which of the following are true and which are false?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.

2. Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button.

3. A pack-a-day smoker will lose approximately 2 teeth every 10 years.

4. People do not get sick from cold weather; it's from being indoors a lot more.

5. When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop, even your heart!

6. Only 7 per cent of the population are lefties.

7. Forty people are sent to the hospital for dog bites every minute.

8. Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until they are 2-6 years old.

9. The average person over 50 will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.

10. The toothbrush was invented in 1498.

11. The average housefly lives for one month.

12. 40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

13. A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.

14. The average computer user blinks 7 times a minute.

15. Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than any other time of day.

16. Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

17. The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

18. The only two animals that can see behind themselves without turning their heads are the rabbit and the parrot.

19. John Travolta turned down the starring roles in "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Tootsie."

20. Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.

21. In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture ! of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.

22. Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane, just in case there is a crash.

23. The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor

24. Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth. They are used in vein transplant surgery.

25. Humphrey Bogart was related to Princess Diana. They were 7th cousins.

26. If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green.



ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE TRUE!
(Now go back and think about No. 16!)

[MrBenchley]

1. How did Alfred Hitchcock avoid a belly button?

By the way, Michael Jackson also owns all the rights to Beatle songs...but Paul McCartney owns the rights to Buddy Holly's songs AND "Buckle Down Winsocki"....

[everythingsxen]

2. Interesting stuff!

Very cool!

[amandae]

3. I've heard that thing about the spider before ...

that if they crawl into your mouth, your natural reaction is to swallow them ... YUCK!!! I started sleeping with my teeth clenched after that!!!!

:puke:

What would happen if you swallowed a brown recluse or something equally poisonous?

[rock]

4. What is your source?

I find some of them, ummm, not believeable.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

6. lol, no kidding

[nuxvomica]

5. 4 and 5 are definitely false

And 2 is misleading cuz Hitchcock was born with one.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. Hmmm

.
.
.

You appear to be right about 4 being false,

I think 5 is right though, it's just that getting out in the cold when you are already ill makes it worse?

And here's what I found:

Does your heart stop when you sneeze?

This is a commonly told old wives tale that has no real scientific grounding. When you sneeze, muscles in your abdomen, chest, the diaphragm, the vocal chords and other muscles in the throat are all involved. These are all co-ordinated to work together at the right time during a sneeze along with the eyelid muscles which ensure that your eyes are closed when you sneeze.

The heart is not really part of this process. One heartbeat lasts longer than a sneeze. The actual sneeze without the run up part lasts only a fraction of what a heart beat would last. The heart is made up of a special type of muscle that beats involuntarily and even outside the body a heart can contract, although it would do so in a less co-ordinated way. The nervous system regulates the heart and ensures it beats in a controlled way inside the body. The heart would not actually stop beating during a sneeze but the heart rate may change as the process of sneezing does increase blood pressure inside the chest, which in turn affects heart rate and blood flow.


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Contrary to folk wisdom, exposure to cold does not seem to be responsible for catching a cold or the flu. A study published in the late 1960s, for example, showed that chilling volunteers (actually, prison inmates) did not make them more susceptible to infection with rhinovirus, one of the kinds of viruses that often cause colds, and did not make their colds worse.

Presumably, the reason people think exposure to cold causes colds and flu is that these illnesses are much more common in the winter. People figure that it's the cold air (the most obvious difference between winter and summer!) that causes the infections. Most people think it's true because when they get a cold in the winter, they think, "Last week I was out in the cold air, and now I'm sick." But they're not thinking of all the times they went out in the cold and didn't get sick.


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That being said:
I find the thought of John Travolta as "Tootsie" positively hilarious!! :bounce:

[nuxvomica]

8. What about hypothermia?

And there are probably other ways to get sick from exposure, too.

I knew 4 was wrong cuz I've farted while sneezing but thanks for the physiological explanation. ;-)

[Skittles]

9. I am wondering how people get injured by toilets

are we talking about during the normal course of business ?