Hey there, you astronaut…

Hugging – Julie, Zoe, Daniel L

So. You want to learn the sacred art of hugging, eh? Well it’s not easy, let me tell you. Hugs can generally be classified into 3 distinct categories. They are as follow:

1) The quickie. The quickie, true to its name, only lasts 1-2 seconds. Loose but sincere, it’s very when one is tight for time – for example, in-between classes. Variations include different handshakes as well. Another common variation is known as the “bro hug,” a one-armed or two-armed quickie between two guys.

2) The regular. The regular is debatably the most common form of hug (again, true to its name). It can be used on a plethora of different people in one’s life, including friends, family members and everything in-between. Regulars last between 2 and 5 seconds.

3) The embrace. The embrace is considered the longest category of hug and generally the most affectionate of the three. This type of hug generally lasts from 6 to 45 seconds. Variations include the “affectionate” embrace, usually between two lovers and lasting for an indefinite period of time. Another variation is known as the TALONS embrace. This legendary sub-category of hug can only be achieved by TALONS, affiliates and alumni and can range anywhere between a minute to forever. This is considered the ultimate form of showing affection to another, and can lead to other TALONS-related actions.

Evaluation methods

	Quickie	Regular	Embrace
Level of firmness	Loose-Firm	Firm	Firm-Tight
Duration of hug	0.5-2 seconds	2-5 seconds	6-45 seconds, or longer. Let’s be serious.
Nature of hug	Quick greeting or acknowledgement	Goodbyes or more formal greetings	You love the living fecal matter out of them
Other details	Ex. “Oh, hello friend. I didn’t see you there. Allow me to squeeze your shoulders to mine long enough to take a quick sniff of your delightful new shampoo.”	Ex. “Hello friend. Allow me to put ourselves in close proximity long enough for me to take a quick sniff of your delightful new shampoo. Oooh, and another. Is that hints of mango I smell?”	TALONS Embraces: Can last FOREVER. You love the living dark matter out of them. This is your only warning.“OH DEAR LORD YOUR HAIR IS SWEET AMBROSIA CAN I INHALE IT THROUGH MY NOSTRILS FOREVER”

A TEST: Is your hug sincere?
Must include at least 3 of the following characteristics:
-swaying side to side like a lullaby
-back rub
-eyes closed in emotional bliss
-crooning to one’s self or each other
-head on shoulder action

Known Amplexiliogists:
Daniel Luo: Specialty: The “Life is Beautiful” Hug – Everyone and everything deserves a chance.
Zoe Fajber: Specialty: The “You are Beautiful” Hug – Self-esteem boost and compliment, all wrapped up in a convenient hug.
Jonathan Zhang: Syyyyke. We got your hopes up, didn’t we.
Julie Han: Specialty: The “Koala” Hug – Hope you have strong roots and lots of yummy leaves. WARNING: More than one party attempting this at a time may be catastrophic.

Amplexiliogy: The study of hugs. Need we say more?

Defying Normality Caption Contest

Submit a possible caption to this photo captured by Mr. Albright by adding to the comments section on this post.

Is Modern Medicine Killing Evolution? – Vincent

What a good question, this is implying the idea that modern medicine is affecting our ability to adapt to incoming diseases and injuries. I suppose there is some truth to this since we continuously repair ourselves without evolving. Those who have been passing on AIDS for centuries have started to develop a gene that attacks this virus. The only problem is that if we wait centuries and centuries, wouldn’t the human species die out?

This is where modern medicine comes in to solve the problem quickly and without fail. We even have developed a partially effective vaccine to AIDS. This won’t take us a millennium just to become immune to this virus, we have simply delayed it with modern medicine. I find this exciting, but isn’t this a bad thing, shouldn’t we just let ourselves evolve, should we let some of the human race die out so it can become stronger on its own? I have my own argument to this, I think we are evolving mentally, not physically like the creatures around us, this is what makes humans, able to defend against such diseases and injuries. Should we just throw this all away to evolve physically.

I don’t think so, the only problem is that we continuously kill ourselves out with this metal adaption. We create weapons, and waste, however there are great benefits to this too, like healing, and helping. Without our mental adaptions we would not have either of these destructive and constructive habits, both with great potential. I think keeping our mental adaption will benefit us far more than physical adaptions, however there is also the possibility for this mental adaption to do great harm. So we humans have been born into this world with far more responsibility and control then the creatures with physical adaptions around us. Now the only question is, should we use it to help or harm or both, or should we just throw it all away?

Do You Believe In The Easter Bunny? – Carlin

 

Remember when you were young and your mom and dad used to hide colourful plastic eggs filled with chocolate and candy all around the house, with clues shaped like bunnies leading you to your next destination, and finally finding an exciting present at the end? This is how I remember Easter. I think of bunnies and baby chicks and pastel colours and lots and lots of chocolate.

The sad part about this, just like Christmas, is that once you get older, you stop believing in things like the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Even though we still receive chocolate and gifts, it’s like the ‘magic’ isn’t there anymore. The thought that a big fat man coming down your chimney or a big white bunny leaving you Easter eggs around the house always got us excited, until we stopped believing. It’s sad to think that we have to grow up and can’t be children forever. If I could choose, I would stay a kid forever. No worries about anything; just fun all the time. We believed in fairies and mermaids and wizards, and anything else we saw on TV or read in a book. I remember I always wished I was a mermaid like Ariel in The Little Mermaid. Of course we know now that all those things aren’t real, but the thought at that young an age thrilled us. The excitement building up to those kind of events when we got to open gifts or find $2 under our pillow was like the best thing in the world. Just like the night before Christmas when we couldn’t sleep because we were so excited about the next day and finding out what Santa left for us. These things fueled our little brains with happy thoughts and imaginative ideas.

Even though I am now 14 years old, I can say that I still like to think that the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are real. It makes me feel like I’m still a little girl. I want to believe because I never want to grow up.

Forgetfulness – Anthony

Don’t you just hate it when you leave home and double check to make sure you didn’t forget anything, only to realize at school ten minutes later that you did forget something. Yeah. Or when you go to a room for a very specific purpose, and when you get to the room forget why you’re there? How about when you are lying in bed, get a great idea, and don’t want to get up, so you say to yourself you will remember in the morning… Then you don’t? Forgetfulness is the age-old activity that is hilarious when it happens to someone else, but sucks when it happens to you.

People say you forget easier the older you get, you do. The best way to counter this is to do lots of mind puzzles when you are young. Learning a language also helps. When you get old, diseases come too, things like dementia. With dementia you start forgetting everything, simple things like how to make your bed. It also takes out your past, forgetting family members and friends. The worst part about dementia is you can’t fix it. Like I said earlier, doing puzzles and learning languages help.

Forgetting comes down to remembering, if you think you won’t forget something, you probably won’t. If you don’t think you will forget something, find a way to remember it. Below are strategies for remembering small things, a lot of them come down to common sense.

1. Make a note

2. Put something out of place so when you see it you think of why it is there

3. Come up with a song for the sentence and get it stuck in your head

4. Say the word/sentence 20 times

5. Think of an everyday item that is similar to what you are thinking and connect those two things in your head so when you see it you remember

6. Relate what you are thinking of to a spot in the room you’re in so when you’re in the room again you remember

7. Come up with more strategies

Designer Lables: Why Do People Care? – Christina

Designer Labels. You’ve probably heard of them. Armani, Louis Vuitton, and Prada to name a few. Simply owning a designer label product seems to emanate wealth, power and superiority.

But have you ever wondered why this article of clothing differs itself from all the others?

Most will say the design. There’s something more cutting edge that makes it better. Some will say that brand names don’t matter, so why do we continue to buy them?

The answer is: the name does matter! Even if it’s subconscious, scientific studies have proven that wearing an article of clothing with a brand name logo upon it makes you more professional and likeable. For example, a study conducted in the Netherlands proved that people in clothing with a logo appeared more sophisticated and suitable for a job to volunteers. Not only that, but they were also more likely to be offered a higher salary.

And that’s not a fluke – many other experiments were done. Ratings got higher with a more expensive logo, a 39% increase in people agreeing to take part in a survey when the surveyor adorned a Tommy Hilfiger shirt, and people even donated to charities more.

But that leaves us with the question – what is it about the designer name that makes it so sophisticated, qualified and likeable? The same experimenters, Rob Nelissen and Marijn Meijers, suspected that it was the subconscious feeling that that person could afford such an expensive brand, said person is successful enough to afford such quality clothing.

To prove this, volunteers in the following experiment felt no difference when they were approached by a man with a designer label shirt and a man without. Why is this? Because the volunteers knew that the man was given the shirt by testers and therefore does not necessarily have the money to buy the brand and therefore the subconscious feeling is gone.

So maybe next time you go to an interview, fundraising for a charity, or any other activity that involves winning people over, consider spending a little extra on a designer label. Even if you consider yourself and your peers better than that, because you never know what’s going on in your subconscious.