All the news that’s fit
Harold Gouzoules is a scream scientist. It’s a full-time job, not just something to do on Halloween. Gouzoules collects screams. He analyzes them for tone, pitch and frequency. He attempts to discern hidden patterns or complexities that reveal more than just the fact that the screamer is scared to death.
Gouzoules is an Emory University psychology and one thing he knows about screams is that science really knows very little about screams. So he’s amassed an impressive library of shrieks, screeches and blood-curdling, ear-splitting sounds produced by both actors in movies and non-actors responding to unexpected, scream-provoking stimuli.
Here’s what he’s deduced: Screaming is good for our health. “The ability to belt out a scream is deeply rooted in our evolutionary history,” he says, “and is no doubt critical to our survival.”
Like monkeys, Gouzoules says humans scream to convey different meanings.
“We’ve also found that people can distinguish different types of screams: A happy scream, a frightened scream, a scream given in pain. Some people are better at this than others. What we found is that these differences correlate with measures of empathy.”
So go ahead and scream. It might show you care.
Or that you’re face-to-face with a bloody-fanged, mutant zombie.
Get me that. Stat!
A new study by Yale University researchers suggests that people who are left-handed are more likely to develop psychotic disorders like schizophrenia rather than mood disorders like depression. The scientists found 40 percent of mentally ill patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder were left-handed, compared to just 10 percent of the general U.S. population. Eleven percent of patients diagnosed with mood disorders were left-handed, similar to the overall rate.
A pipe burst in a doctor’s house. He called a plumber. The plumber arrived, unpacked his tools, did mysterious plumber-type things before finally handing the doctor a bill for $600.
The doctor exclaimed, “This is outrageous! I don’t even make that much as a doctor!”
The plumber nodded and said, “Neither did I when I was a doctor.”
“Isn’t it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do ‘practice?’”
–Comedian George Carlin
“Curiosity did not kill this cat.”
–American author and historian Studs Terkel (1912-2008)
A three –pack of stuffed Jalapeno peppers from Jack in the Box contains 219 calories, 108 from fat. It has 12 grams of total fat or 18 percent of the recommended total fat intake for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.
It also contains 17 milligrams of cholesterol (6 percent); 726 mg of sodium (30 percent); 21 grams of total carbohydrates (7 percent); 1 gram of dietary fiber; 2 gs of sugar and 6 gs of protein.
Body of knowledge
Each human being spends about half an hour as a single cell.
Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for oysters is 564 in 8 minutes, held by Sonya Thomas. Warning: Most of these records are held by professional eaters; the rest by people who really should find something better to do.
This week in 1935, the first modern surgery on the frontal lobes for treatment of mental disorders was performed by Egas Moniz in Lisbon, Portugal. Moniz injected absolute alcohol into the frontal lobes of a mental patient through two holes drilled in the skull. He later used a technique that severed neurons and led to the prefrontal lobotomy techniques of the 1940s. Moniz was awarded the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but his radical surgery fell out of favor when psychoactive medications became available.
a.c.: Latin for “ante cibum” or before meals. An abbreviated direction written by doctors on prescriptions.
Phobia of the week
Sphexsophobia – fear of wasps