August 27, 2012
Idiopathic [id-ee-uh-path-ik] is an adjective used primarily in medicine meaning arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause. From Greek ‘idios’ (‘one’s own’) and ‘pathos’ (‘suffering’), it means approximately ‘a disease of its own kind.’ It is technically a term from nosology, the classification of disease.
For some medical conditions, one or more causes are somewhat understood, but in a certain percentage of people with the condition, the cause may not be readily apparent or characterized. In these cases, the origin of the condition is said to be idiopathic.
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August 25, 2012
Ageplay or age play is a form of roleplaying in which an individual acts or treats another as if they were a different age. The practice can be regressive, in which the goal is to re-experience childhood, or sexual, recreating a sexual relationship with people of the pretend or true ages.
Sexual variations may include among other things such as incest play, in which individuals recreate and sexualize roles within a family, and ‘Daddy’s girl’ fetishism in which real or imagined age differences are the basis of the roleplaying and the female is portrayed as the younger partner. Ageplay is also commonly done by children when they play games such as ‘house’ and take on roles of a nuclear family, which typically consists of a father, mother, a child or children, and/or a baby.
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August 25, 2012
Erotic target location error (ETLE) is a term coined in 1993 by sexologist Ray Blanchard, referring to having a sexual preference (or very strong sexual interest) in features that are somewhere other than on one’s sexual partner(s). When one’s sexual arousal is based on imagining one’s self in another physical form (such as an animal, an infant, or an amputee) the erotic target is said to be one’s self, or erotic target identity inversion.
The best known examples of erotic target identity inversions are biological males who experience sexual arousal in response to imaging themselves as women (called autogynephilia), but there has also been at least one reported case of anatomic autoandrophilia (a woman’s tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of herself as a man). Autogynephilia can be associated with gender dysphoria and Gender Identity Disorder, discontent with one’s biological sex and the desire to under surgery for sex reassignment and permanently take on a role and life of the other sex. A male with sexual arousal based on temporarily taking on the appearance or role of a woman is called ‘transvestic’ fetishism.
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August 25, 2012
Plushophilia is a sexual fetish involving stuffed animals. Plushophiles are sometimes called ‘plushies,’ although this term can also refer to non-sexual stuffed animal enthusiasts, and to stuffed animals in general. Plushophilia is sometimes assumed to be a practice common within furry fandom (a subculture revolving around animal anthropomorphism), due in part to a 2001 ‘Vanity Fair’ article that linked various members of the furry community with plushophilia.
Pornography and sexual activity involving animal anthropomorphism is known in the furry fandom community as ‘yiff’ (and sexual acts as ‘yiffing’). Sexual arousal that depends upon imagining one’s self as plush or anthropomorphized animal is ‘autoplushophilia.’ Paraphilic interests that involve being in another form have been referred to as Erotic target location errors, a term coined in 1993 by sexologist Ray Blanchard, referring to having a sexual preference in features that are somewhere other than on one’s sexual partner.
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August 25, 2012
The Livestrong wristband (stylized as LIVESTRONG) is a yellow silicone gel bracelet launched in 2004 as a fund-raising item for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, founded by cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. The bracelet itself was developed by Nike and their ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. The bracelet is part of the ‘Wear Yellow Live Strong’ educational program. The program is intended to raise money for cancer research, raise cancer awareness, and encourage people to live life to the fullest.
The bracelet sells individually, as well as in packs of 10, 100, and 1,200 as part of an effort to raise $25.1 million for the Lance Armstrong Foundation in cooperation with Nike who manufactures the bracelets in manufacturing plants both domestic and foreign and sells the bracelets through their Nike outlets worldwide. This target was achieved within 6 months, and there have now been 80 million Livestrong bracelets sold to date. Yellow was chosen for its importance in professional cycling, as it is the color of the yellow jersey worn by the leader of the Tour de France, which Armstrong won seven consecutive times.
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August 24, 2012
One old wives’ tale says that swallowed gum will remain in a human’s stomach for up to 7 years. According to several medical opinions, there seems to be little truth behind the tale. In most cases, swallowed gum will pass through the system as fast as any other food.
There have been a few cases where swallowing gum has required medical attention, but these cases are more or less related to chronic gum swallowers. One young boy swallowed several pieces each day and had to be hospitalized, and a young girl required medical attention when she swallowed her gum and four coins, which got stuck together in her esophagus. A bezoar (a mass trapped in the gastrointestinal system) is formed in the stomach when food or other foreign objects stick to gum and build up, causing intestinal blockage.
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August 23, 2012
A blooming onion is a dish consisting of one large onion which is cut to resemble a flower, battered and deep-fried. It is served as an appetizer at some restaurants. The dish was created by chef Jeff Glowski in New Orleans and first appeared on the menu of Russell’s Marina Grill in that city as ‘Onion Mumm.’ The owners of Scotty’s Steak House in Springfield, New Jersey also claim to have invented this dish in the 1970s.
It was popularized nationally when it appeared as ‘Bloomin’ Onion,’ a charter feature of the Outback Steakhouse when that national chain opened in 1988. The dish remains prominent on its menu. Its popularity has led to its adoption as an appetizer at various other restaurant chains, most notably Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon, where it is known as the ‘Texas Rose.’ A single blooming onion with dressing contains approximately 3,000 calories and 134 grams of fat, including 44 grams of saturated. When it existed, the similar style ‘Awesome Blossom’ at Chili’s was ranked ‘Worst Appetizer in America’ by ‘Men’s Health’ magazine in 2008.
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August 23, 2012
Heterocyclic amines [het-er-uh-sahy-klik uh-meen] (HCA) are chemical compounds containing at least one heterocyclic ring (a ring-shaped molecule that has atoms of at least two different elements) plus at least one amine (functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair). The biological function of heterocyclic amines can range from those of vitamins to carcinogens. Carcinogenic heterocyclic amines are created by high temperature cooking of meat, for example. HCAs form when amino acids and creatine (a chemical found in muscles) react at high cooking temperatures. Colorectal, pancreatic, and breast cancer are associated with high intakes of well-done, fried, or barbecued meats.
People who eat medium-well or well done beef were more than three times as likely to suffer stomach cancer as those who ate rare or medium-rare beef. Other sources of protein (milk, eggs, tofu, and organ meats such as liver) have very little or no HCA content naturally or when cooked. Research has shown that an olive oil, lemon juice, and garlic marinade cut HCA levels in chicken by as much as 90%. Six hours of marinating in beer or red wine cut levels of two types of HCA in beef steak by up to 90% compared with unmarinated steak.
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August 22, 2012
Self-handicapping is the process by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem. It was first theorized by Edward E. Jones and Steven Berglas, according to whom self-handicaps are obstacles created, or claimed, by the individual in anticipation of failing performance. Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of preserving self-esteem but it can also be used for self-enhancement and to manage the impressions of others.
This conservation or augmentation of self-esteem is due to changes in causal attributions or the attributions for success and failure that self-handicapping affords. There are two methods that people use to self-handicap: behavioral and claimed self-handicaps. People withdraw effort or create obstacles to successes so they can maintain public and private self-images of competence.
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August 21, 2012
Positive illusions are unrealistically favorable attitudes that people have towards themselves. Positive illusions are a form of self-deception or self-enhancement that feel good, maintain self-esteem or stave off discomfort at least in the short term.
There are three broad kinds: inflated assessment of one’s own abilities (illusory superiority), unrealistic optimism about the future (optimism bias), and an illusion of control. The term ‘positive illusions’ originates in a 1988 paper. There are controversies about the extent to which people reliably demonstrate positive illusions, and also about whether these illusions are beneficial to the people who have them.
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August 17, 2012
Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and logical argument. Self-deception involves convincing oneself of a truth (or lack of truth) so that one does not reveal any self-knowledge of the deception. Simple instances of self-deception include common occurrences such as: the alcoholic who is self-deceived in believing that his drinking is under control, the husband who is self-deceived in believing that his wife is not having an affair, the jealous colleague who is self deceived in believing that her colleague’s greater professional success is due to ruthless ambition.
A consensus on the identification of self-deception remains elusive to contemporary philosophers, the result of the term’s paradoxical elements and ambiguous paradigmatic cases. Self-deception also incorporates numerous dimensions, such as epistemology, psychological and intellectual processes, social contexts, and morality. As a result, the term is highly debated and occasionally argued to be an impossible phenomenon.
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August 17, 2012
The term ‘motivated tacticians‘ is used in social psychology to describe a human shifting from quick and dirty cognitively economical tactics to more thoughtful, thorough strategies when processing information depending on their type and degree of motivation. This idea has been used to explain why people use stereotyping, biases, and categorization in some situations and more analytical thinking in others. Because of the empirical evidence and robust nature, the concept is now a preferred theory of human social perception.
After much research on categorization, and other cognitive shortcuts, psychologists began to describe human beings as cognitive misers (i.e. they use a lot of mental shortcuts); which explains that a need to conserve mental resources causes people to use shortcuts to thinking about stimuli, instead of motivations and urges influencing the way humans think about their world.
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