Author: Kamal
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The Very High Odds of Hypertension
Just having our blood pressure tested can raise it. Hearts tend to speed up as the nurse squeezes the upper arm into a black cuff, tightened with Velcro, to measure how well our arteries are handling the 2,000 gallons of blood tumbling through each day. The reading will depend on the condition of the heart…
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Hollywood’s Juicy Fruit, Starving on the Vine
Even a partial list of body image problems that a child may run up against can be petrifying—anorexia nervosa, bulimia, body dysmorphic disorder, severe calorie restriction, low self esteem, self harm. High fashion and Hollywood aren’t fully to blame for the prevalence of these problems—that would be a tough case to argue—but they certainly haven’t helped. Lindsay…
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Space: Still the Final Frontier
Ask any American which country is the greatest in the world, and he’ll answer without hesitation. Ask him why, and he’ll likely respond, “What? You’d rather live in (fill in the blank with random oppressive regime)?” He’ll state this with the conviction of a modern-day Don Quixote, as if the logic were so irrefutable it…
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The Odds of Dating a Supermodel
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady missed almost all of the 2008 season after tearing his ACL in the year’s first game. A torn ACL is a painful injury, and the recovery was grueling, but Brady probably wasn’t suffering too much—he had a lot more time to spend with his then-girlfriend (and now wife), supermodel…
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The odds an ever-married or cohabiting man has cheated during the relationship
1 in 4.76 The odds an ever-married or cohabiting man has cheated during the relationship are 1 in 4.76 (US, 8/2004). SOURCE(S) American Sex Survey: A Peek Beneath the Sheets. ABC News. October 21, 2004. CALCULATION(S) BY BOOK OF ODDS BASED ON American Sex Survey: A Peek Beneath the Sheets. ABC News. October 21, 2004.…
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The odds a married male 15 – 44 used a condom during his last sexual encounter
1 in 4.17 The odds a married male 15 – 44 used a condom during his last sexual encounter are 1 in 4.17 (US, 3/2002 – 2/2003). SOURCE(S) Mosher WD, Chandra A, Jones J. Sexual behavior and selected health measures: Men and women 15-44 years of age, United States, 2002 . Advance data from vital…
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Against the Odds: The Odds of Being John Quincy Adams
Modern Americans are familiar with the Kennedy and Bush dynasties, but the first American political dynasty was the Adams family. John Quincy Adams, son of the 2nd president of the United States, was the first presidential offspring to be elected to the office—despite the fact that his mother Abigail declared she would rather see her son…
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Andrew Jackson, One Killer President
Odds that a president of the United States has killed a man in a duel: 1 in 43.* Archaeologist Dan Allen announced in August 2009 that he is “beyond certain” that he has just solved a 200-year-old mystery. Where was the body of the only man Andrew Jackson killed in a duel? In the front yard of a…
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The odds a male online dater will lie about his height on his profile are 1 in 1.81 (US, 2008).
1 in 1.81 The odds a male online dater will lie about his height on his profile are 1 in 1.81 (US, 2008). SOURCE(S) Catalina L. Toma, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Nicole B. Ellison.. Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. August 2008;34(8):1023-1036. CALCULATION(S) BY…
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The odds a female online dater will lie about her height on her profile
1 in 1.95 The odds a female online dater will lie about her height on her profile are 1 in 1.95 (US, 2008). SOURCE(S) Catalina L. Toma, Jeffrey T. Hancock, Nicole B. Ellison.. Separating Fact From Fiction: An Examination of Deceptive Self-Presentation in Online Dating Profiles. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. August 2008;34(8):1023-1036. CALCULATION(S) BY…