2:00 P.M. Need to be at Dulles airport by 5:30 for flight to Kansas City (via Chicago) for Judgment and Decision Making (JDM) conference. Need to decide whether to take 3:15 or 3:45 bus to Dulles. Gut says 3:45 since the benefit of an additional half hour at home is greater than the slightly increased risk of a missed flight. Head says it’s Friday afternoon, might be big crowds on highway and at airport, better safe than sorry. Decide to take 3:15 shuttle but don’t leave house in time. Take the 3:45 instead. Get to Dulles in plenty of time.

4:00 P.M. Get in long line of United Premier members. After 10 minutes, realize there are two lines - human vs. non-human check-in machines. I’m in the twice-as-long human line, even though I have an e-ticket. If I switch now though, I’ll be behind people who arrived 10 minutes after me. In order to avoid feeling like a loser, I stay in human line. Check bag (even though this was not my original intention) to justify the extra wait.

6:00 P.M. United terminal in O’Hare airport. Go to Berghoff Café for dinner. Order cheese pizza and small beer. Price of pizza ($3.50) is written on menu. Price of beer is not. Reach cashier and learn that price of beer=price of pizza=ridiculous price for 14 oz. of beer. Feel flash of anger at sleazy marketing ploy. Forgive Berghoff’s because pizza is really good.

8:00 P.M. United flight to Kansas City. Wish I had a magazine. Sit down and see Newsweek in seatback. Feel excitement and small surge of irrational pride. Remove magazine. It is Polish Newsweek. Experience disappointment. Feel worse than I did when I first sat down. Derive satisfaction from observing the endowment effect and loss aversion in action. Combine satisfaction with disappointment and arrive at slightly less than neutral.

10:00 P.M. Arrive at Hyatt hotel. Am told the type of room I’d reserved (non-smoking king) was sold out. Do I want a king suite instead? I am tired and experience change aversion. I want the room I reserved. I ask if the suite will cost more. Am told the only difference is that the suite is larger and has a Murphy bed instead of a regular bed. Interrogate desk clerk to determine whether quality of Murphy mattress is greater than or equal to quality of regular mattress. He assures me there is no difference. Get to room, turn on light and inspect bed visually and dorsally. Try to retrieve memories of other hotel beds. Due to recency and frequency, all I can think of is my own bed. Too tired to continue research. Go to sleep.

Deborah Frisch (Penn Ph.D.)

In case you did not know, 9 out of 10 women are affected by PMS or menstrual symptoms. But as a counter to that, diet can totally make a difference. How? If you pay a little more attention to your digestive system, you will be able to avoid bowel problems. As you can see, the digestive system is important because excess hormones are being broken down by the liver and excreted. If constipated, some hormones may be reabsorbed.

How do we fight this? Simple. Get the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables a day. This will ensure a good intake of nutrients along with valuable fibre to avoid bowel problems. You should drink plenty of water as well.

You must look after your blood sugar level as well. To do this, eat regularly and reduce the intake of salt, sugar and caffeine. Drink your vitamins as well.

Follow these and you are on your way to a clean and healthy living lifestyle.

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.

A man goes to a Psychologist and says, “Doc I got a real problem, I can’t stop thinking about sex.”
The Psychologist says, “Well let’s see what we can find out”, and pulls out his ink blots. “What is this a picture of?” he asks.
The man turns the picture upside down then turns it around and states, “That’s a man and a woman on a bed making love.”

The Psychologist says, “very interesting,” and shows the next picture. “And what is this a picture of?”
The man looks and turns it in different directions and says, “That’s a man and a woman on a bed making love.”

The Psychologists tries again with the third ink blot, and asks the same question, “What is this a picture of?”
The patient again turns it in all directions and replies, “That’s a man and a woman on a bed making love.”

The Psychologist states, “Well, yes, you do seem to be obsessed with sex.”
“Me!?” demands the patient. “You’re the one who keeps showing me the dirty pictures!”

There were a group of researchers who have conducted a study about a person’s diet. They have come to a conclusion that those who think more about their own death tend to over eat or over spend.

They have conducted several experiments in Europe and the United States. One of which is a group of people were asked to write an essay about their own feelings about their own deaths. There was a controlled group that wrote about a very painful procedure. Both were given cookies and to the researcher’s surprise, they found out that people who wrote about their deaths gulped down more cookies and have indicated their desire to buy more at the grocery store.

This have concluded that people will consume healthy and unhealthy food when they are thinking about the idea that they will die someday. Those who have low self esteem are more susceptible to over consumption as well. The researchers also noted that when people are reminded of their mortality, they become uncomfortable about the things that they have already done in their lives. The only escape mechanism that people tend to look forward to is to over eat and to over spend.

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.

Two doctors opened offices in a small town and put up a sign reading, “Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones, Psychiatry and Proctology.”

The town fathers were not too happy with the sign, and they proposed “Hysteria and Posteriors.”
The doctors didn’t find it ok, so they suggested “Schizoids and Hemorrhoids.”
The town didn’t like that either and countered with “Catatonics and High Colonics.”
Thumbs down again. By now the story was in the papers, and suggestions began rolling in:
“Manic-depressives and Anal-retentive.”
“Minds and Behinds.”
“Analysis and Anal Cysts.”
“Queers and Rears.”
“Nuts and Butts.”
“Freaks and Cheeks.”
“Loons and Moons.”
None of these satisfied one side or the other, but they finally decided on “Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones, Odds and Ends.”

When it comes to penises, the length matters more to men than they do to most women. This is according to a new study that is being conducted. There are about 90 percent of women who actually prefer wide penis than a long one. 85 percent of women reported that they are being satisfied with their partner’s penis size which is compared to only 55 percent for men. This means that men see length as something that would uplift their personality. But then of course, the issue of attractiveness to women is much more complex. Penis size is not exactly in the list of priorities as compared to a man’s personality and their external grooming.

According to the results of 12 studies, they found out that the average erect penis is about 5.5 to 6.2 inches long and around 4.7 to 5.1 inches in circumference.

There are a lot of myths when it comes to the male genitals. One of the false myths is the fact that the size of the penis differs according to race. There is no actual connection to it. Another myth is that older men have smaller genitals as compared to younger men. There is connection either.

Actually, there is this small penis syndrome that hounds most men. They think that their penis is small. Some start during their childhood days because they tend to compare it with adults. Some even put the blame on the movies and colored ads that they see during their teenage years.

While there are men who are anxious about the size of their penises, there are drugs and surgeries that answer the question.

There was a Dutch woman who managed to live for 115 years of age. The stunning thing is the fact that she remained mentally sharp throughout her life span and she had a very healthy brain when she passed away.

Her brain showed almost no evidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The researchers have observed that the limits of the human cognitive function may extend far beyond the range which is being enjoyed by most individuals.

During her 80’s, the woman have made arrangements that when she died, she would like her body to be donated to science. When she turned 111, she was wary that she might not be able to help out because she is too old. On the other hand, the scientists said that they are more interested because of her old age. When examinations were ran when she was 112 and 113, the neurological and psychological exams returned all normal. She showed signs of a healthy elder at the age of 60. There were no traces of dementia or problems with memory or attention. Her mental capacity was above average even for adults between 60 to 75.