Fun Friday Fact - hope you respond weekly to give us all a smile

[Heather Shay]

• Smiling improves your mood: Smiling releases endorphins and serotonin, which can make you feel happier. 
   
   

• Smiling can make you seem more approachable: Smiling can change the way people perceive you, making you seem more impressive and approachable. 
   
   

• There are 19 types of smiles: Smiles can be categorized as social or personal, with social smiles using fewer muscles and personal smiles using more. 

• Smiling is contagious: Smiling is a form of good energy that can be spread from person to person. 
   
   
• Smiling is universal: Smiling is a signal of happiness that is understood across cultures, languages, and nationalities. 
   
   
• Smiling is a biological reflex: Babies start smiling as soon as they are born. 
   
   
• Smiling uses fewer muscles than frowning: Smiling uses about 17 muscles, while frowning uses closer to 43. 
   
   
• Smiling has many health benefits: Smiling can help you live longer, reduce stress, relieve pain, and lower your blood pressure and heart rate. 
   
   

[Davie]

[Davie]

Apes love being tickled, rats giggle: Hannah Fry on the science of laughter. Laughing appears to be widespread in the animal kingdom, but humor is harder to define and is culturally specific.

https://www.theguardian.com/the-formula-to-life-with-hannah-fry/2024/sep/20/apes-love-being-tickled-rats-giggle-hannah-fry-on-the-science-of-laughter

[Mirrabooka]

Bears are community minded (old clip):

 

 

[Jani]

Just now, Mirrabooka said:

Bears are community minded

That's cute.

[Heather Shay]

Here are some interesting facts about smiling: 

 

 

• Different types of smiles: There are different types of smiles, including polite "social" smiles and sincere "felt" smiles. 
   
   

• Babies smile: Babies smile in their sleep as newborns, and start smiling voluntarily at around four weeks old. 
   
   

• Easily recognized: Smiles are the most easily recognized facial expression, and can be recognized from over 300 feet away. 
   
   

• Genuine smiles: The scientific name for a genuine smile is a Duchenne smile. A tell-tale sign of a genuine smile is crinkling in the corner of the eyes. 
   
   

• Fewer muscles to smile: It takes 26 muscles to smile, but 62 muscles to frown. 

• Contagious: Smiling is contagious, and can make others smile too. 
   
   
• Stress reliever: Smiling can relieve stress and lower blood pressure. It can also help you deal with difficult situations. 
   
   
• Mood booster: Smiling releases endorphins and serotonin, which can improve your mood. 
   
   
• Immune system booster: Smiling can help boost your immune system by releasing hormones that help your body produce antibodies and improve T-cell function. 
   
   
• Lifespan: Smiling may help you live longer. One study found that people who smile often live an average of seven years longer than those who don't. 
   
   

[Lydia_R]

Your mention of "polite 'social' smiles" has me thinking of a social technique I started using a couple days ago.

 

I've been frustrated with looking at people when I walk by them on the streets.  I got the idea that because I'm so obviously trans (well, at least I don't think I'm totally passing, but I'm certainly dressed feminine), that I may be exotic to the point where they may be curious and want to take a good look at me, but my looking at them is pulling their attention away.

 

So now I'm just not looking at people in hopes that they will have a greater appreciation of who I am because they have a better view of what I'm presenting to them.  I'm not doing my transition to present to them, I do it for myself.  However I got to this place in life, it is my true identity that has evolved over decades.

[Davie]

Poem To A Smile
       (for Tenzin)  

 

If she asks if bags
are wanted, only
a smile answers,
as it feels hard to
say out loud, too
proud to be loud.
May my offer be free
or if you say no pay,
may I expect no debt.   

 

Must unrequited winks
speak for day-dreams, or
for one single lip-lit smile?   

 

If I should lean across a counter,
can I also tip coffee for the tax?
Can unrequited smiles live alone?
And forever if they do—may not  
unrequited laughs empty our cups?

 

Though coffee may be hotter than it looks,
catastrophe easily loves too many cooks.

 

— Davie

 

 

[Heather Shay]

Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.

 

 

• The real name for a hashtag is an octothorpe.

[Davie]

Just now, Heather Shay said:

Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.

Thanks, Heather. That's the perfect word to name my novel-in-progress . . . I hate it so much!

[Heather Shay]

• Honey never spoils

  Honey is one of the few foods that never spoils because bacteria can't grow in it. This means it can be stored at room temperature and won't go bad. 

[Ivy]

Honey is also good for dressing wounds.

[Ivy]

[Heather Shay]

• Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions.

[Heather Shay]

• Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other people’s opinions. 
• Fear of long words is called Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
• Finland has more saunas than cars.

[Ivy]

Good for Finland.

[Heather Shay]

Snow is not white

Mind blown. You can certainly dream of a white Christmas, even if it isn’t strictly accurate. As any good snow pedant will tell you, the ‘white stuff’ isn’t actually white, but rather translucent. It’s the light reflecting off it that makes it appear white with the many sides of the snowflake scattering light in many directions, diffusing the entire colour spectrum. Snow can also appear in a wide variety of spectacular hues. Dust, pollution or cold-loving (cryophilic) fresh-water algae can colour it black, orange or blue. Pink or ‘watermelon snow’, caused by algae containing astaxanthin, a chemical similar to the one found in carrots, was mentioned in the early writings of Aristotle.

[Heather Shay]

Dolphins name each other.

Dolphins use unique whistles to distinguish each other in a pod.

 

Argentina is where the world’s first animated feature film was created.

Before Disney’s Snow White was made in 1937, Argentina was home to the first full-length animated feature film called El Apóstol. It was a political satire consisting of 58,000 drawings and running for 70 minutes.

[Heather Shay]

 The Barbie doll's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts, from Willows, Wisconsin. Her birthday is March 9, 1959, when she was first displayed at the New York Toy Fair. 

 

Sliced bread was first manufactured by machine and sold in the 1920s by the Chillicothe Baking Company in Missouri. It was the greatest thing since…unsliced bread?