I got to talk to one of my buddies back in grade school. He told me that he was having problems with his cousin who was acting pretty messed up. He said that after the divorce, he started acting as if he could not do anything on his own. He would even want others to cook rice for him because he said that he might screw it up.

The moment he said that thing about the divorce, I immediately thought that it has got to be a mental disorder. I talked to my therapist and indeed it was. My therapist said that his cousin may be experiencing Dependent Personality Disorder. He said that a patient that is having this problem allows other to assume the responsibility for his life because of the lack of self confidence or the lack of ability to function independently. This makes their own needs secondary to the needs of others. They often view themselves poorly and only as extensions of others.

Here are the characteristics of those who are suffering from Dependent personality disorder:

1. encouraging or allowing others to make most of one’s important life decisions;
2. subordination of one’s own needs to those of others on whom one is dependent, and undue compliance with their wishes;
3. unwillingness to make even reasonable demands on the people one depends on;
4. feeling uncomfortable or helpless when alone, because of exaggerated fears of inability to care for oneself;
5. preoccupation with fears of being abandoned by a person with whom one has a close relationship, and of being left to care for oneself;
6. limited capacity to make everyday decisions without an excessive amount of advice and reassurance from others.

Also coined in as psychedelics, hallucinogens are responsible for altering a person’s mood, perception and other mental processes. The history of hallucinogens date back in the past centuries wherein people take drugs to alter the states for religious and spiritual purposes.

Research suggests that hallucinogens do their tricks in the brain’s cortex where in the drugs will be able to activate specific receptors in the brain that are normally triggered by certain brain cells. But then, not all of the known compounds that activate the receptors lead to mind-bending trips. Some result to really scary sensations according to some of the test subjects. They referred to these scary events as “bad trip”.

Scientists are still fascinated at how brains are very mysterious whether it is on drugs or not. As further studies are being conducted, slowly but surely, the answers are being laid down.

Yahoo! News - There was a research recently conducted that displayed a pretty alarming fact: more than half of gun deaths are suicides. Surprisingly, gun owners use their weapons on themselves.

Back in 2005, 55 percent of the nation’s nearly 31,000 gun deaths were tallied. Furthermore, there was nothing unique about this number. Why? Because gun related suicides have outnumbered homicides for 20 of the last 25 years.

By using guns as a suicide method, it has a 90 percent success rate. Jumping from high places only has a 34 percent success rate and drug overdose only has 2 percent success rate. Other methods are not as lethal as a gunfire.

If a person has a handgun at home, that he could possibly use for self defense, then he has a handgun that he can also use to commit suicide or cause domestic violence.

You may have noticed when you came to visit a friend that there are things that they keep that appear to be of no use but it is still being treasured. If a person is given a choice between $100 and a pair of LeBron James shoes, most likely he would choose the money but if he was given the shoes first and then asked if he would trade it for $100, most likely, the shoes will be chosen.

This is called the endowment effect which most researchers refer to as the poster child of strange behavior. Chimps show this behavior too.

Their research suggests that people are more motivated in protecting their belongings out of fear rather than as enjoyment. Ownership is also another factor. If you are attached to a a certain object like for example your wedding ring or the jersey that won you the MVP award, then the endowment effect becomes more intensified.

So why are we then afraid to lose our stuff? Its not like we will die if we lose that jersey right? But then, our brains may think that we will. There’s a good side to this - we get to know the true worth of our things and not just the monetary value. Our things have a certain good memory attached to them.

*Source: LiveScience.com

Immortality has been a really big issue among people. Even scientists are fascinated about the aging process of people. Literature has offered us a lot of immortal characters. Here are a few of the most famous immortals ever.

Peter Pan. Yes, he’s the guy from Neverland. He never grows old in his place but when he set his toe on earth, he immediately started aging. He was the one who fought against the vicious Capt. Hook.

Dracula. It was said in movies that once you are bitten by Dracula or one of his vampire underlings, you get to live forever but you have to do nasty things like drink blood, avoid sunlight and sleep in coffins.

Lazarus Long. Remember the fiction novels of Robert Heilein? Well, Lazarus is one of his main characters. He lives to be over 2,000 years old and travels to distant planets.

Nicolas Flamel. Harry Potter fan? You should have heard of him already. He is the good friend of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. He was the one who created the Philosopher’s stone in the film.

Tithonus. He was the lover of the Greek goddess Eros. She asked Zeus to make him immortal but she forgot to ask for eternal youth. He became frail and very, very old. He was then begging for his death.

Dorian Gray. He was the character created by Oscar Wilde. He does not grow old but the face in his portrait does. Really creepy.

Highlander. They die only hen their heads are lopped off. They battle each other until only one is left to claim a very valuable prize: Mortality.

The Grail Knight. He is the one who is tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. It is a crucible that grants eternal life to any who drink from it.

Methuselah. He is the oldest person in the Old testament of the Bible. He is the grandfather of Noah. He lived to be 969 years old.

Arwen. She is the half-elven maiden in the Lord of the Rings who renounces eternal life so that she can marry her sweetheart, Aragorn, the king of Gondor. She dies at an old age of 2,901.

Who would have thought that during this times of difficulties and anxieties, happiness is still on the rise all over the world in recent years. Researchers have found an upbeat outlook on people as attributed to the economic growth in previously poor countries and a rising social tolerance on minority groups and women.

Even the researchers were astonished by these findings. They have often believed that it is almost impossible to raise an entire country’s level of happiness. But then it looks like even the simplest gestures of the government can satisfy people.

Based on the findings in over 52 countries that involved 350,000 people, a big chunk of them are very satisfied for the reason that they are able to live their life the way they want to. Democracy is important to these people. Also, they want respect if in case they choose to be lesbians or gays. By far, the biggest reason is freedom to be themselves.

You see, it is not just the economy that can make a person happy, the simple acceptance of a person is a big help in contributing to the entire country’s happiness.

*Source: LiveScience.Com

Yahoo! News - The World Health Organization or widely known as WHO urges countries to adopt smoking bans. They said that this is a big help in getting the users to quit and protect children from second hand smoke. WHO have suggested that there is enough evidence to prove that the bans will work without hurting businesses like restaurants and bars.

They said that if these policies can be implemented, there will be a broader smoke-free environment which is highly beneficial for everyone’s health. They added that some of the cities that adopted this scheme have dramatically decreased the number of patients who are admitted in hospitals and those who have died due to heart attacks.

If the scheme continues and becomes widely accepted, then the environment will be a lot cleaner and a lot more safe for children.

In New York City, health officials have set a very ambitious goal of testing a quarter million adults for HIV within a span of three years. They would want every single individual to know their status. This will help in the prevention of the spread of the disease.

Like all the other states, the doctors would need the consent of the patient first before beginning with the test and they will be given a brief counseling session as well regarding AIDS. They are planning to test all Americans ages 13 to 64.

AIDS have already killed 357 residents in 2006 and this is about a third of all the AIDS deaths in the city itself. These tests will help everyone to be aware of their situation.

Now let’s talk science. Did you know that a human’s sense of adventure lies somewhere in the primitive area of the brain called Ventral Striatum? Yes that’s right. As complex as it may sound, it is pretty simple in nature.

What it really does is the fact that this part is responsible for the brain’s processing system. It is actually activated when people choose an unfamiliar item over the familiar ones, thus the adventure begins.

But then, this fact could be exploited by marketing departments of certain food products. For example, if you are used to buying a certain protein bar and you saw that they repacked and said that there are more nutrients added and the price is different but you just have to add a couple of bucks. You get to try out the new one. But, you may end up buying an “old wine in a new skin”. That’s how they can exploit the human brain.

Either way, adventure begins in your brain.

If you can turn your emotions and your facial expressions into a remote control, that would be really cool right? There was a computer science Ph.D student who thought of this idea and somehow brought it to life. The device that he created would help by reading facial expressions and then altering the playback speed of a video taped lecture.

Yes, this device is being used for studying purposes. As students, we make certain facial expressions when we encounter something difficult like less blinking of the eyes or frowning. Smiling and nodding could indicate that the lecture is being understood properly. This device would be very beneficial for those who are studying in a video taped class.

The team’s next step now is to determine what are the other facial movements that one person can make when they are exposed to difficult or easy lecture notes. They could then train and program a certain computer model that would move on with the lecture or slow down and keep a slow pace until such time that the facial expression would show a change that would indicate the fact that the lecture is already understood.