Did you know that hearing is partly a visual sport?

This is especially true for understanding what people are saying.  With speech perception, there’s a definite link between hearing and vision.

In some cases, what we see actually overrides what we hear.

You’d be surprised how easily our brains are fooled.  It all comes down to something called the McGurk Effect.

Check out this video…You’ll be amazed!

Sources: Wikipedia | BBC Television

Written by Nicholas Klassen

“C’mon…everyone else is doing it…” 

How many times did you hear that phrase in the schoolyard?       

It starts at a young age and through our experiences even as adults, we’re generally taught to believe that:

Conformity = Reward

Nonconformity = Ridicule

Social pressure comes in waves and we naturally want to be accepted by the cool kids. 

Our desire to belong, to be liked and feel included can often overrule anything that is going on in the logical part of our brain.

For example…

Does a teenager start smoking because he doesn’t know the health risks – or is the voice that’s telling him to conform speaking louder than the voice of better judgement?

We may think we have a mind of our own, but depending on the circumstance it can take a great deal of effort for us to step away from the masses.

Some psychological experiments have been done…

Here’s one of the most famous…

Such is the power of social pressure!

Sources: wikipedia

Remember seeing television footage of raging hurricane winds that up-root trees, tear-off roof tops and send cars and trailers into flight?

For one of mother nature’s storms to be classified as a “hurricane”, wind speeds must reach a minimum of 119km/hr (so, when you tell someone to “go fly a kite”… this is the day you mean)

Here’s the astonishing part : the human sneeze has the potential of travelling up to around 150km/hr. That’s a license-suspending 50k’s over the highway 401 speed-limit.

When you think about the human body producing so much power – it makes ‘politely’ holding in a sneeze seem like sticking your finger in the barrel of a gun.

Think twice on both accounts.

Written by Nicholas Klassen

Sources: About.com

What do we know about the colon?

It’s about 5 feet long and loyally works away in the deepest and darkest confines of our stomach.

What’s its job description?

Generally speaking the colon is hired to…

1.  Store waste

2.  Gather water & vitamins from that waste

3.  Dump the waste

The colon is the last part of the digestive system – and perhaps like the youngest of 10 brothers, it ends up getting the old, used and tattered hand-me-downs from the guys up stream.

Huh?

By the time the colon gets into the game of digestion, the main portions of nutrients have already been extracted from the food/waste.

But amazingly, as if squeezing blood from a stone, the colon steps in and manages to extract just a bit more water and salt out of the waste before dumping it. 

That’s a dedicated member of the digestive team!

Sources: wikipedia

Do not read further until you have watched the video below.

Whether you think you’ve seen this video or not … this version is guaranteed to blow your mind

As you’ve realized from the video…

We often don’t “see” what we’re looking at, rather we usually only see what we know and what we’re looking for.

So busy counting passes, many people miss the gorilla walking across the screen on their first view.  Being familiar with the experiment, I saw the gorilla, but was apparently blind to everything else – colour changes and missing players.

This is sometimes referred to as ‘perceptual blindness’ or ‘inattentional blindness’.

Missing things that are in “plain sight” may seem like a severe weakness…

However…

Hidden within this phenomenon lies a secret human power that very few people understand or leverage.

This ”hidden power” has been credited with changing many lives for the better; almost providing an ‘unfair advantage’ when used properly.

Want to discover your hidden power?  . . . click here . . .

Resources: wikipedia | ca.news.yahoo.com | i-perception.perceptionweb.com

Imagine you had a pair of goggles that would make hideous things appear beautiful… or magical headphones that changed bad news into good?

Those things don’t exist, but here’s what does:

The Miracle Fruit!

The berry itself doesn’t have an overwhelming flavour, but here’s the miracle…

It has the ability to change how we taste – more specifically:  it makes sour things taste sweet!

The berries contain miraculin – a protein that attaches itself to our taste-bud receptors. It fools those receptors into believing that sour foods are actually sweet.

The miracle berry has been used in west Africa for centuries to sweeten sour food and drink.

Chewing just one of these berries can apparently create the effect for 30-60 minutes.

Imagine the possibilities!

What if…

• we substitute sugar (ie. on cupcakes, cookies, etc.) with a thick lemon-paste?
• we take the healthy foods that taste bad and squeeze lime on those?
• instead of a can of soda, we drink a big glass of pure lemon juice?

The answer is that these things would all taste beautifully sweet. 

Proceed with Caution!

The third of those ideas brings to mind the only warning…

While the miracle berry makes sour foods taste sweet, it doesn’t change what those foods are.  So consuming acidic substances in large quantities, while they may be delicious going down, could prove harmful to the stomach.

Sources: guardian.co.uk

Acting all lovey-dovey with your significant other is fine and dandy, but…

What if your affection ends up causing you some physical pain? 

Or worse still…

What if it causes some serious nerve damage?

Well, lovers beware… “Honeymooner’s Palsy” may be looming!

Picture this…

You wake up from a full night’s sleep to find that your husband or wife has been lying awkwardly on your arm for the last 8 hours.

As you yank your arm out from under the still dormant mass, you’ll probably feel a mixture of pain and numbness and quite possibly have an inability to extend your wrist and fingers. 

The same thing can happen if you sit resting your arm’s weight on the backseat of a neighbouring chair for long periods (ex. in a movie theatre).

Essentially what’s happening is that the constant source of pressure is causing trauma to the radial nerve – a nerve that runs the full length of the arm.

That’s Honeymooner’s Palsy!

Permanent damage is not necessarily the result, but in more severe cases it can certainly require a lengthy recovery period.

There’s nothing romantic about that!

Sources: wikipedia

Spinach is probably one of the more famous of leafy greens.

It was Popeye’s favourite food.  He’d chow down on a can of spinach, causing an instant muscle-explosion in his arms.

Among many other nutrients, spinach is considered a very rich source of iron!

With every 180g serving of boiled spinach there are 6.43 mg of iron.  Compare that to a 170g hamburger patty that has 4.42mg at the most.

But eating doesn`t mean absorbing…

The absorption of iron into our bodies will vary based on the presence of other things – like for example fiber and Vitamin C.  Without Vitamin C, iron absorption can be difficult. 

On top of that, spinach also contains substances like oxalate.  Oxalate not only prevents iron absorption, but it will also remove existing iron from the body.  The addition of oxalic acid to the diet is said to counteract this.

So, sometimes it isn`t what we eat that matters – it`s what we eat with what we eat that is important.

I bet you didn`t know this…

In 1870 a scientist misplaced a decimal point while measuring the iron content of spinach.  It led to an iron content 10 times higher than reality and a popular acceptance of spinach`s powers.  The mistake wasn`t noticed until the 1930`s.

Sources: wikipedia

After getting home late from a long day of work, the easy option is always to reach for a frozen dinner or stop by your favourite fast food drive-thru.

But when you dig deep enough, the nutritional health consequences of eating processed and quick-serve foods are a bit scary!

Next Generation Foods put together a great infographic that displays some startling nutritional facts.

Click on the image…but if you’re a pizza-lover like me, brace yourself for the stats you’re about to see.

Sources: nextgenfoodus.com

If you’ve ever given blood, received blood or even just had a blood test, you’ve probably heard something about blood types.

There are 4 main types of blood:  A, B, AB and O

When one person receives blood from another (blood transfusion) it is crucial that they receive blood that is compatible with their own.  

In the diagram, you notice how O blood types can give blood to everyone, but can only receive their own type.
AB types on the other hand can receive from everyone but can only give to other ABs.

Click here for more on this…

Why Blood needs to be compatible…

Each blood type has a different combination of Antigens (substances that can cause allergic reaction in blood) and Antibodies (a protein that identifies and neutralizes substances like antigens).

If the person receiving blood has antibodies that match the donor blood’s antigens, the antibodies in the donated blood would attack those antigens by binding together in clumps. 

This can cause problems…

It would clog blood vessels, potentially stopping circulation in various parts of the body. 

Those clogged red blood cells (which contain hemoglobin),  may also crack and leak their contents into the body.  Hemoglobin is what transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.  When hemoglobin goes outside of its red blood cell, it becomes toxic. 

All in all, it could be fatal!

Sources: wikipedia | nobelprize.org