Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Why We Kiss: The Science of Kissing

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Pecking, smooching, Frenching, and playing tonsil-hockey—there are as many names for kissing as there are ways to do it. Whether we use it as an informal greeting or an intensely romantic gesture, kissing is one of those ingrained human behaviors that seems to defy explanation. Its many purposes—a blow and peck for good luck on dice, lips to ground after a rocky boat ride, kisses in the air to an acquaintance, and the long slow smooches of Hollywood—have different meanings yet are similar in nature. So why is it that we love to pucker up?
A Kiss Isn’t Just a Kiss
Philematologists, the scientists who study kissing, aren’t exactly sure why humans started locking lips in the first place. The most likely theory is that it stems from primate mothers passing along chewed food to their toothless babies. The lip-to-lip contact may have been passed on through evolution, not only as a necessary means of survival, but also as a general way to promote social bonding and as an expression of love.

But something’s obviously happened to kissing since the time of the chewed-food pass. Now, it’s believed that kissing helps transfer critical information, rather than just meat bits. The kissing we associate with romantic courtship may help us to choose a good mate, send chemical signals, and foster long-term relationships. All of this is important in evolution’s ultimate goal—successful procreation.
Kissing allows us to get close enough to a mate to assess essential characteristics about them, none of which we’re consciously processing. Part of this information exchange is most likely facilitated by pheromones, chemical signals that are passed between animals to help send messages. We know that animals use pheromones to alert their peers of things like mating, food sources, and danger, and researchers hypothesize that pheromones can play a role in human behavior as well. Although the vomeronasal organs, which are responsible for pheromone detection and brain function in animals, are thought to be vestigial and inactive in humans, research indicates we do communicate with chemicals.

The first study to indicate that chemical signals play a role in attraction was conducted by Claud Wedekind over a decade ago. Women sniffed the worn t-shirts of men and indicated which shirts smelled best to them. By comparing the DNA of the women and the men, researchers found that women didn’t just chose their favorite scent randomly. They preferred the scent of man whose major histocompatibility complex (MHC)—a series of genes involved in our immune system—was different from their own. Having a different MHC means less immune overlap and a better chance of healthy, robust offspring. Kissing may be a subtle way for women to assess the immune compatibility of a mate, before she invests too much time and energy in him. Perhaps a bad first kiss means more than first date jitters—it could also mean a real lack of chemistry.
Men Sloppy, Women Choosy
Behavioral research supports this biological reasoning. In 2007, researchers at University of Albany studied 1,041 college student and found significant differences in how males and females perceived kissing. Although common in courtship, females put more importance on kissing, and most would never have sex without kissing first. Men, on the other hand, would have sex without kissing beforehand; they would also have sex with someone who wasn’t a good kisser. Since females across species are often the choosier ones when it comes to mate selection, these differences in kissing behavior make sense.

Men are also more likely to initiate French kissing and researchers hypothesize that this is because saliva contains testosterone, which can increase libido. Researchers also think that men might be able to pick up on a woman’s level of estrogen, which is a predictor of fertility.
Crazy for Canoodling
But kissing isn’t all mating practicality; it also feels good. That’s because kissing unleashes a host of feel-good chemicals, helping to reduce stress and increase social bonding. Researcher Wendy Hill and colleagues at Lafayette College looked at how oxytocin, which is involved in pair bonding and attachment, and cortisol, a stress hormone, changed after people kissed. Using a small sample of college couples that were in long-term relationships, they found cortisol levels decreased after kissing. The longer the couples had been in a relationship, the farther their levels dropped. Cortisol levels also decreased for the control group—couples that just held hands—indicating that social attachment in general can decrease stress levels, not just kissing.


Looking at oxytocin levels, the researchers found that they increased only in the males, whereas the researchers thought it would increase in both sexes. They hypothesized that it could be that women need more than a kiss to stimulate attachment and bonding, or that the sterile environment of the research lab wasn’t conducive to creating a feeling of attachment.
Kissing, therefore, plays a role not only in mate selection, but also in bonding. At an Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on the science of kissing, Helen Fischer, an evolutionary biologist, posits multiple reasons for lip locking. She believes that kissing is involved in the three main types of attraction humans have: sex drive, which is ruled by testosterone; romantic love, which is ruled by dopamine and other feel-good hormones; and attachment, which involves bonding chemicals like oxytocin. Kissing, she postulates, evolved to help on all three fronts. Saliva, swapped during romantic kisses, has testosterone in it; feel-good chemicals are distributed when we kiss that help fuel romance; and kissing also helps unleash chemicals that promote bonding, which provides for long term attachment, necessary for raising offspring. 
Sniff, Snuggle, and Turn RightYet, not all cultures or mammals kiss. Some mammals have close contact with each others’ faces via licking, grooming, and sniffing, which may transmit the necessary information. And although chimps may pass food from mother to child, the notoriously promiscuous bonobos are apparently the only primates that truly kiss. And while it’s thought that 90 percent of the human population kisses, there’s still the 10 percent that doesn’t. So it seems that as much as we use kissing to gather genetic and compatibility information, our penchant for kissing also has to do with our cultural beliefs surrounding it.
Whether we live in a place where kissing is reserved for close acquaintances, or somewhere where a casual greeting means a one, two, or three cheeker, one thing does remain highly consistent: the side to which people turn while kissing. It’s almost always to the right. A 2003 study published in Nature found that twice as many adults turn their heads to the right rather than the left when kissing. This behavioral asymmetry is thought to stem from the same preference for head turning during the final weeks of gestation and during infancy.

One of the best things about kissing, however, is that we don’t have to think about any of this. Just close eyes, pucker up, and let nature takes its course.

Elderly man with walker robs bank, makes slow getaway

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VANCOUVER - A speedy getaway is usually critical for bank robbers, but perhaps not for an elderly B.C. man who this week held up a bank - and while using a black walker.
While no weapon was produced, the 75-year-old told staff at a Prince George Bank of Nova Scotia that he was armed. Staff surrendered a small amount of cash and the robber made his getaway as RCMP were called around 11:45 a.m. Friday.
The suspect was described as a Caucasian male weighing about 230 pounds. He was wearing a straw hat, white T-shirt, grey jogging pants and dark glasses - and he was using a walker that many rely on for mobility.
Prince George RCMP spokesman Gary Godwin said the man was apprehended approximately 45 minutes later in the same suburban strip mall where the bank is located.
The man is in custody while police investigate the decidedly unusual case.
“It’s not every day you get a 75-year-old male on a walker holding up a bank,” Godwin said. “We’re looking at all the circumstances that are involved.” He said the man is known to police.
Godwin, who has just retired from the RCMP after 25 years and has 36 years of policing experience, has never seen as elderly a bank robber as in this case.
But he said staff did the right thing in allowing the man to leave the bank even though they never saw a weapon.
“You never know what you have on the other side of the counter,” Godwin said. “If he says he has a weapon, the best thing is to give him what we wants. Err on the side of caution is what we teach.”

Woman Kicks Rapist's Butt

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LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A Lawrence woman who said she had never been in a fight in her entire life fended off an attack from a much larger man late last month.
She’s 5-foot-1 and barely more than 100 pounds, but full of fight.
“I don’t know where it came from,” said April Marchessault.
The mother of three was caught off guard when a man snuck into her home late at night and grabbed her from behind.
“It was like covering his whole face, was a gray t-shirt,” said Marchessault.
Chief John Romero of the Lawrence Police Department said 47-year-old Edgardo Montes planned to rape Marchessault.
“Absolutely, given the way he attacked the woman,” said Chief Romero.
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Just by looking at the suspect it would appear to be a lopsided fight. And it was. LOL, she kicked his butt.
Marchessault kicked Montes down a flight of stairs, severely spraining his knee. She then punched his face so many times that she hurt her own hand.
“Then when we were halfway up the driveway, my hand was killing me, so that’s when I picked up the trash barrel and then just kept whacking him in the head,” said Marchessault.
During the fight, Marchessault’s three kids were sleeping inside the house. Her father woke up, though, and the two of them held Montes at bay until police arrived.
“He couldn’t get up anyway. He kept trying to get up and I just kept stomping on his leg,” said Marchessault.
Montes, who is already a Level 2 sex offender for a 1995 rape conviction, is back behind bars.
Police gave all the credit to Marchessault.
“My sense is that this individual, given his history, would’ve just attacked somebody else,” said Chief Romero.
Montes is currently being held in jail without bail.

JOKE: Seeing Eye Dog

"Mick, I'm thinking of buying a Labrador Retriever ," said Paddy. 


"You must be fooking crazy!" said Mick.


 "Have you seen how many of their owners go blind?"





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VIDEO: When Ducks Cross the Road

VIDEO: I HATE NATURE


I Hate Nature from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.

I Hate Nature 2 from Olde English Comedy on Vimeo.

Zoo faces fine for breeding liger cubs

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A private zoo in Taiwan could be fined after crossing a lion and a tiger to breed 'liger' cubs.

The zoo is the island's first to breed the hybrid of a lion and a tigress, but officials seized the cubs and said they may fine the owner.

The three liger cubs were born at the World Snake King Education Farm but one of them died almost immediately, reports the Daily Telegraph.

"The pregnancy of the tigress caught me totally unprepared," insisted Huang Kuo-nan, the farm's owner.

"The lion and the tigress have been kept in the same cage since they were cubs more than six years ago, and nothing happened."

But the Tainan county government later seized the two baby ligers, relocating them to a home for wild animals.

"What else can I do? I respect the decision, but I hope the two cubs can be taken good care of," Mr Kuo-nan said.

He faces a fine of up to �1,000 for breeding wildlife without authorities' prior approval, said the Council of Agriculture.

According to the Taipei-based Apple Daily, there are only around 10 surviving ligers in the world, with adult ligers capable of growing much larger than average lions.

Boy, 13, hit by lightning on Friday 13th at 13.13pm

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The lad was among 150,000 people at an airshow in Lowestoft, Suffolk, England when the bolt hit.

He was treated for burns to his shoulder by St John Ambulance staff and should make a full recovery.

Rex Clarke, St John team leader, said: "Suddenly there was this huge crack of lightning really close to the seafront and really loud thunder.

"Seconds later we got a call someone had been hit. The boy was breathing and was conscious.


"He had a minor burn to his shoulder and was taken to hospital as a precaution. It could have been a lot worse.

"It's all a bit strange that he was 13, and it happened at 13:13 on Friday 13."

Spectator Jordan Gissing, 16, and a woman standing close to the boy were also treated for minor injuries following the strike.

Jordan threw his umbrella to the ground as he saw a spark on his hand as the lightning struck.

He added: "We were just watching the Red Arrows go past and there was a flash of lightning. I couldn't speak. I was in shock."

GOT CAPTION? 8/18

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JOKE: Sumbich

A filthy rich North Carolina man decided that he wanted to throw a party and invited all of his buddies and neighbors. He also invited Leroy, the only redneck in the neighborhood. He held the party around the pool in the backyard of his mansion.Leroy was having a good time drinking, dancing, eating shrimp, oysters and BBQ and flirting with all the women. At the height of the party, the host said, 'I have a 10 ft man-eating gator in my pool and I'll give a million dollars to anyone who has the nerve to jump in.' The words were barely out of his mouth when there was a loud splash and everyone turned around and saw Leroy in the pool!Leroy was fighting the gator and kicking its ass! Leroy was jabbing the gator in the eyes with his thumbs, throwing punches, head butts and choke holds, biting the gator on the tail and flipping the gator through the air like some kind of Judo Instructor.The water was churning and splashing everywhere. both Leroy and the gator were screaming and raising hell. Finally Leroy strangled the gator and let it float to the top like a dime store goldfish. Leroy then slowly climbed out of the pool. Everybody was just staring at him in disbelief. Finally the host says, 'Well, Leroy, I reckon I owe you a million dollars,'

'No, that's okay. I don't want it,' said Leroy. The rich man said, 'Man, I have to give you something. You won the bet. How about half a million bucks then?'

'No thanks, I don't want it,' answered Leroy.The host said, 'Come on, I insist on giving you something. That was amazing. How about a new Porsche and a Rolex and some stock options?

'Again Leroy said no. Confused,the rich man asked, 'Well, Leroy, then what do you want?

'Leroy said, 'I want the name of the sumbich who pushed me in the pool!'
laffn

My Border Patrol Hat

The other day I needed to go to the emergency room. Not wanting to sit there for 4 hours, I put on my GREEN HAT that I got from Newsmax when I had subscribed to the magazine.
When I went into the E.R., I noticed that 3/4 of the people got up and left. I guess they decided that they weren't that sick after all. Cut at least 3 hours off my waiting time. Here's the hat. Try it the next time you're in need of quicker emergency service.

border patrol hat

It also works at DMV. It saved me 5 hours.

At the Laundromat, three minutes after entering, I had my choice of any machine, most still running.

Don't try it at McDonald's though. The whole crew got up and left and l never did get my order.

VIDEO: BBC weatherman caught giving the finger live on air!

VIDEO: Juggling Otter

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