters, the winter season only provides a cold, frozen ground where food is extremely scarce.

In addition, the wintery days are frigid and short while the hours in the dark night seem to drag on for a chilly eternity. Searching for grub often leaves the stomachs of these animals empty because by the end of their search their bodies end up burning more calories than the animals get back from the food when and if any is found. So instead of starving or freezing to death, these animals decide to pack in all in for the long haul and hibernate during the winter months.

Hibernation helps these animals survive in the roughest and toughest conditions. By hibernating, an animal decreases its body.s energy needs to a bare minimum. Hibernation is a process of lowering an animals body temperature and slowing down its heartbeat into order to conserve energy during times of scarcity and stress.

Every animal hibernates in different ways. While squirrels can wake up every four days to grab a bite to eat and take a trip to the bathroom, black bears can stay dormant, or inactive, for up to seven months with no food, water, or visits to the bathroom.

Why do apples turn brown?

Apples and other produce (e.g., pears, bananas, peaches, potatoes) contain an enzyme (called polyphenol oxidase or tyrosinase) that reacts with oxygen and iron-containing phenols that are also found in the apple. The oxidation reaction basically forms a sort of rust on the surface of the fruit. You see the browning when the fruit is cut or bruised because these actions damage the cells in the fruit, allowing oxygen in the air to react with the enzyme and other chemicals.

The reaction can be slowed or prevented by inactivating the enzyme with heat (cooking), reducing the pH on the surface of the fruit (by adding lemon juice or another acid), reducing the amount of available oxygen (by putting cut fruit under water or vacuum packing it), or by adding certain preservative chemicals (like sulfur dioxide). On the other hand, using cutlery that has some corrosion (as is seen with lower quality steel knives) can increase the rate and amount of the browning by making more iron salts available for the reaction.

Why are zombies so popular?

They smell bad, can't talk and generally possess a single-minded hunger for human flesh.

So why, exactly, do we love zombies so much?

According to experts -- and, yes, there are zombie experts -- it's because for all their limitations, the brain-rotted, animated corpses are so darned versatile -- helping reflect whatever our greatest fears happen to be at the time.

"You can't shoot the financial meltdown in the head -- you can do that with a zombie," said Max Brooks, author of the best-selling "Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z" -- which is currently in development to become a movie.

"All the other problems are too big. As much as Al Gore tries, you can't picture global warming. You can't picture the meltdown of our financial institutions. But you can picture a slouching zombie coming down the street."

Zombies initially shuffled onscreen in 1932 as the mindless minions of horror movie legend Bela Lugosi in the film "White Zombie." This weekend, they'll chase a shotgun-and-banjo-toting Woody Harrelson through an amusement park when "Zombieland" opens.

They've also starred in video games, music videos, pop songs and books, picking up a devoted, if not obsessive, set of fans along the way.

Since ancient times, monster stories have been used to channel other concerns about life and death, said Andrea Wood, a graduate fellow at Georgia Tech who teaches the course "Apocalyptic Nightmares of the Living Dead" and is working on a book about zombies in popular culture.

But the zombie, she said, offers a uniquely blank canvas.

"Since the zombie doesn't have the long literary tradition of the vampire or a number of other monsters, it allows artists a degree of autonomy to conceptualize the zombie any way they see fit," said Wood.

Early zombie films like "White Zombie" and 1943's "I Walked With a Zombie" stick to the monster's Caribbean voodoo traditions, in which some sort of evildoer uses magic to force the recently deceased to do his bidding.

It's no coincidence, says Peter Dendle, an associate professor of English at Pennsylvania State University-Mont Alto, that such stories emerged during the Great Depression.

"The United States that prided itself on individuality and hard work found itself standing in soup lines," said Dendle, author of "The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia" and other works about the undead. "The terror in Haiti is not so much being attacked by a zombie, but becoming one -- having your life and soul taken from you and placed under someone else's will."

In 1968, director George A. Romero re-imagined the monsters as flesh-eating ghouls, creating the pop-culture zombie identity that exists to this day. In the turbulent late '60s, Romero's zombies helped provide some thinly veiled commentary on race, class and the breakdown of the American Dream.

Since then, zombie movies have given viewers a way to consider, if indirectly, problems such as natural disasters, technology gone awry, deadly viruses and the daily grind of their own lives.

Nervous about warfare and military secrets? Wait until they unleash a poisonous nerve gas in "Planet Terror." Think animal-rights activists go too far? Watch them rescue and release a monkey that spreads the "Rage" virus in "28 Days Later."

And then there's one of the most basic human fears of all, the fear of death.

"[With zombies] we see the process of decay as it happens right before our eyes," Wood said. "They are this kind of perverse manifestation of humans' desire for immortality gone horribly awry."

Brooks, whose third book, the graphic novel "Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks," will be released Wednesday, said zombies provide a safe and socially acceptable way to deal with those fears.

"It's safe to do something like a zombie walk -- it isn't so fun to do a swine flu walk," Brooks said. "If, at a party, you bring up how you'd survive a zombie attack, you'd be the life of the party. But if you say, 'What would you do if super-AIDS came to America?' you'd clear the room."

Throughout their history, zombie movies have tended to be low-budget affairs. The highest-grossing zombie movie was the 2004 remake of Romero's "Dawn of the Dead," which hauled in about $59 million. That put the film at No. 92 on Horror.com's list of 100 top-grossing horror movies.

But the films often achieve cult-classic status, with fans continuing to watch them decades after they're released.

Whether "Zombieland," with its big budget and high-profile cast, breaks that trend, nobody is expecting tales of the walking dead to ever go away.

"In the early 2000s, I had all but pronounced the genre dead -- there hadn't been a big studio movie in more than 10 years," he said. "I've gone out of that business. I've pulled up my shingle for pronouncing the death knell of the zombie."

After all, like zombies, zombie movies are remarkably resilient (even when faced with shotguns and chainsaws). That's another part of the appeal, experts say -- appeal that can be measured in such things as a 74,000-member Facebook group titled "The Hardest Part of a Zombie Apocalypse Will Be Pretending I'm Not Excited."

To promote his books, Brooks travels the country talking about the undead menace. Instead of questions about writing, he said he often gets asked about the best type of ammunition to kill a zombie or the best way to prepare your house for the coming onslaught.

"I'd say 90 percent are saying, 'We all know it's fake; we're playing along,' " he said. "The other 10 percent are saying, 'We're ready!'

"And I'd say 10 percent of that 10 percent can't wait for it to happen."

Why are zoos good?

Humans have an insatiable fascination with wild animals. Every year, millions of people go on safaris, board whale-watching cruises and watch Jeff Corwin get attacked by snakes on Animal Planet; others drive to their local zoo for a full day of animal gazing.

This interest in animals is nothing new: Zoos have been entertaining people with exotic animal collections as far back as 1250 B.C. [source: Fravel]. Later, in early 13th-century England, Henry III moved his family's royal menagerie to the Tower of London for public viewing. For a small fee, visitors would be treated to glimpses of animals like lions, camels and lynxes. And if they brought a dog or cat to feed the lions, they got in for free.

The first modern zoo -- the Imperial Menagerie in Vienna, Austria -- was established in 1752 and continues to attract visitors to this day. Nearby, in Germany, is the world's largest animal collection: Zoo Berlin (formerly The Berlin Zoological Gardens) houses more than 15,000 animals from almost 1,700 species.

All U.S. animal exhibitors, like the 265-acre (107-hectare) Bronx Zoo just a subway ride away from Fifth Avenue, must apply for and receive a license from the Department of Agriculture. Millions of people visit the thousands of zoos around the world, proving that we simply never grow tired of observing wildlife.

Depending on your point of view, though, zoos are either sanctuaries of education and entertainment or unnecessary prisons. While some people argue that zoos play an important role in conservation and research, others counter that they do more harm than good.

So which is it? Are zoos good or bad? And how do you differentiate between what's good for one animal versus what's good for the entire species? It's a delicate question and one that can't easily be answered. Let's start with the good news.

Zoo Pros: Education, Conservation, Entertainment

Zoos have improved significantly in the last 4,000 or so years. Gone are the old steel-bar enclosures and cold cement cages. Most zoos these days use natural-looking barriers like moats or ditches to separate animals from people, and have mini-habitats that resemble the animals' natural environment.

Successful breeding programs brought the Pere David's deer back from extinction. Though this Asian deer ceased to exist in the wild, Chinese and European zoo programs enabled four of the deer to be released back into the wild in 1985, where they're now self-sustaining.

What Perfume Are You Wearing?

As zookeepers at the Bronx Zoo discovered, cheetahs have a strong affinity for Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men. When they sprayed the cologne on logs and grasses as part of a stimulation exercise, the females went crazy, rolling and pawing at the scent and defending the sprayed object against approaching male cheetahs. Observers think the cologne's musk, an ingredient also naturally secreted by animals, could be what makes it so irresistible.

Some zoos also take in abandoned animals that wouldn't otherwise have a home. Both the Baltimore Zoo and the Detroit Zoo have taken in polar bears rescued from a traveling circus, and the Bronx Zoo took in an orphaned snow leopard from Pakistan in 2007. The cub, Leo, now spends his time frolicking and chasing small animals that wander into his enclosure.

And although zoo animals aren't treated quite like guests at a four-star hotel, their care has improved tremendously. Zookeepers now understand that many animals, such as monkeys, bears and elephants, need engaging activities to prevent boredom and mental deterioration. This is why you'll often see chimps playing with toys or tigers "hunting" for a meal.

Aside from taking care of captive animals, many zoos also contribute to the care of their wild counterparts. The Toledo Zoo, in conjunction with the Nature Conservancy, is helping to restore butterfly habitats in Ohio, and the Bronx Zoo has channeled more than $3 million toward conservation projects in central Africa.

Zoos also present an opportunity for scientists to conduct research. In 2002, zoos participated in 2,230 research and conservation projects in more than 80 countries. The information they gather helps them to develop new medicines and techniques to improve animal health.

Beyond the positive impact zoos try to have on animals, they often affect the people visiting as well. Zoos don't just entertain, they also aim to educate. With a variety of programs geared toward children and adults, zoos teach people about the needs of animals and the importance of conservation. And if people get excited enough, the thinking goes that they'll be more inclined to donate money to conservation efforts -- another zoo pro.

The fact that zoos impact people in a positive way is nice, but it's not the people critics worry about -- it's the animals.

Zoo Cons: Wild Animals Are Meant to Be Wild

For evidence of some zoo cons, you need look no further than Maggie the elephant. Until the Alaska Zoo finally caved in to public pressure in 2007, Maggie was forced to spend days on end in a small indoor enclosure because of the frigid outside temperatures. Perhaps as a form of protest, she refused to use the elephant-sized treadmill the zoo brought in to encourage her to exercise.

Even in optimal conditions, some experts contend, it's incredibly difficult to provide for the needs of animals like elephants. If Maggie and her captive compatriots lived in the wild, they would wander as much as 30 miles (48 kilometers) a day in large groups, grazing on leaves and stopping to splash in the occasional watering hole. As it is, they're lucky to get a few acres and a roommate or two.

While conditions have improved from the years of bars and cages, detractors take issue with other items. Although the natural-looking habitats are certainly more attractive, people like David Hancocks, a zoo consultant and former zoo director, describe them as mere illusions, arguing that they're not much of an improvement in terms of space [source: Lemonick]. Indeed, many captive animals exhibit signs of severe distress: People have witnessed elephants bobbing their heads, bears pacing back and forth and wild cats obsessively grooming themselves.

Animal behaviorists maintain that their distress is understandable. Animals like zebras, giraffes and gazelles were designed to run across miles of open terrain, not live out their lives in captivity. Despite a zoo's best efforts, its animals often are deprived of privacy, confined to inadequate spaces and unable to engage in natural hunting and mating activities. Forced to live in artificial constructs, many animals succumb to what some people refer to as zoochosis, the display of obsessive, repetitive behaviors.

In addition, many animals have precise needs that zookeepers are just beginning to understand. Some, like the aardvark, survive on a limited diet that zoos have a hard time fulfilling; others thrive only in certain temperatures and environments that aren't easy to recreate.

Even zoos' conservation efforts leave something to be desired. Of 145 reintroduction programs carried out by zoos in the last century, only 16 truly succeeded in restoring populations to the wild [source: Fravel]. The condors mentioned on the previous page? About two-thirds of them were actually strong enough to survive in the wild.

Zoos may not even benefit people as much as once thought. According to one study, many visitors don't pay much attention to the animals -- they're actually talking to each other about unrelated things and spending only a few minutes at each display.

It's a toss-up whether zoos are good or bad for animals. As you've seen, it depends a lot on what zoo you're talking about. It also depends on whether you're referring to the well-being of a single animal actually living in a zoo or an animal, thousands of miles away, benefiting from the zoo's research and conservation efforts. If you had the communicative power of Dr. Doolittle, Leo the snow leopard would likely tell you that zoos are great; however Maggie the elephant might respond by slapping you with her trunk.

Why are zebras striped?

As a child I was always full of questions. I remember asking my parents why zebras were striped or why did giraffes have such a long neck. Most of the time the answers were elusive and I used to be very irritated. I could never get the right answer to satisfy my curiosity. I now realize why my parents could not give me a concrete answer. You see I happened to be in the same dilemma when my three-year-old daughter asked me the same question! I was faced with the difficult task of giving her half-baked answers or finding the right answers this time.

The most obvious question to ask about zebras is why are zebras striped? Unfortunately nobody really knows the answer. Looking at zebras in the zoo, the striped pattern seems very conspicuous and could hardly be thought of as protective.

Zoologists believe the stripes on a zebra could be one of several reasons. It could be basically for camouflage very much like the military fatigues. The bold wavy lines of a zebra blend in with the tall wavy grassy plains of Africa where these animals live. The bold stripe may even serve to break up the shape of the Zebra. If a zebra is standing still in such surroundings, a lion, its chief predator, may overlook it completely.

It doesn't matter that the zebra's stripes are black and white and the grass are dusty brown or green, because the lion is colour blind!

However this may benefit an individual zebra in some situations but is it likely a large zebra herd would be able to escape a lion's notice? This is exactly where it helps the zebra most. Zebra herds are very large but they stay very close to one another.

When all the zebras stick together in a herd, the pattern of stripes blends in with the stripes of the zebras around it. This is confusing to the lion! All it can see is a large, moving, striped mass instead of many individual zebras. The lion has trouble picking out individual zebras and it's harder still for the lion to recognize which way each zebra is moving!

Each zebra pattern is unique like a fingerprint. Also like a fingerprint, the patter varies from zebra to zebra and no two zebras are exactly alike. What is truly amazing is that zebras can recognize other zebras from their body stripe! A mother can instantly spot her colt in a herd!

There are three species classified according to the variations in the arrangement of the stripes - the Imperial or Grevy's zebra, the Plains or Common zebra and the Mountain zebra - and several subspecies. The mountain zebra is the smallest of these averaging only four feet. It has silver-white stripes with black markings that extend to every part of the body except the stomach and the inner part of thighs. Plains zebras travel in large herds and are pale yellow with broad black stripes. This specie has several variations: some have stripes down to the hooves while the lower legs of the others are solid white without any stripes.

Do you know that people of Africa think of zebras as black animals with white stripes whereas people outside Africa consider them as white animals with black stripes! Black stripes or white, the fact remains that zebras are extremely unique and are among the fastest and most graceful of runners in the African bush land.

Why are xbox 360 so loud?

If you mean the loudness of the Xbox itself and not the sound coming from the speaker: The disc spins at twelve times the speed of a normal DVD. That means 150-200 revolutions per *second* (or almost 10000 rpm). As the discs are sometimes slightly bent due to manufacturing or careless pulling out of the case the discs start to vibrate, causing the noise.

If you play a Demo or arcade game from the harddisc, the Xbox 360 is relatively silent.

Why are x-rays dangerous?

X-rays are a form of ionizing radiation. When normal light hits an atom, it can't change the atom in any significant way. But when an X-ray hits an atom, it can knock electrons off the atom to create an ion, an electrically-charged atom. Free electrons then collide with other atoms to create more ions.

An ion's electrical charge can lead to unnatural chemical reactions inside cells. Among other things, the charge can break DNA chains. A cell with a broken strand of DNA will either die or the DNA will develop a mutation. If a lot of cells die, the body can develop various diseases. If the DNA mutates, a cell may become cancerous, and this cancer may spread. If the mutation is in a sperm or an egg cell, it may lead to birth defects. Because of all these risks, doctors use X-rays sparingly today.

Why are white people called crackers?

The origins of the term "cracker" are unknown, with multiple theories to explain its history.

One theory holds that the term comes from the common diet of poor whites. According to the 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, it is a term of contempt for the "poor" or "mean whites," particularly of Georgia and Florida. Britannica notes that the term dates back to the American Revolution, and is derived from the cracked corn which formed their staple food. (In British English "mean" is also a term for tightfistedness, with no malice implied.)

Another theory is that slaver foremen in the antebellum South used bullwhips to discipline African slaves, with such use of the whip being described as 'cracking the whip'. In this folk etymology the white foremen who cracked these whips were thus known as 'crackers'.

An alternate whip-related theory is that the term is linked to early Florida cattle herders (Florida crackers) that traditionally used whips to herd wild Spanish cattle. These cowboys were distinct from the Spanish vaqueros of Florida. The crack of the herders' whips could be heard for great distances when they were used to round cattle in pens and to keep the cows on a given track. Also, "cracker" has historically been used to refer to those engaged in the low paying job of cracking pecans and other nuts in Georgia and throughout the southeast U.S.

Yet another theory is that the term derives from an Elizabethan word used to describe braggarts. The original root of this is the Middle English word crack meaning "entertaining conversation" (one may be said to "crack" a joke); this term and the alternate spelling craic are still in use in Ireland, Scotland and Northern England. It is documented in Shakespeare's King John (1595): "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears with this abundance of superfluous breath?"

Why are video games bad?

Video games can be bad for you, but not for the reasons you might think. They're not bad for you because they'll make you violent — because they won't. However they can be bad for you for other reasons.

Here's a look at the top 5 reasons why video games can be bad for you.

Video Games Can Be Addictive

Addiction is defined as "The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something."† Anyone who has really been into video games has experienced this. Kids and adults alike think about getting home and playing games. They also spend a great deal of time reading gaming magazines, participating in online gaming forums, looking for future game releases, and of course, spending countless hours playing games. When they aren't doing any of these things, they're wishing they were.

Video Games Can Be Expensive

It cost a lot of money to stay current with the latest video games and hardware (console and/or computer). Many gamers spend all of their money on gaming. For example, it's not uncommon for a gamer to have 50-100 games that cost $40-$50 each. They also often have at least 2 different game consoles and 1 high-end PC. This can easily add up to thousands of dollars a year to maintain a typical gamer's habits.

Video Games Can Hurt Relationships

There's often a direct correlation with the amount of time spent playing video games, and the amount of time spent engaging in a quality relationship. In the most extreme example I could find, there was a couple that was so consumed with playing video games that they ended up neglecting their 3 children — to the point that they were malnourished, naked, and covered in their own feces. Although that's an extreme case, I still think there's something to be said about people who spend the majority of their free time playing video games. My guess is that they're probably not dating or pursuing a meaningful relationship in their free time.

Update: A reader brought to my attention an online group dedicated to loved ones who have been affected by their partner's addiction to World of WarCraft (WoW). Their description includes the following:

Do you have a loved one that plays World of Warcraft so much that you feel like you are a widow? This group isn't just for wives, but for anyone, husbands, girl or boyfriends, mothers, fathers, sons or daughters, or anyone that has had a relationship effected by this addictive game.

Video Games Can Be Distracting

Avid gamers are similar to people who smoke a lot of marijuana — in that they don't get much done. Reading a good book, taking care of bills, writing an article, inventing something, mowing the lawn, etc... are simply not a priority when it comes to getting to the next level or finishing a game. Many gamers have things they would like to do in life, but they never get around to it, because they spend so much of their time playing games. Then, when they do have time to work on one of their projects, they're too tired to do it, because they stayed up till 3am playing a game.

Video Games Can Rob You Of Real Life Experiences

Instead of taking a trip, mountain biking, or hanging out with friends at a cafe, gamer's spend their time in a virtual reality. Whereas real life experiences bear long lasting friendships and memories, videos games do not. The only pictures that come from video games are screenshots, and the memories that are created from playing those games are ultimately meaningless. Living means interacting, growing, learning, teaching, and loving — none of which can be accomplished in the virtual wasteland of video games.

Why are video games addictive?

Most adolescents like to spend at least part of their free time playing video games. But for some, what starts out as innocent recreation can become an addiction. Soon, friends, family, school, and even personal hygiene are neglected as nearly every spare moment is spent playing the game.

But what makes a game addictive? Are there certain characteristics that make some games more addictive than others? Why are some teens more susceptible than others to this kind of addiction?

Having a hard time getting your child away from the TV or computer? Read "Why Won't My Child Stop Playing Video Games?" for help on weaning your child from games and the Internet.

As with any addiction, video game or "gaming" addiction is usually a multi-faceted issue. For starters, video games are designed to be addictive. Not "addictive" in the clinical sense of the word, but game designers are always looking for ways to make their games more interesting and increase the amount of time people will spend playing them. There are Web sites devoted to gaming design where gamers try to answer the question, "What makes a video game addictive?" They want you - once you log in or pick up that controller - to never want to stop playing.

Consequently, games are designed to be just difficult enough to be truly challenging, while allowing players to achieve small accomplishments that compel them to keep playing. In that respect, the design of video games is similar to the design of gambling casinos, which will allow players to have small "wins" that keep them playing. There are several "hooks" that are built into games with the intent of making them "addictive":

The High Score

Whether you've tried out the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto or haven't played a video game since PacMan, the high score is one of the most easily recognizable hooks. Trying to beat the high score (even if the player is trying to beat his own score) can keep a player playing for hours.

Beating the Game

This "hook" isn't used in online role-playing games, but is found in nearly every gaming system. The desire to beat the game is fed as a player "levels up," or finds the next hidden clue.

Role-Playing

Role-playing games allow players to do more than just play - they get to actually create the characters in the game and embark on an adventure that's somewhat unique to that character. Consequently, there's an emotional attachment to the character, and the story makes it much harder to stop playing.

Discovery

The exploration or discovery tactic is most often used in role-playing games. One of the most popular online games currently is World of Warcraft, and a good portion of the game is spent exploring imaginary worlds. This thrill of discovery (even of places that don't really exist) can be extremely compelling.

Relationships

Again, this is primarily an online "hook." Online role-playing games allow people to build relationships with other players. For some kids, this online community becomes the place where they're most accepted, which draws them back again and again.
Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) can be especially addictive because there's no ending. Unlike standard games like Super Mario Brothers, where you win when you save the princess, you can't rescue the princess in an MMORPG.

Another consideration is that some people are more prone to addiction of any kind than others, gaming or otherwise. Kids who are easily bored, have poor relationships with family members, feel like outcasts at school, or tend toward sensation-seeking are more easily drawn into video game addiction because it fills a void and satisfies needs that aren't met elsewhere.

In addition to the psychological addiction, it's now believed that there may be a physiological element to addictive game playing. Researchers at Hammersmith Hospital in London conducted a study in 2005 which found that dopamine levels in players' brains doubled while they were playing. Dopamine is a mood-regulating hormone associated with feelings of pleasure. The findings of this study indicate that gaming could actually be chemically addictive.

Though the debate rages on as to whether gaming addiction is a diagnosable disorder, the behavior undeniably exists. The combination of intentional programming by designers and the predisposition some teens have to addictive behavior means this is a real issue that parents, teachers, and friends should be aware of and take action to prevent.

Why are viruses not considered living?

A living organism should be able to perform a number of processes in order to be classified as "living". These processes include such things as obtaining and processing food to release energy and reproducing. A virus is a strand of DNA or RNA, covered by a protein or lipoprotein coat, which can attack and insert its genetic content into a cell. This genetic content translates itself, and causes the formation of numerous copies of the virus by depleting cell resources, and in the end, as the virus replicas flourish, the cell explodes, spreading the virus replicas to attack other cells and so on. the virus does not obtain its own food, or do anything, really, without its host cell, unlike bacteria, for example. A virus also requires a host cell to reproduce. So, a virus cannot be really considered a real living organism,but then, it can't be called unliving either, so what is it really? Guess it's a virus!

Why are veins blue?

When someone asks the question "why are veins blue?" a likely response is that they're blue because the blood in veins is deoxygenated. While it's true that venous blood vessels carry a lower concentration of oxygen than their arterial counterparts, this isn't the reason for their blue appearance in your skin. Still, when someone invariably responds to the veins-are-blue-because-they're-deoxygenated argument with the observation that "I've never seen blue blood before" one might then hear the slightly more sophisticated-sounding but increasingly far-fetched claim that we don't ever observe blue blood because it is immediately oxidized upon contact with air.

Wrong. Blood is never blue. Ever. Period. (And, this is an excellent example of why you should never ingest information from Yahoo Answers uncritically.)

The bright red color of arterial blood stems from a complex that's formed between hemoglobin, iron, and molecular oxygen. This complex mainly absorbs higher energy (shorter wavelength) blue and green light, leaving behind primarily just red wavelengths for our eyes to detect. However, even when blood is largely depleted of oxygen, it is never blue: it's more of a deep maroon color. And, although I have not participated in a surgery myself, those who have (including my girlfriend, a veterinary student) assure me that in surgery, veins within the body do not appear blue either. So, not only is blood not blue, veins on their own aren't either. "Blue veins", then, are a phenomenon unique to the skin.

So, what's going on here?

The most comprehensive answer that I've been able to find comes from a paper by Kienle et al. published over twelve years ago in the journal Applied Optics and entitled "Why do veins appear blue? A new look at an old question". Based on the findings of the authors, three reasons emerge for the blue appearance of veins in skin. The first two are physical and stem directly from the way in which light interacts with blood (how it is absorbed) and with skin (in this case, how light is reflected). The final reason is psychological, dealing with the way in which our brain processes information relatively to generate color perception. (Greg Laden sort of hinted at some of this recently on his blog).

Since the paper in question is a study in optics, it is way outside of my area of expertise. So, just in case you wanted an in depth technical critique of its methodology, you're not going to find it here. However, I can give you a basic summary of the paper's major findings. And then, if you still have the desire (and the ability) to explore the subject in greater depth, you can parse through the paper yourself.

To tackle this problem, the authors measured how much light of various wavelengths was reflected from both real blood vessels in skin and imitation vessels in a skin-like environment, using a sophisticated technique that gave them spatially-resolved measurements. The synthetic vessel (which was a capillary tube filled with blood and placed in a milky substance with optical properties similar to skin) allowed the authors to experiment with a variety of parameters (particularly vessel depth and diameter), and they were then able to validate their results by taking measurements on actual vessels in skin. Using this set-up, they were able to demonstrate that the optical properties of skin and blood (combined with the influence of relative color perception) explain why veins in skin appear blue, despite not actually being blue.

Skin does not absorb much light at any wavelength, making it look white (depending on how much melanin is present, of course--making this discussion only really relevant to people with lighter skin). Blood, on the other hand, absorbs light of all wavelengths (but less in the red part of the spectrum). However, blue light does not penetrate the skin as well as red light. If a vessel is near the surface of the skin, almost all blue light is absorbed by the vessel, so even though only about 1/4 of the red light is reflected, the ratio of red light reflected to blue light reflected is about 10:1. This vessel appears red.

If the vessel is deeper (about 0.5 mm or more), not as much blue or red light will be absorbed. Importantly, this effect will be more pronounced on blue light than on red light since blue light doesn't penetrate skin very well (the ratio of red light reflected to blue light reflected is about 3:2 or less). This is the case for the "blue veins" observed in skin. Once the vessel is deep enough, though, it won't be seen at all, as light of all wavelengths will be reflected before it can interact with the blood.

Perplexingly, this 0.5-mm-deep vessel appears blue despite reflecting slightly more red light than blue light. This is where relative color perception comes into play. The surrounding skin reflects more red light than blue light (by a ratio of about 5:3), and it does not absorb as much of either type of light as a blood vessel does. Since vision is influenced in part by relative perception, if something purple is placed next to something red, the purple object will appear blue.

None of this, however, addresses the question of why veins specifically appear blue. To answer this one, I can fortunately once again rely on the expertise of Meredith, my vet student girlfriend. The reason why only veins appear blue is that veins are the only vessels we actually observe through the skin. This is due to the fact that veins are larger, have thinner walls, and are more superficial than arteries (and, no, I don't meant that veins prefer People or Us Weekly over The New Yorker--"superficial" is just medical speak for closer to the surface). All of these aspects of veins have clear biological rationales. Beyond just carrying blood back to the heart, the primary function of the venous system is as a blood reservoir. In fact, about two-thirds of your blood volume is held in your veins at any given time, hence their larger size. Because the heart has to push blood directly through arteries, their walls are subject to higher pressures than the walls of veins, so they need to be thicker. Finally, veins are located closer to the surface of the skin, because they also play an important role in heat exchange with the outside environment (to help cool the body). Arteries could perform this function just as well, but it's much more advantageous to keep those higher pressure blood conduits deeper in the body and protected from injury.

The take-home message here is that the bluish appearance of veins in the skin has everything to do with where they are located, and nothing to do with the concentration of oxygen within them. In fact, if we could see them through the skin as well, even arteries would look blue.

Why are unicorns called unicorns?

A horse with a small rounded horn is a Moyle. "Uni" means one, and "Cornus" is Latin for horn, so "Unicorn" means "one horn."

Why are uggs called uggs?

The terms ugg boots, ugh boots and ug boots have been used as generic terms for sheepskin boots in Australia since 1950s.

Why are uggs so popular?

In the 1960s, ugg boots became a popular option for competitive surfers,[6] who used the boots to keep their feet warm after exiting from the surf.[7] It was surfing which helped popularise the boots outside of Australia and New Zealand, when surfer Brian Smith started selling the boots in the United States through the company Ugg Holdings, Inc. in 1979.[7] Later, ugg boots emerged as a fashion trend in the United States, with celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker and Pamela Anderson wearing the boots, increasing demand.

Why are the olympic rings those colors?

The five interlocking rings represent five continents or major geographical areas of the world. The five main regions: Africa, the Americas (North and South America are combined), Asia, Europe and Oceania. As it says in the Olympic Charter, the five-ringed symbol "represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games." The colors of the rings represent the flags of the countries that participate in the Olympics. Every flag of a country participating in the Olympics includes at least one of the following colors: blue, black, red, yellow, and green.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin conceived the design of both the rings and the flag. The Olympic Committee adopted the flag in 1914, and it was first flown at the 1920 Antwerp Games.

Why are there no cats in the bible?

There is no direct mention of cats in the translated Bible. It is known that the Israelites distrusted everything associated with the Egyptians, who ruled over them. The fact that the Egyptians held cats in such high esteem encouraged the occupied population to despise them almost as much as they hated the occupiers, so this may be the reason why they are not mentioned in the Bible.

Why are the linked rings an olympic symbol?

The rings represent the five continents that compete in the Olympics (North America and South America are considered one continent) and they are linked to show unity as the countries of the world come together as one to compete in the Olympics. The rings were adopted as the Olympic symbol in 1914 and made their debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp. They were designed in 1914 to represent the 5 parts of the world that came together for the Olympic Games or the first 5 Olympic games that were played before the rings were introduced in 1920. However, the rings only gained popularity after the 1936 Berlin Olympic games.

Why are there no snakes in Ireland?

Legend has it that St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. Sometime back in the fifth century he stood on a hill, the story goes, and used a staff to herd the slithering creatures into the sea, banishing them for eternity. It's true, aside from zoos and pets, there are no snakes on the emerald isle. In fact, there never were any snakes in Ireland. This state of affairs probably has more to do with the vagaries of geography than any neat tricks performed by St. Patty.

Snakes first evolved from their lizard forebears about 100 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, about the same time that Tyrannosaurus rex first appeared. Early snakes were small and wormy, resembling modern blindsnakes (suborder Scolecophidia). Ancient snake fossils are found only on southern continents, suggesting that snakes first radiated from Gondwanaland—a former supercontinent comprised of modern-day Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia. Migrating to Ireland wasn't an option at this time, as the area was completely underwater. The chalky sediments that would eventually become the 700-foot Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's west coast were being laid down at the bottom of the sea.

During the Cenozoic era, beginning 65 million years ago, the world's climate gradually began to dry out, and vast tracts of grasslands and other open habitats came to dominate much of the northern hemisphere. Large dinosaurs went extinct, opening the door to new groups of animals. By the Eocene epoch, 50 to 35 million years ago, the predecessors of boas and pythons (called the basal Macrostomatans) were widespread throughout the northern hemisphere. Explosive radiation of snakes in the suborder Colubroidae, including vipers and cobras, occurred during the Miocene epoch, 25 million years ago. Now snakes are found in deserts, grasslands, forests, mountains, and even oceans virtually everywhere around the world. Everywhere except Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and Antarctica, that is.

One thing these few snake-less parts of the world have in common is that they are surrounded by water. New Zealand, for instance, split off from Australia and Asia before snakes ever evolved. So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home. As the world's oceans have risen and fallen over the millennia, land bridges have come and gone between Ireland, other parts of Great Britain, and the European mainland, allowing animals and early humans to cross. However, any snake that may have slithered it's way to Ireland would have turned into a popsicle when the ice ages hit.

The most recent ice age began about three million years ago and continues into the present. Between warm periods like the current climate, glaciers have advanced and retreated more than 20 times, often completely blanketing Ireland with ice. Snakes, being cold-blooded animals, simply aren't able to survive in areas where the ground is frozen year round. Ireland thawed out for the last time only 15,000 years ago. Since then, 12 miles of icy-cold water in the Northern Channel have separated Ireland from neighboring Scotland, which does harbor a few species of snakes. There are no snakes in Ireland for the simple reason that they can't get there.

Snakes and Myths

So where did the myth of St. Patrick and the snakes come from? Most scholars agree that snakes symbolize paganism, which St. Patrick is also credited for banishing from Ireland. Snakes as symbols of evil are prevalent throughout Judeo-Christian mythology, most notoriously in the Garden of Eden as a tempter of Eve. Other societies have viewed snakes with more favor. Snakes were venerated in ancient Egypt, and many gods were represented by snakes, such as the cobra goddess Neith, founder of the universe. More recently, Ben Franklin advocated making a rattlesnake the symbol of the United States.

Mythology aside, herpetologists (scientists who study snakes and other reptiles and amphibians) like to point out that snakes play an important role in many ecosystems throughout the world. Snakes benefit humans by controlling rodent populations, and snake venom has been used to treat various diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and hemophilia. Unfortunately, some 200 species of snakes are considered threatened or endangered, the biggest threat being habitat loss resulting from human activities. Unless humans start taking more of an interest in their survival, real-life snakes may find themselves banished from more places than just Ireland.

Why are ski poles bent?

Some racers in the high speed skiing disciplines (Giant Slalom, Super Giant Slalom, downhill, speed skiing) use curved poles that are bent to shape around their bodies while they are in a tuck position, in order to minimize air drag.

Why are some people left handed?

Two theories predominate in the debates that rage on as to why a mere 4% o the population is left-handed. Most authorities agree, to the relief of many a mother of a left-handed child, that if the child prefers using the left hand, and functions well with it, there is no need to correct this "condition."

One theory centers on the two halves of the brain, i.e. the left half and the right half, each of which functions differently. Medical science believes that the left half of the brain predominates over the right half. The stem of this theory is the fact that nerves from the brain cross over at neck-level to the opposite side of the body, and nerves from the other side of the brain reciprocate. The end result is that the opposite sides of the body are supplied by the opposite sides of the brain.

The predominant left half of the brain, which graciously supplies the right half of the body, theoretically renders it more skillful in reading, writing, speaking, and working, and makes most people right-handed. "Lefties," however, are the product of an inversion, whereas the right half of the brain predominates, and they work best with the left side of their bodies.

Theory number two trickles down to the asymmetrical nature of the body. Examples of the asymmetry, which flows from head to toe, are that the right side of our faces differs slightly from the left, that our legs differ in strength, or that our feet vary in size. One aspect of this asymmetry is that for most people the right hand is stronger than the left.

There is no doubt that all exist in a "right-handed society," which manufactures most basics, including scissors, doorknobs, locks, screwdrivers, automobiles, buttons on clothing, and musical instruments for the 96%. Left-handed people compensate for this snobbery of sorts, by being members of an elite society, which includes many of the greatest geniuses, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jimi Hendrix.

For a list of other famous left-handers, click below:

Who are some of the most famous left-handed people?

Why are steroids illegal?

Anabolic steroids are the synthetic version of the male hormone testosterone. Doctors prescribe them for therapeutic use, but they are commonly abused by athletes and bodybuilders as a means to improve their performance and gain muscle mass quickly. Steroids have harmful and potentially fatal effects on the body, and they have been a controlled substance in the United States since 1991.

History

Congress made anabolic steroids a controlled substance on Feb. 27, 1991. They are a Schedule III controlled substance; other drugs in that category are substances that are known to have legitimate medical uses, as well as the potential for physical or psychological addiction. On the date the law was passed, everyone holding a supply of anabolic steroids was required to surrender it to Drug Enforcement Administration authorities or transfer it to a government-approved distributor.

Short-Term Physical Effects

Steroids are illegal because many of their effects are adverse--and they take hold quickly. They can cause tumors on the liver, jaundice and high blood pressure. They cause testicles to shrink, can cause infertility, and can cause men to develop breasts and lose their hair. In women, they can disrupt the menstrual cycle, cause the facial hair to grow and the voice to deepen. In adolescence, they can do all of these things as well as stunt growth.

Short-Term Psychological Effects

Steroid users are also susceptible to "roid rage." Symptoms include feelings of paranoia and jealousy, extreme aggression and irritability. Steroid users also have a dangerous feeling of invincibility, which can lead them to make poor decisions.

Long-Term Physical Effects

Steroids are also illegal because in the long term, they take a serious toll on the heart. They raise "bad" cholesterol and lower "good" cholesterol. This causes a buildup of plaque in the arteries that restricts blood flow to the heart. If blood cannot reach the heart, the user may suffer a heart attack. If blood cannot reach the brain, the user can suffer a stroke.

Steroids also increase the risk of blood clots in the vessels, which can disrupt blood flow and damage heart muscle, leaving the heart incapable of pumping blood effectively.

Trafficking

Even though steroids are illegal when not prescribed by a doctor, dangerous and looked down upon by the public and many in the bodybuilding and sports worlds, people continue to use them. They are produced in illegal laboratories, prescribed inappropriately and smuggled from Mexico and other countries, where they can be obtained without prescription.

Penalties

Possession of steroids without a prescription carries a federal penalty of up to one year in prison and a fine of at least $1,000 for a first offense.

Dealing or trafficking steroids carries a maximum federal penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for a first offense. The penalty and fine double on a second offense. Many states have also adopted separate fines and penalties.

Why are some people smarter than others?

Some people are smarter than others. Even in a multicultural world where no one is better and everyone is equally ordinary, we secretly still know that some people are smarter (politically correct disclaimer - others are just differently intelligent) than other people - but why that is has been a target of neuroscience for as long as it has existed as a discipline.

In a new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Eduardo Mercado III from the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, describes how certain aspects of brain structure and function help determine how easily we learn new things, and how learning capacity contributes to individual differences in intelligence.

Cognitive plasticity is the capacity to learn and improve cognitive skills such as solving problems and remembering events. Mercado argues that the structural basis of cognitive plasticity is the cortical module. Cortical modules are vertical columns of interconnected neuronal cells. Across different areas of the cerebral cortex, these columns vary in the number and diversity of neurons they contain. Identifying how cortical modules help us learn cognitive skills may help explain why variations in this capacity occur — that is, why people learn skills at different rates and why our ability to learn new skills changes as we age.

Studies examining a number of different species have shown that, on average, a larger cortex predicts greater intellectual capacity. The source of this correlation is unclear, but Mercado believes that a "more expansive cortex provides more space within which a larger quantity and greater diversity of cortical modules can be distributed."

In other words, Mercado notes that when it comes to intellectual potential, it is not the absolute or even relative size that is important, but how many cortical modules (with various types of neurons) are available. These features of cortical organization and function determine how effectively our brain distinguishes events. This ability to differentiate events may be what enables us to learn cognitive skills.

One implication of this proposal is that experience can be as important as genetics in determining intellectual capacity. Specifically, structural changes of cortical modules generated by development and learning experiences may also contribute to individual differences in intelligence. As these networks of neurons develop over time, their diversity increases, leading to further increases in cognitive plasticity.

This research has important implications for improving educational techniques and can potentially lead to new methods for rehabilitating patients suffering from brain damage. In addition, understanding how cortical modules function may lead to new ways of increasing intelligence.

However, Mercado cautions that "new technologies for increasing cognitive plasticity have ethical implications far beyond those raised by doping in sports." He concludes, "The phrase 'changing your mind' may soon take on a whole new meaning."

Why are sunsets red?

Sunsets often have a red or orange color to them. Why is this? Sunlight (what we call "white light") is made up of all different colors of light, each having a different wavelength. During a sunset, more red light is scattered toward you because of aerosols in the lower atmosphere, compared to the amount of blue or green light. Since, at sunset, sunlight is passing through a much longer path of the lower atmosphere than when the sun is overhead, the effect of the aerosols becomes much stronger. So, you end up seeing more red light that any of the other colors of light, and the sky appears red.

Why are so many earthquakes happening?

There are several reasons for the perception that the number of earthquakes, in general, and particularly destructive earthquakes is increasing. In the last twenty years, we have definitely had an increase in the number of earthquakes we have been able to locate each year. This is because of the tremendous increase in the number of seismograph stations in the world and the many improvements in global communications. The population at risk is increasing. While the number of large earthquakes is fairly constant, population density in earthquake-prone areas is constantly increasing. In some countries, the new construction that comes with population growth has better earthquake resistance; but in many it does not. So we are now seeing increasing casualties from the same sized earthquakes. Just a few decades ago, if several hundred people were killed by an earthquake in Indonesia or eastern China, for example, the media in the rest of the world would not know about it until several days, to weeks, later, long after such an event would be deemed “newsworthy”. So by the time this information was available, it would probably be relegated to the back pages of the newspaper, if at all. And the public Internet didn't even exist. We are now getting this information almost immediately.

Why are some eggs brown?

White eggs come from white chickens and brown eggs come from brown-ish chickens. Most of the eggs in your supermarket come from the following breeds of chickens: the White Leghorn, the Rhode Island Red, the New Hampshire, and the Plymouth Rock.

White Leghorn chickens are white and lay white eggs. Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire and Plymouth Rock chickens are all reddish brown and lay brown or brown-speckled eggs.

Let's get weird for a second and pretend you have a chicken sitting beside you. Imagine this crazy chicken is kind of an off-white brownish yellow. You're no chicken expert and you have no idea what breed you're looking at. Here's the secret to predicting the color of eggs a chicken will lay: look at their earlobes. This is true stuff. The pigments in the outer layer of the eggshell will always approximate the color of the earlobe of the chicken that laid the egg.

A natural follow-up question would be "Is one color of egg healthier than the other?" According to the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C., the answer is a pretty firm "no". The color of the shell has nothing to do with egg quality, nutritional value or flavor. They say the reason brown eggs cost more is because the brown-egg variety of chickens are bigger eaters and cost more to feed. The cost is then pushed forward to the consumer. I happen to believe the real reason is that the health food industry is perpetuating the myth that brown eggs are healthier. There, I said it.

Why are root hairs important to plants?

Root hairs form an important surface over which plants absorb most of their water and nutrients. The cell structure of root hairs exhibits a large surface area to volume ratio. This is an important evolutionary function that enables a large amount of water and mineral absorption into the organism without wasting valuable energy. Root hairs are highly specialized cells necessary for a vascular plant's ability to maintain its survival.

A root hair is a tubular outgrowth of root epidermal cells of vascular plants. They are found only in the region of maturation of the root. Root hairs are a specialized form of rhizoid.

A root hair is a tubular outgrowth of root epidermal cells of vascular plants. They are found only in the region of maturation of the root. Root hairs are a specialized form of rhizoid.

Root hairs form an important surface over which plants absorb most of their water and nutrients. They are also directly involved in the formation of root nodules in legume plants.

They have a large surface area, relative to the other cells, that help them absorb water and minerals more efficiently.

Root hairs are usually an outgrowth of a single epidermal cell that grow out of the roots. In other words, they are one cell thick, and therefore very fragile. This is why if you pull a plant out of the ground even with its visible roots still attached, the plant will often die when replanted. It needs the root hairs' extra surface area.

Why are rainforests important?

THEY PROVIDE A HABITAT FOR PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Tropical rainforests took between 60 and 100 million years to evolve and are believed to be the oldest and most complex land-based ecosystem on earth, containing over 30 million species of plants and animals. That's half of the Earth's wildlife and at least two-thirds of its plant species!

Because most tropical rainforest grows in warm and steamy environments, it contains a huge variety of plants. One hectare of lowland rainforest may contain 1000 trees with up to 300 species. Compare this to the UK's forests which are likely to have only 5-10 species per hectare: that's 30 to 60 times more species in a hectare of rainforest! These plants in turn provide food and shelter for many rare animals that depend on the rainforest for their survival. There are many more thousands of rainforest plants and animals species still waiting to be discovered.

THEY REGULATE OUR CLIMATE

Rainforests store water like a huge sponge. In fact, it is believed that the Amazonian forests alone store over half of the Earth's rainwater! Rainforest trees draw water from the forest floor and release it back in to the atmosphere in the form of swirling mists and clouds.

Without rainforests continually recycling huge quantities of water, feeding the rivers, lakes and irrigation systems, droughts would become more common, potentially leading to widespread famine and disease.

Did you know that we also depend on trees to cleanse our atmosphere? They absorb the carbon dioxide that we exhale, and provide the oxygen we need to breathe. When rainforest trees are burnt they release carbon dioxide, which pollutes the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. Deforestation is in fact considered the second major driver of climate change (more than the entire global transport sector), responsible for 18-25% of global annual carbon dioxide emissions.

THEY HELP TO PREVENT SOIL EROSION

Surprisingly, soil in the rainforest is very poor in nutrients. This is because the nutrients are stored in the vast numbers of trees and plants rather than in the soil. Tree roots bind the soil together, while the canopy protects the soil from heavy rains. When a tree dies and its trunk falls to the forest floor, it decays and the nutrients it contains are recycled. However, if trees are removed from the forest, the nutrients are removed with it, along with the protection provided by the tree roots and the forest canopy. The unprotected soil is then simply washed away in heavy rains, causing blockages and floods in lowland rivers, while leaving upland rivers dry.

THEY PROVIDE A HOME FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

Many indigenous people have been living in harmony with the rainforest for thousands of years, depending on it for their food, shelter and medicines. When oil and logging companies come to remove vast areas of forest, they bring diseases which the indigenous people have no resistance to, threatening their survival. Often they are also forced to move away from their homes to unfamiliar places, sometimes even being killed in the process.

RAINFOREST PHARMACY

It may surprise you to know that more than 25% of our modern medicines originate from tropical forest plants. Even so, we have only learned how to use 1% of these amazing plants, so imagine the possibilities if we could experiment with the other 99%!

For example, the rosy periwinkle, found in Madagascar, is used to cure leukemia, while the anti-malarial drug quinine is taken from the bark of the Andean cinchona tree. The rauvolfa shrub found in Asian and African forests is used to cure high blood pressure and mental illness. Rainforests and the native populations who discovered these medicines could hold the cure to many more diseases if we would only nurture the forests and allow their people to show us.

OTHER IMPORTANT FOREST PRODUCTS

Many foods we consume today such as nuts, bananas, coffee and spices, and industrial products such as rubber, resins and fibres, were originally found in tropical rainforests.

Why are redheads called gingers?

The term "ginger" isn't toward the colour but toward the temperment that was linked to those who are red haired. It was beleived long ago that those who had red hair were 'hot blooded' ill-tempered, easily angered and above all had a very large sex drive. The term Gingerism meant this, and was shortened to 'gingers' for a term toward them.

Why are qwerty keyboards in that order?

The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams in manual typewriters. Is frequently said that the design was also created to make people type slower.

First designs of manual typewriters using keyboards with letters on alphabetical order could not keep up with the speed of fast typers and the QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to reduce jamming.

Later, a layout called Dvorak was introduced to allow faster typing and reduce fatigue but has never got widespread use.

The QWERTY keyboard layout survived the era of electrical typewriters and the digital age because it was the first standard design. Being first counts.

Who are some of the most famous left-handed people?

Left-Handed U.S. Presidents

James A. Garfield (1831-1881) 20th
Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) 31st
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) 33rd
Gerald Ford (1913- ) 38th
Ronald Reagan (1911 - ) 40th
George H.W. Bush (1924- ) 41st
Bill Clinton (1946- ) 42nd
Barack Obama (1961- ) 44th
Left-Handed U.S. Politicos
Senator Bill Bradley, Rhodes scholar, basketball star
McGeorge Bundy, presidential advisor
Benjamin Franklin, statesman/publisher/scientist
Steve Forbes, businessman/publisher
Jean-Marc Froidevaux ?, Swiss politician
Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court Justice
Senator Daniel Inouye
Anthony Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice
Alan Keyes, US Senator, US Ambasador
Brigadier Gen. Lee Hsien Loon, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
John McCain, US SenatorB
Robert S. McNamara, Secretary of Defense
Col. Oliver North, White House aid
H. Ross Perot, businessman
William Perry, Secretary of Defense
Nelson Rockefeller, Vice President
Senator Hugh Scott
Robert Wagner, New York mayor
Henry Wallace, Vice President
[Senator Bob Dole - switched to left due to injury]

Miscellaneous Left-Handers

Joan of Arc (?), French heroine
Lloque Yapanqui (?), Inca monarch
Ramses II (?), Egyptian pharaoh
Tiberius (?), Roman emperor
Alexander the Great
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoléon Bonaparte (?), French emperor
Josephine de Beauharnais
King Louis XVI of France
Queen Victoria of England
King George II of England
King George VI of England
Prince Charles of England
Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime-minister
Ehud Olmert, Israeli prime-minister
Nicole d'Oresme, mathematician
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker
Dwight F. Davis, founder of the Davis Cup in tennis
Helen Keller, advocate for the blind
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, physician/missionary
August Piccard, inventor of stratosphere, bathosphere
Edwin Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
Wally Schirra, astronaut
Dr. Mark Silver, surgeon
Paul Prudhomme, chef
Cecil Beaton, photographer/costume designer
Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts (ambidexterous)
Dave Barry, journalist
David Broder, journalist
Edward R. Murrow, correspondent
Ted Koppel, journalist
Forrest Sawyer, journalist
Ray Suarez, journalist
John F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer/publisher
Caroline Kennedy, lawyer/author
Ron Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan
Vin Scully, sports broadcaster
David Letterman (?), host
Jay Leno, host
Lenny Bruce, comedian
Allen Ludden, host
Joel Hodgson, host of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Wink Martindale, game show host
Uri Geller, psychokinetic performer
Richard Simmons, exercise guru
Euell Gibbons, naturalist
Marie Dionne, one of the Dionne quintuplets
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Clarence Darrow, lawyer
F. Lee Bailey, lawyer
Melvin Belli, lawyer
Marcia Clark, lawyer
Alan Funt, television producer
Milt Caniff, cartoonist
Bill Mauldin, cartoonist
Cathy Guisevite, cartoonist
Matt Groening, cartoonist
Jean Plantureux (Plantu), political cartoonist
Pat Oliphand, political cartoonist Ronald Searle, cartoonist
Pat Robertson, evangelist/politician
N.B. Forrest, Confederate general
John Dillinger, criminal/bank robber
Boston Strangler (Albert Henry DeSalvo), serial killer
Jack-the-Ripper, serial killer
John Wesley Hardin, Western gunslinger
Bart Simpson, cartoon character
[King Edward III of England, due to stroke]

Left-Handed Authors

James Baldwin, novelist
Bet Bowen, horror novelist
Peter Benchley, novelist
Lewis Carroll
Richard Condon, novelist
Jean Genet
Marshall McLuhan
Diane Paul
Helen Hooven Santmyer, novelist
Viktoria Stefanov
Samuel C. Warner (?), poet
H.G. Wells
Jessamyn West
Eudora Welty, see One Writer's Beginnings (1983:27)
[Thomas Carlyle - switched to left due to injury]

Left-Handed Musicians

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, composer
David Byrne (Talking Heads)
Glen Campbell
Vicki Carr
Natale Cole
Kurt Cobain (Nirvana)
Phil Collins (Genesis)
Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins)
Dick Dale (guitarist)
Don Everly (The Everly Brothers)
Phil Everly (The Everly Brothers)
Bela Fleck, jazz musician
Glenn Frey (the Eagles)
Eric Gale, guitarist
Noel Gallagher (Oasis) (?)
Errol Garner, jazz pianist
Judy Garland
Crysal Gayle
Kevin Griffin, guitarist & lead singer (Better than Ezra)
Thomas Hedley, vocalist/musician
Jimi Hendrix
Isaac Hayes
Tony Iommi, guitarist (Black Sabbath)
Albert King, guitarist
Melissa Manchester
Chuck Mangione, trumpet
Martina McBride ?, country music singer
Paul McCartney (the Beatles; Wings)
Christie Marie Melonson (opera)
George Michael (Wham!)
Peter Nero, conductor
Joe Perry ? (Aerosmith)
Robert Plant (Led Zepplin)
Cole Porter, song-writer
Sergei Rachmaninoff ?, composer
Maurice Ravel ?, composer
Lou Rawls
John Lydon a.k.a. Johnny Rotten (Sex Pistols / Public Image Ltd.)
Rich Szabo, trumpeter
Seal
Ringo Starr (?) (the Beatles)
Paul Simon (Simon & Garfunkel)
Tiny Tim
Rudy Valee
Lenny White, drummer
Paul Williams, song-writer

Left-Handed Artists

Albrecht Dürer
M.C. Escher
Hans Holbein
Paul Klee
Michelangelo
LeRoy Neiman
Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci (RH paralyzed?)

Left-Handed Actors

Don Adams
Dan Aykroyd
Eddie Albert
Tim Allen
June Allyson
Harry Anderson
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
Herschel Bernardi
Robert Blake
Matthew Broderick
Bruce Boxleitner
Carol Burnett
George Burns, comedian
Ruth Buzzi, comedienne
Keith Carradine
Khaled Chahrour, Egyptian actor
Charlie Chaplin
George Gobel, comedian
Chuck Conners
Hans Conreid
James Cromwell
Tom Cruise
Quinn Cummings
Daniel Davis
Bruce Davison
Matt Dillon
Marty Engles, comedian
Olivia de Havilland
Robert DeNiro
Michael Dorn
Fran Drescher, comedian
Richard Dreyfuss
W.C. Fields
Larry Fine ? (of the Three Stooges)
Peter Fonda
Greta Garbo
Terri Garr
Paul Michael Glaser
Whoopie Goldberg
Betty Grable
Cary Grant
Peter Graves
Mark Hamill
Rex Harrison
Goldie Hawn
Joey Heatherton
Tippi Hedren
Jim Henson, puppetteer
Kermit the Frog
Rock Hudson
Angelina Jolie
Shirley Jones ?
Gabe Kaplan
Danny Kaye
Diane Keaton
George Kennedy
Nicole Kidman
Lisa Kudrow
Michael Landon
Hope Lange
Joey Lawrence
Peter Lawford
Cloris Leachman
Hal Linden
Cleavon Little
Shirley MacLaine
Andrew McCarthy
Kristy McNichol
Steve McQueen
Howie Mandel, comedian
Marcel Marceau, mime
Harpo Marx
Marsha Mason
Mary Stuart Masterson
Anne Meara, comedian
Sasha Mitchell
Marilyn Monroe
Robert Morse
Anthony Newley
Kim Novak
Ryan O'Neal
Sarah Jessica Parker
Estelle Parsons
Anthony Perkins
Ron Perlman
Luke Perry
Bronson Pinchot
Joe Piscopo, comedian
Robert Preston
Michael J. Pollard
Richard Pryor, comedian
Robert Redford
Keanu Reeves
Don Rickles, comedian
Julia Roberts
Mickey Rourke
Eva Marie Saint
Telly Savalas
Jean Seberg
Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
Christian Slater
Dick Smothers, comedian
Brent Spiner
Slyvester Stallone ?
Terence Stamp
Jessica Steen
Rod Steiger
Alan Thicke
Terry Thomas, comedian
Emma Thompson
Rip Torn
Peter Ustinov
Brenda Vaccaro
Karen Valentine
Rudy Vallee
Dick Van Dyke
Graham Walker a.k.a. Grumbleweeds, English comedian
Wil Wheaton
James Whitmore
Treat Williams
Bruce Willis
William Windom
Oprah Winfrey
Mare Winningham
Joanne Woodward
Keenan Wynn
Stephanie Zimbalist

Left-Handed Athletes

SOCCER
Jans van Breukelen (soccer)
Dan Burbott (?) (soccer)
Johan Cruyff (soccer)
Willem van Hanegem (soccer)
Hernan Medford (soccer)
Pelé -Edson Arantes do Nascimento (soccer)
Diego Armando Maradona (soccer)
Romario (soccer)
Hugo Sanchez (soccer)
Richard Witschge (soccer)

CRICKET
Alan Border (cricket)
Alistair Campbell (cricket)
Denis Compton (cricket)
Saurav Ganguly (cricket)
David Gower (cricket)
Gary Sobers (cricket)

OLYMPIC SPORTS
Francis X. Gorman (diving)
Greg Louganis (diving)
Mark Spitz (swimming)
Bruce Jenner (decathlon)
Nikita Kohloff (wrestling)
Dorothy Hamill (skating)

GOLF
Bonny Bryant (golf)
Bob Charles (golf)
Russ Cochran (golf)
Connie Decker (golf)
NOT Ben Hogan (golf), who is included on many published lists

FENCING
Cécile Argiolas (fencing)
Laura Flessel-Colovic (fencing)
Fabrice Gazin (fencing)
Matthieu Gourdain (fencing)
Fabrice Jeannet (fencing)
Giuseppe Mangiarotti (fencing)
Hugues Obry (fencing)
Anne-Lise Touya (fencing)
Adeline Wuilleme (fencing)

CYCLING
Thomas Voeckler (French), cyclist

HOCKEY
Tom Barrasso
Phil Esposito
Cam Neely
Terry Sawchuk
Roman Turek

BOWLING
Bill Allen (bowling)
Patrick Allen (bowling)
Earl Anthony (bowling)
Mike Aulby (bowling)
Steve Cook (bowling)
Patty Costello (bowling)
Dave Davis (bowling)
Cara Honeychurch (bowling)
Tish Johnson (bowling)
Johnny Petraglia (bowling)
Andy Varipapa (bowling)

BILLARDS
Steve Mizerak, Jr. (billiards)
Kun-Fang Lee (billiards)
Bonnie Arnold (billiards)
Reynaldo Grandee (billiards)

BADMINTON
Erik Poul Hoejer (badminton)
Peter Rasmussen (badminton)
Donna Stacey (netball)

BOXERS
Carmen Basilio (boxing)
James "Gentleman Jim" Corbett (boxing)
Marvin Hagler (boxing)
Oscar de la Hoya (boxing)
Reggie Johnson (boxing)
Rafael "Bazooka" Limon (boxing)
Freddie Miller (boxing)
Jacker Patterson (boxing)
Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker (boxing)

DRIVERS
Johnny Herbert (Formula 1 driver)
Terry Labonte (NASCAR race car driver)
Ayrton Senna (Formula 1 driver)
Karl Wendlinger (Formula 1 driver)
Valentino Rossi (motorcycle racer)

AMERICAN FOOTBALL
Frankie Albert (Am.football)
Terry Baker (Am.football)
Mark Brunell (quarterback)
Bobby Douglass (Am.football)
Norman "Boomer" Esiason (Am.football)
Jim Del Gaizon (Am.football)
David Humm (Am.football)
Paul McDonald (Am.football)
Scott Mitchell (Am.football)
Gayle Sayers (Am.football)
Allie Sherman (Am.football, coach)
Kenny Stabler (Am.football)
Steve Young (Am.football)
Jim Zorn (Am.football)

BASKETBALL
Nate Archibald (basketball)
Walter Berry (basketball)
Larry Bird (basketball)
Adrian Branch (basketball)
Calbert Cheaney (basketball)
Dave Cowens (basketball)
Adrian Dantley (basketball)
Charles "Lefty" Driesell (basketball)
Mark Eaton (basketball)
Nick Van Exel (basketball)
Gail Goodrich (basketball)
Ron Kellogg (basketball)
Toni Kukoc (basketball)
Bob Lanier (basketball)
Brad Lohaus (basketball)
Harold Minor? (basketball)
Dick Motta (basketball)
Chris Mullen (basketball)
Sam Perkins (basketball)
Digger Phelps (basketball)
Willis Reed (basketball)
Guy Rodgers (basketball)
Bill Russell (basketball)
Wayman Tisdale (basketball)
Bill Walton (basketball)
Lenny Wilkins (basketball)
Manuel Zuleta (basketball)

TENNIS
Kenneth Carlsen (tennis)
Jimmy Connors (tennis)
Norman Brookes (tennis)
Courtney De Mone (tennis)
Guy Forget (tennis)
Andres Gomez (Santos) (tennis)
Goran Ivanesivic (tennis)
Rod Laver (tennis)
Henri LeConte (tennis)
John McEnroe (tennis)
Thomas Muster (tennis)
Martina Navratilova (tennis) - ambidexterous
Manuel Orantes (tennis)
Niki Pilic (tennis)
Renee Richards (tennis)
Marcello Chino Rios (tennis)
Monica Seles (tennis)
Roscoe Tanner (tennis)
Guillermo Vilas (tennis)
Mark Woodforde (tennis)

BASEBALL
Steve Carlton (pitcher)
Whitey Ford (pitcher)
Paul Gibson (pitcher)
Lefty Grove (pitcher)
Ron Guidry (pitcher)
Al Habrosky (pitcher)
Steve Howe (pitcher)
Bruce Hurst (pitcher)
Carl Hubbell (pitcher)
Randy Johnson (pitcher)
Tommy John (pitcher)
Bob Kipper (pitcher)
Joe Magrane (pitcher)
Greg Swindell (pitcher)
Brady Anderson (baseball)
Steve Avery (baseball)
Harold Baines (baseball)
Barry Bonds (baseball)
Wade Boggs ? (baseball)
Lou Brock (baseball)
Brett Butler (baseball)
Will Clark (baseball)
Ty Cobb (baseball)
Adrian Dantley (basketball)
Lenny Dykstra (baseball)
John Franco (baseball)
Tom Glavine (baseball)
Lefty Gomez (baseball)
Leon "Goose" Goslin (baseball)
Ken Griffey, Jr. (baseball)
Tony Gwynn (baseball)
Rickey Henderson (baseball)
Kent Hrbek (baseball)
"Shoeless" Joe Jackson (baseball)
Reggie Jackson (baseball)
David Justice (baseball)
Wally Joyner (baseball)
Sandy Koufax (baseball)
John Kruk (baseball)
Kenny Lofton (baseball)
Fred Lynn? (baseball)
Kevin Maas (baseball)
John McGras (baseball)
Fred McGriff (baseball)
Heinie Manush (baseball)
Dave Martinez (baseball)
Don Mattingly (baseball)
Jackie Mitchell (baseball)
Stan Musial (baseball)
Troy O'Leary (baseball)
Paul O'Neil (baseball)
John Olerud (baseball)
Mel Ott (baseball)
Rafael Palmeiro (baseball)
Dan Pasqua (baseball)
Babe Ruth (baseball)
"Neon" Deion Sanders (baseball/Am.football)
Warren Spahn (baseball)
Casey Stengel (baseball)
Darryl Strawberry (baseball)
Lou Whitaker (baseball)
Ted Williams (baseball)
Fernando Valenzuela (baseball)
Tommy Lasorda (baseball manager)

Why are q-tips called q-tips?

The product was originally called Baby Gays and in 1926, the labels were changed to read Q-tips Baby Gays. Later the name Baby Gays was discarded and Q-tips® became the identifying mark for cotton swabs. The Q in Q-tips stands for quality and the word tips describes the cotton swab at the end of the stick.

Why are people ticklish?

Physiology

Knismesis is often elicited by crawling animals and insects, such as spiders, mosquitoes, scorpions or beetles, which may be why it has evolved in many animals. Gargalesis reactions, on the other hand, are thought to be limited to humans and other primates; however, some research has indicated that rats can be tickled as well.

It appears that the tickle sensation involves signals from nerve fibres associated with both humusa and touch. Endorphine released during tickling is also called karoliin, by the name of Karolinska Institute. In 1939, Yngve Zotterman of the Karolinska Institute, studied the knismesis type of tickle in cats, by measuring the action potentials generated in the nerve fibres while lightly stroking the skin with a piece of cotton wool. Zotterman found that the "tickling" sensation depended, in part, on the nerves that generate pain. Further studies have discovered that when the pain nerves are severed by surgeons, in an effort to reduce intractable pain, the tickle response is also diminished. However, in some patients that have lost pain sensation due to spinal cord injury, some aspects of the tickle response do remain. Tickle may also depend on nerve fibres associated with the sense of touch. When circulation is severed in a limb, the response to touch and tickle are lost prior to the loss of pain sensation.

It might be tempting to speculate that areas of the skin that are the most sensitive to touch would also be the most ticklish, but this does not seem to be the case. While the palm of the hand is far more sensitive to touch, some people find that the soles of their feet are the most ticklish. Other commonly ticklish areas include the armpits, sides of the torso, neck, knee, midriff, navel, and the ribs.

Some evidence suggests that laughing associated with tickling is a nervous reaction that can be triggered; indeed, very ticklish people often start laughing before actually being tickled.

Social aspects

Charles Darwin theorized on the link between tickling and social relations, arguing that tickling provokes laughter through the anticipation of pleasure. If a stranger tickles a child without any preliminaries, catching the child by surprise, the likely result will be not laughter but withdrawal and displeasure. Darwin also noticed that for tickling to be effective, you must not know the precise point of stimulation in advance, and reasoned that this is why you cannot effectively tickle yourself.

Tickling is defined by many child psychologists as an integral bonding activity between parents and children. In the parent-child concept, tickling establishes at an early age the pleasure associated with being touched by a parent with a trust-bond developed so that parents may touch a child, in an unpleasant way, should circumstances develop such as the need to treat a painful injury or prevent harm from danger. This tickling relationship continues throughout childhood and often into the early to mid teenage years.

Another tickling social relationship is that which forms between siblings of relatively the same age. Many case studies have indicated that siblings often use tickling as an alternative to outright violence when attempting to either punish or intimidate one another. The sibling tickling relationship can occasionally develop into an anti-social situation, or tickle torture, where one sibling will tickle the other, without mercy. The motivation behind tickle-torture is often to portray the sense of domination the tickler has over the victim.

As with parents and siblings, tickling serves as a bonding mechanism between friends, and is classified by psychologists as part of the fifth and highest grade of social play which involves special intimacy or “cognitive interaction”. This suggests that tickling works best when all the parties involved feel comfortable with the situation and one another. During adolescence, tickling often serves as an outlet for sexual energy between individuals, with erotic games, foreplay and sex becoming the motivation of the tickler. The body openings and erogenous zones are extremely ticklish; however, the tickling of these areas is generally not associated with laughter or withdrawal.

While many people assume that other people enjoy tickling, a recent survey of 84 college students indicated that only 32% of respondents enjoy being tickled, with 32% giving neutral responses and 36% stating that they do not enjoy being tickled.[14]. The study also found a very high level of embarrassment and anxiety associated with tickling. However, in the same study the authors found that the facial indicators of happiness and amusement do not correlate, with some people who indicated that they do not enjoy being tickled actually smiling more often during tickling than those who indicated that they do enjoy being tickled, which suggests that there may be other factors at play (such as embarrassment and anxiety) in the case of those who indicated a dislike for tickling than the mere physical sensation experienced.

Excessive tickling has been described as a primary sexual obsession and, under these circumstances, is sometimes considered a form of paraphilia. Tickling can also be a form of, or be mistaken for, sexual harassment.

Purpose of tickling

Some of history's greatest thinkers have pondered the mysteries of the tickle response, including Plato, Francis Bacon, Galileo and Charles Darwin. In The Assayer, Galileo philosophically examines tickling in the context of how we perceive reality:

When touched upon the soles of the feet, for example, or under the knee or armpit, it feels in addition to the common sensation of touch a sensation on which we have imposed a special name, "tickling." This sensation belongs to us and not to the hand... A piece of paper or a feather drawn lightly over any part of our bodies performs intrinsically the same operations of moving and touching, but by touching the eye, the nose, or the upper lip it excites in us an almost intolerable titillation, even though elsewhere it is scarcely felt. This titillation belongs entirely to us and not to the feather; if the live and sensitive body were removed it would remain no more than a mere word.

One hypothesis, as mentioned above, is that tickling serves as a pleasant bonding experience between parent and child. However, this hypothesis does not adequately explain why many children and adults find tickling to be an unpleasant experience. Another view maintained is that tickling develops as a prenatal response and that the development of sensitive areas on the fetus helps to orient the fetus into favourable positions while in the womb.

It is unknown why certain people find areas of the body to be more ticklish than others; additionally, studies have shown that there is no significant difference in ticklishness between the genders. In 1924, J.C. Gregory proposed that the most ticklish places on the body were also those areas that were the most vulnerable during hand-to-hand combat. He posited that ticklishness might confer an evolutionary advantage by enticing the individual to protect these areas. Consistent with this idea, University of Iowa psychiatrist, Donald W. Black observed that most ticklish spots are found in the same places as the protective reflexes.

A third, hybrid hypothesis, has suggested that tickling encourages the development of combat skills. Most tickling is done by parents, siblings and friends and is often a type of rough-and-tumble play, during which time children often develop valuable defensive and combat moves. Although people generally make movements to get away from, and report disliking, being tickled, laughter encourages the tickler to continue. If the facial expressions induced by tickle were less pleasant the tickler would be less likely to continue, thus diminishing the frequency of these valuable combat lessons.

To understand how much of the tickle response is dependent on the interpersonal relationship of the parties involved, Christenfeld and Harris presented subjects with a "mechanical tickle machine". They found that the subjects laughed just as much when they believed they were being tickled by a machine as when they thought they were being tickled by a person. Harris goes on to suggest that the tickle response is reflex, similar to the startle reflex, that is contingent upon the element of surprise.