Until the seventeenth century, hysteria referred to a medical condition in females that was thought to be caused by disturbances of the uterus.  In Greek, hystera means “uterus.”

I think it still exists.

They idiom, “to take it with a grain of salt,” comes from Pliny’s Naturalis Historia in 77 AD.  He gives a description of an antidote for a certain poison.  Here’s the quote translated from Latin:

“After the defeat of that mighty monarch, Mithridates, Gnaeus Pompeius found in his private cabinet a recipe for an antidote in his own handwriting; it was to the following effect: Take two dried walnuts, two figs, and twenty leaves of rue; pound them all together, with the addition of a grain of salt; if a person takes this mixture fasting, he will be proof against all poisons for that day.”

It suggests that the bad effects can be tempered by taking a grain of salt.

I wish we would say, “take it with twenty leaves of rue,” instead.

I stumbled upon this life insurance website, and idly clicked through some pages.  In the “Education Center” section there was a list of “things you didn’t know about death.”  Here is the first one:

“After being decapitated the average person remains conscious for an additional fifteen to twenty seconds.”

Seriously?  This isn’t something that makes old people want to buy your life insurance.  It’s creepy.  It’s scientifically debatable.  It’s creepy.  But most of all, it’s creepy.  Unless your target demographic is royalty of the French Revolution, you should probably pull the plug on your death lists.

The most common birthday in the United States, according to anybirthday.com (which claims to have millions of birth records on file…?), is October 5th.  According to the same questionable website that told me about anybirthday.com, the average pregnancy lasts 274 days and cites October 5th as “about 274 days” after New Years Eve. From a quick investigation, I learned that October 5th is actually more like 277 days after New Years Eve.  This can mean one thing:  people who take surveys for anybirthday.com and people who record the average lengths of pregnancies are not on the same page… 

Or maybe, people like to go wild and have sex on January 3rd (actually 274 days).  Perhaps in celebration of January 3rd, 1962.  The day when Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.    Hot.

The Stargate Project was the code name of a $20 million dollar research project funded by the United States Federal Government to study the possibility of using psychic powers for military gains.  One of the central goals of the project was to master “remote viewing.”  Remote viewing is the ability to psychically “see” things, places, and information from extreme distances using ESP.  The project took place from the 1970s to 1995 as a way to get a leg up on the Soviets.  How great would it be if we could watch things taking place from a great distance from the safety of our homes.  It would have to have a snappy, high-tech name.  Let’s see.   What’s the Greek word for “distance”?  Tele.  And we want to put another word in there that shows that we are actually seeing it.  Vision!  We will call it “Television”!!! 

As I detailed yesterday, the full moon has been said to incite odd behavior on earth.  Although science trumps this myth, the belief was extremely popular in the days of our ignorant ancestors.  Yesterday, I touched on the fact that the moon is also linked to women’s periods.  The word “menstruation” comes from the Latin mensis (month).  Mensis is derived from the Greek mene (moon), which is also the root of our words, moon and month, as the moon takes roughly a month to revolve around the earth.  People in the olden days were not big believers in coincidence. The moon had to be making girls bleed in…. you know what, I think I’ve said enough.  I’m going to go get some Purell.

Every 29.5 days, we witness a full moon.  I remember hearing that the full moon causes various wild phenomena on earth.  The Latin word for moon, luna, is the origin of the word “lunatic.”  In the 19th century, lawyers could argue “not guilty by reason of the full moon.” But in reality, there is no truth to this.  Recent studies have not found any significant evidence supporting the myth that the moon brings about odd behavior, e.g., increased criminal activity, suicides, psychiatric disorders.  It should be noted that the full moon exerts just as much gravity as the unseen new moon.  It’s all pseudoscience.  Period.  Speaking of periods, the moon is also linked to the female menstrual cycle. Gross.  I will fill you in tomorrow.

Gelotology is the study of laughter and its effects on humans.  Laughing has many known health benefits.  It is said that laughing can lower levels of stress hormones as well as strengthen the immune system.  Also, laughing can dilate blood vessels and increase blood flow.  And here’s where it gets stupid.  I read on some dumbass random fact website that the average 6 year-old laughs on average 300 times a day, while adults only laugh 15 to 100 times a day.  That’s such crap for so many reasons:

1. What scientist followed a bunch of 6 year olds around and tallied how many times they laughed?  Those people should not be allowed around schools.

2. When’s the last time a 6 year-old did anything useful?  (No offense to my 1st grade readers)

3. How do you count a laugh?  How can you distinguish between one very long laugh, and an unrelated laugh?

4. Which adults make up our sample population?  Did we get really serious adults?  Who would agree to do a study like this?  I know exactly who… Sad people who need to make 10 bucks participating in a psych experiment with a weird clown/scientist for a day.  These people don’t laugh.

5. It would become maniacal if adults just walked around laughing all the time.  It would totally take away from things that are actually funny.  It would be humor inflation.

6. What’s this study saying, that children have better blood flow?

7. I like how children laugh on average 300 times a day.  While adults get the “15-100” times a day range.  Real specific…

That is why I hate pseudoscience and random fact websites.  Except for mine.